June 7, 2002
9 min. read
This post is part of the Trans-Am series.
Dad and Bill pulled up to the motel at just before midnight. I was sitting in a chair in the gravel parking lot, uploading pictures. The 1.6 MB of pictures and my two emails took over 40 minutes to upload.
We had some trouble with the motel manager about paying for 3 people to stay in the room. He kept repeating “2 people in a room.” He then told Dad and Bill to go up the street (we later learned this was because there were rooms with two beds up there.) When Bill asked if he could just get another room, the owner said that was fine. It seems like he could have just suggested this in the first place, rather than going off like they were some misfits that need to get off his property.
We started to get things unloaded and Dad decided he would crash on the floor with his air mattress. We laid down around 12:45, but probably didn’t get to sleep till after 1 AM, because we wouldn’t stop talking for a while.
I failed to mention that I had another flat last night. I’ll do a flat rundown at the end of this message, but I’m up to 5 total from 0 only 4 days ago.
Today was a good ride with some decent hills. There was an option to do 11 miles more, but leave out some hills. I took the shortcut, but should have picked the other route. Climbing hills at 3.5 mph can be much more work than making up 11 miles on rolling hills at 12 mph. Oh, well.
We left the motel a little after 11. Bill rode with me the first few miles. I think he did 12-15 miles, starting out with 8 nice rolling miles. I had my first flat of the day (3rd flat of the trip, see Flat Rundown later), about 2 miles before the turnoff. Bill helped me for a bit, then went ahead. He wanted to get a lead, knowing I would catch up. When we turned onto the main route (the shorter and hillier one) and started climbing, I wondered about my choice. I saw Bill turn and was around 200 feet behind him for a good part of the climb. It was a pretty good climb of over 700 vertical feet, with a nice steep section near the end. I walked a little of the steep part with Bill as we talked. Dad had been driving the van and he was going to stop up ahead.
Bill mentioned that he was probably going to stop at the top and switch with Dad to do the downhill. When we hit the top, we saw that this wasn’t the case. I left Bill in the dust on downhill, and shouted to Dad when I passed that it was downhill and Bill should make it fine. Well, that wasn’t the case. Just as he started the downhill, his rear tire blew out. The tires and tubes are really old on his bike and it wasn’t a surprise. I was up ahead at a turn-off, waiting to make sure they took the right turn onto 611 at Lookout, KY.
Dad waited for a while and went back to find Bill walking his bike down the hill. While I waited, I helped try to get some guy’s truck push started, but we never succeeded (remember, were entering deliverance country here in eastern Kentucky and some of these vehicles are pretty rough.) Just as I was going to get going, I see the van coming along. Dad remembered the right turn, and went ahead of me to start getting his bike out.
Dad and I rode along from Lookout till where the route joins 23⁄119, a 4 lane highway with shoulders. Just before 119, there was a small ice cream and sandwich stop. This was where Bill had pulled off, and we stopped for a break. We all ate lunch: cheese burgers, slaw, and fries (we all shared my order). Bill was going to head into a town south of us that had a Wal-Mart to get some tires and tubes. We decided to meet up at Melvin, some 20 miles ahead. Dad and I left around 3 PM.
The ride up 119 wasn’t bad, as the shoulder was wide. Unfortunately the shoulder was covered a bit with rocks and junk. The rumble strips were well designed, to not be unsafe for bicycles. They make the bones in your middle ear vibrate wildly when you ride on the rumble strips. It is a very interesting sensation. I still wonder if it would be possible to modulate the rumble strips to say stuff.
[Deep throaty voice] “Welcome to our Town”.
How cool would that be? Anyhow, we cruised up 119 and turned onto 1469 toward Virgie. My back wheel started to feel funny and sure enough I had another flat. When changing the tires around to get the better one on the back, I noticed the front had been punctured too. Fun stuff.
