Days 14 – Hello Kentucky

July 4
Breaks, VA to Hindman, KY
71 miles

We began Day 14 by riding into Kentucky. One state down and nine more to cross! Virginia is the state with the most riding miles, so this was a big accomplishment to have under our elastic waistbands. Many consider the stretch between Breaks and Hindman to be the hardest section on the Transam. We entered Eastern Kentucky well aware of its bad reputation among cyclists for the three evils of steep inclines, monstrous coal trucks that roar down the road with little concern for anything in their paths, and vicious chasing dogs. By complete luck, and absolutely no planning on our part, we managed to time our entrance to Kentucky perfectly by arriving on a 3-day weekend and avoiding the coal trucks altogether. In fact, hardly anyone seemed to be driving on the 4th, and we enjoyed a day of surprisingly quiet roads. A big relief given what we were expecting.

The dogs however, don’t seem to be on holiday. We were chased by dogs occasionally in western Virginia, but in eastern Kentucky we have dogs (as in a pack of) snarling at our ankles 5-6 times per day. This is not an ASPCA sanctioned sentiment, but we are HAPPY to see a chained dog on this adventure. As the rabbit in our riding duo, ML takes the frontal assault, pedals like Lance, and wears the curs out. Then they turn on K who does her best St. Francis of Assisi smooth talk and tells them to make better choices in the future. Naturally, they sit down docile as lambs. We are armed with Halt (pepper spray for dogs) but have not had to use it yet (close, though). None have actually made tooth contact (as long as you don’t count the pannier that got a nip). In an infuriating case yesterday, the dog’s owner sat on the porch talking on his cellphone and watching idly while his two dogs (small but quite vicious really) lunged for our ankles.

Three days has taken us through a wide range of physical and cultural terrain. The first 2 days we went through many small communities made up largely of trailer homes and abandoned vehicles with garbage strewn about, interspersed with somewhat better-off pockets of modest homes. The dominance of the mining industry is obvious, from the coal lining the sides of the highways, to the bumper stickers proclaiming support for coal. “Save a miner, shoot a tree hugger.” The people are overall friendly, but you can tell life is hard in Appalachia. The first day was better than we expected. We had several major climbs but completed the mileage and ended the day at a peaceful biker hostel run by David Smith, who met us at the top of his driveway with a cold glass of ice tea and later made us gigantic ice cream sundaes. He also did our laundry!