June 8, 2002
7 min. read
This post is part of the Trans-Am series.
I got to bed after midnight, so I didn’t feel bad sleeping in past 9. Dad was up to hit the bathroom at 5:30 and ran into the owner of the Hostel where we were westing. (Sorry, that should say resting, but I kinda got caught up in the alliteration. It’s my report, so I get to type what I like.) He pulled in the bike to fix the computer wires that have been broken since Day 1. I didn’t know about it until I saw the computer spitting speeds and such at me when starting out today. Dad also has been doing quite a few other fixes. He implemented the aluminum stiffeners that we have been talking about over the phone for a while. This should keep the corners from pulling in and allowing the rear of the bag to drop down. We also added aluminum skid guards, so I hit aluminum and not bag if I lay the bike over too far in fast corners.
The ceiling is really low in the Hostel sleeping area. If I stand perfectly straight up, I touch my head. So the ceilings are 6’ 5” or so. The door jams and misc. other things hang down lower. I brought tears to my eyes twice by smacking my head into something. Then I put my helmet on. I’m sure I looked like that hyper-active kid with a leash and a helmet, but I didn’t care. I smacked my head another few times without pain. I guess that is my style, dorky but functional. :)
It has been nice to ride a few days unloaded. I got out of the Hostel and on the road just before 11. Bill rode the first miles with me and we had a decent climb or two followed by rolling hills. After a little time out, Dad came up in the van asking if we knew where the van keys were. He was driving it with the spare. We didn’t know, and he turned around to look some more. He later passed us and we gave him a thumbs up. He followed with a thumbs down. No keys. (Amazing how simple it is to communicate, isn’t it?) At night we found out that they were in Dad’s clothes that he was wearing before changing into riding clothes.
Bill and I rode into Hindman, where I pulled over to get a few snacks and some Gatorade. They had ICE Strawberry Gatorade, yum yum. I also got some Nutragrain bars. The day rolled along with rolling hills for quite a while. There were some decent climbs, but not too bad. The van passed me a while out of Hindman and Bill was shaking my pump out the window. I gave them a thumbs up, meaning I want it. Seems like our simple communication isn’t as good as I thought. I kept rounding corners looking for the van to get my pump back. Running without the pump was making me nervous with the slew of flats I’ve been having lately. I finally caught up with the van and Dad was getting ready to ride. I pulled over for a little rest and got my pump back.
Dad and I rode along for quite a while with some decent climbs on 80 where there wasn’t much relief from the Sun. Hwy 80 is a 4 lane divided highway with wide shoulders. It is amazing how the tree lined roads are 10 degrees cooler than pavement laden highways. After some up and down and up and down on 80, we pulled off onto 15. This is a 4 lane highway with varying shoulders and more climbing. We stopped at a gas station to refill water and get some strawberry slushies. A bit up 15, we came across a water park where all the kids got a kick out of two recumbents riding up the street.
A little further, we started seeing a guy on a dirt bike and two on four wheelers. They were riding wheelies down a side street and turning around to repeat. These guys were some serious Darwin Award candidate wannabes. About when we got to where this side street meets 15, the dirt bike and one of the four wheeler decided to ride on 15. They both head up one of the lanes and proceed to ride wheelies up one lane at 20 mph in a 55 mph road.
Then the dirt bike rider drops the front wheel down and decides to go around the four wheeler. He does this move fast, without checking if anyone is there. Luckily the black truck is watching this idiot’s moves and hits the brakes instead of the bike. I was glad to see the outcome, but it was very close to something ugly. Unfortunately he probably didn’t learn anything from the encounter.
We all met up in Chavies for dinner. As with many places, the gas station had a little grill in the back and places to sit. The locals at the gas station told us that there was a few serious climbs on the way to Buckhorn.
We didn’t know if we could make Boonville tonight, but it was beginning to seem more unlikely. The climbs were pretty good, but they haven’t been as bad as many in Virginia. Just seems like there isn’t enough riding time in a day when you spend a good bit of it at 3.5 mph climbing hills. We pulled into the campground at Buckhorn Dam a little past 6:30. Today was around 55 miles with 3,440 feet climbing. I was moving for 5 1⁄2 hours, with a total time of 7 1⁄2 hours.
We setup camp and started dinner. We had lentil soup and black beans and rice with tuna. That is two dishes, not one huge mixed together stew or something. Dad and Bill had discussed heading down to the boat ramp for swimming, and I decided to come along. When we got down there, it wasn’t pretty. There were huge piles of trash and drift, dragged to the ramp area by floating roped together railroad ties (or something similar). It looks like they will be bringing something in to lift all of the trash out of the water. Either way, the water was not as fit for swimming as the Ohio River (which is really bad). We nixed the swimming idea and headed back to camp for showers. It would have been nice to work out the muscles in the water, but oh well.
While Dad and Bill headed for showers, I started burning CDs with the CD Burner that Dad had brought with him. I have 4 CDs worth of pictures for this trip, so far, which I wanted to back up. Also, I guess my family want to look at them or something. Unfortunately, my little laptop is so slow that it took me over 4 hours to resize and type up the 3 days of pictures that I loaded onto the site. I’ll try to get more online, but only after I get these reports typed up. Anyhow, I burned 4 CDs and started typing up this day. I didn’t get far, before I sent yesterday’s report and went to bed. Again, I got to bed late. It was almost midnight and I told them to wake me up at 6 AM, yikes.
There is a shortcut on tomorrow’s route that cuts off around 12 miles. The catch is that you would have to ride 88 miles with more than 4000 feet climbing to get to Berea for the night. This was the reason for the early start. We will see what I feel like at mile 52, where the shortcut starts. If I’m not feeling up to Berea, it will be a night in Irvine.
Oh, sometimes important information is the lack of information. You will notice that today is the first day in the last few without a flat. I hope the starting of a trend.
Buckhorn, KY
Tent Site: 37 deg 20.660 min N, 83 deg 28.214 min W, elev 817 ft.
Trip Miles: 678.9
Part 25 of 48 in the Trans-Am series.
Series Start | Day 19 - Elkhorn City to Pippa Passes | Day 21 - Buckhorn to Irvine