We rode for a while through nice rolling hills before starting a fun 3-4 mile climb up the hill. We took over an hour climbing and I told Dad that this was almost as bad as parts of Virginia. He can now see how some 30 mile days are an accomplishment. Once we got up to the top, there was another serious switchbacked downhill. I had to stop a few times to get the tires to cool off. Finally, the sight lines opened up a bit and I was able to let the bike run up to around 50 mph.
We pulled off at a BP in Melvin and had a Strawberry Dole bar, waiting for Bill. After a while, we figured he would find us and headed on. Hwy 122 heads out for about 6 miles with some nice rolling hills. After this, we started climbing for a while. People said that it wasn’t as long as the last one, but steeper. That was a fair description. About 1⁄4 or the way up, Bill pulled up behind up.
Dad swapped with Bill and let Bill ride. I mean push the bike up the hill a ways (he doesn’t have touring gearing). Dad found a place to pull off and we started making plans for the evening. From what others had told us, there was another large climb between where we were at and Pippa Passes (besides the one I wasn’t up yet.) So, we initially planned that they would find lodging and I meet them after this hill where the route joins 7. I started up the hill some more, as they loaded Dad’s bike in the van. They passed me almost at the top. The top was a county line, similar to the way Virginia divided up counties along ridges.
I made it to the bottom a few minutes behind them, as I ran the downhills up to 50 mph. I stopped just shy of the Hwy 7 intersection. I went into the gas station store to get some bananas and a chocolate milk (it was a strange craving, but the chocolate milk was good).
While I was outside about to eat a banana, I saw a serious flapping in one of the trees across the street. I took the camera over to see what was going on and was greeted by yells and arm waves from the restaurant just past the intersection. It was Dad and Bill. The flapping in the tree was a rooster who got himself up in the tree and was shaking it all around. I went over to the restaurant and was told that the route to Pippa Passes was not as hilly as we thought. I had just read the same thing in Donna’s book. They made reservations for the Hostel and I started off for the last 15 miles, just before 8.
With my lights on and a goal in mind, I started pushing my bike hard over the rolling hills. I stopped to take a picture of the first mine entrance I had seen so far, a place were the powerlines ended, and another turtle. I hadn’t mentioned it yet, but I was able to help two turtles across the street today. I was climbing up the hill around the college in Pippa Passes, when I see the van coming back at me. Apparently you can go through the college and eliminate this 200 feet climb and descent. Oh, well. What is one more hill. I made it in just before 9, so a decent 15 mph pace for the last hour.
This is the only good place to stay for miles, so most of the Trans-Am’ers ahead of me stayed here. The father and daughter couple I met in my first few days came through on the 1st. The Petes were through here on the 3rd. Adam and Mike were through here two days ago and the couple from Holland were here yesterday. Bob and Mary had stayed at the same motel as I did last night, but were seen in Hindman (a city about 10 miles down the route from here) around 4 PM today. I guess to use the dates above, I guess you need to know that today is the 7th of June.
Flat Rundown:
Day 17 - First Flat coming into Breaks park, due to a little sharp rock that I left in the new tire.
Day 18 - Second Flat, I thought caused by a second place where the rock damaged the tube.
Day 19 - Third Flat, caused by a little piece of wire that was still in the tire. This is the actual cause of the flat on Day 18. Wire was found and removed from tire.
Day 19 - Fourth Flat, caused by a bit of metal that cut into the tire. I switched the front and rear tires to get the better Tioga Comp Pool tire on the rear and move the spare up front. When mounting the rear wheel, I noticed a hissing sound. Looks like the front wheel would have been flat in a few miles if I had not swapped them. So we have the Fifth Flat.
I hope the flats are over for a while. I’m getting sick of fixing them, and I’m running out of patches. It is after midnight. Bill and Dad have been sleeping for an hour as I typed. Enough for now.
Pippa Passes, KY
Hostel Site: 37 deg 20.100 min N, 82 deg 52.846 min W, elev 1076 ft.
Part 24 of 48 in the Trans-Am series.
Series Start | Day 18 - Breaks to Elkhorn City | Day 20 - Pippa Passes to Buckhorn