Days 20-23: Kentucky Coal Country

Day 20: Elkhorn City, KY to Hindman, KY
Daily mileage: 67
Miles to date: 672

Day 21: Hindman, KY to Booneville, KY
Daily mileage: 63
Miles to date: 735

Day 22: Booneville, KY to Berea, KY
Daily mileage: 60
Miles to date: 795

Day 23: Rest day

Bottom line: Kentucky is a beautiful state.

But whoa, did the first half of our trip through this state chew us up. This stretch of days took us through the mountains of Kentucky's coal country, where the coal industry is as hard on the people as it is on the land they both inhabit. For me, the real trouble was all the climbing; my IT band was still being tempramental but the climbs were steep enough that I probably wouldn't have been able to ride up them anyway. Still, we were greeted with misty mountain mornings on these days, which made a day of walking my bike over narrow and winding passes somewhat bearable.

This stretch of riding was also notable for the dogs and the rain. Oh, the junk yard dogs! I was caught by one, a blue heeler, in Virginia but the dogs of eastern Kentucky are faster, more numerous, determined, and snarling. And when there weren't dogs, we got dumped on by torrential rainstorms. We'd get off the roads once it got heavy enough to make us difficult for drivers to see, but mostly we'd ride through it.

Other than that, I spent my pedal time singing songs by Kentucky natives: Loretta Lynn (esp. Coal Miner's Daughter), the Judds, and Patty Loveless (who is from Elkhorn City). Since I'm slower than Daniel and Julie, I ride alone a lot (which I enjoy) and sing out loud most of the time. Singing songs by native artists somehow felt right.

I'm still thinking a lot about our passage through this stretch -- Daniel and Julie reported feeling very threatened here, an experience I did not share despite being alone most of the time. I'll put up a separate post about that once I've had a bit more time to mull it over.