Distance - 71 mi.
Average Speed - 9.5 mph
Climbed - 4500 ft.
Weather - 55 to 70 F, partly sunny, heavy rain the last 90 mins. of ride
I left the Hazard area riding on a 4-lane superhighway with a nice wide paved shoulder, and then dropped off into scenic rural two lane roads that generally followed creeks. Lots of people here live in modest homes fronting on creeks, with little driveway bridges to get access to the road. I can't imagine what it must look like after heavy rains.
There are also roads that lead over mountains and ridges to get from one valley to another. Those are the tough climbs. The cars and trucks race up and down these treacherous steep narrow roads like they're in a race; and they really like to rev their engines as they blow by. Sometimes the driver will honk or a passenger will shout something out the window as they race by. They're trying to startle me into falling off the edge of the road, but it hasn't worked.
Today's destination was a rural Baptist Church that makes it's community room available for bicyclists. We got to meet another touring bicyclist, Hugh Donovan from Enterprise, OR; who's riding the full length of the Trans America Trail. He's a nice young man taking a break from college to see the country. We had a nice evening of sharing stories while we waited for the caretaker of the shelter to show up.
These signs showing the designated Transamerica Route just started appearing. The '76' refers to 1976 when the route was first organized and ridden as part of the Bicentennial Celebration.
Coal is a big part of the economy here. This was a small mining operation near the side of the road, but most are huge projects not easily seen from the road.
The Halloween decorations are out in full force. I'm seeing lots of large inflatable decorations like this purple spider.
View from atop one of the 800 ft. ridges I had to climb. It was a 12% grade almost all the way.
Hugh Donovan and his recumbent bike and trailer. 45 pounds of stuff in that trailer.
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