Ride C2C #4 - Day 6: Booneville to Hazard/Combs

Date: 6/28/24
Day: 6
Route: Booneville to Hazard/Combs
Miles: 49.7 miles with 4,434 ft of climbing
Total Miles: 254.10
MyZone MEPs: 809

Quote of the day “I like it better when dogs don’t chase us” - Robin

It is now 7:30 pm and I’ll tell you, I am very very tired.  This was the hardest 50 miles we’ve ridden with the long steep ascents.  It makes us question our abilities and reason for riding….

We were woken at 3:30 am by an insistent bird wanting to sing every tune in the bird repertoire and the vamp on all of them.  I was torn between admiration of the wild variety of bird song and being annoyed that this bird was singing at the top of its lungs right over our tent from 3:30am on.  I tried counting the number of different songs to get back to sleep…

When we did haul ourselves out of bed 5:50am, we unzipped the tent to find a heavy layer of fog that left our tent rainfly sopping wet.  The fog was like a wet blanket on all sounds, bringing a hush to the morning.

As we hit the road, we stopped by the Dollar Store to toss our trash (sadly there is NO recycling of anything, anywhere) and this sign that was not quite inspirational.

Here is Booneville and the Ole Bus Stop Restaurant.  Booneville “downtown” was actually 1 block.

It was very quiet as we left town and this solitary tree on the hill brought forth the feelings of the fog

I have a permanent headlight on my bike so generally rode in front during the foggy times this morning.

Leaving Booneville, we had an immediate 10% climb that felt way too early for our legs.  But up and over we went.  Lot’s of barking dogs that would like to rip us apart and thankfully so far, all chained up. 

The next climb was 6-8% which felt steep but rideable.  We took plenty of breaks along the way.

Then we bomb down a long descent and we're heartily chased by 3 dogs- Doug used up his air horn and threw it at them and that got them to back off.

We stopped in a store in the town of “Buckhorn” for some peanuts, M&Ms (to make more trail mix) and orange juice.  

At first the 2 HUGE guys behind the counter (father in a chair, son at the till) seemed inhospitable and looked terrible - son with skin lesions and dad with a wasted-away left thigh.  But they were really nice and asked about our travels and then said they have a trip planned to the Pacific Northwest, going back to Mt Rainer.  Just goes to show you can’t judge a book by its cover…

 
Now came the trifecta of hills.  The first with over 13% made us walk our 100 lb bikes up and up. 

While riding, we saw 3 dogs on the road in a particularly steep section and knew we could not outride them.  Our strategy was to walk by with air horn and pepper spray in hand. 

Picture above is the bad dog house...

There were 5 dogs that came after us - barking and growling as we walked - and as we rounded a corner there was the saddest part - a chain link fenced area with tarps over it with many more dogs inside - maybe a puppy farm? 

They were all barking their heads off at us and that with the dogs that chased us terrified me. 

The second 2 hills were still steep and relentlessly long.  We had to “put a foot down” many times and even take a little lie down....

on these steep ascents to take a rest as we climbed. At one point I see 3 ground hogs and call it out to Doug who startled them and as they waddled away Doug almost crashed watching them. 

We stopped at a convenience store for a Gatorade and snickers bar and a little snooze on the picnic bench before starting our last 20 miles with 2 more big climbs.

At times I felt like this was stereotypical Appalachia - with run down houses, barking vicious dogs, and vines that seemed like they’d grow around you if you stood still too long.

On the last climb of the day, there was a sign that said “road closed” and we thought we were screwed.  However, the construction crew was ok with us walking through (this would never happen in WA state). 

We had to take all the gear off the bikes and push/lift the bikes up a 15 foot loos rock bank and then carry our gear up. One of the fellas, James Smith, gave us a hand with lifting our bikes and gear - I was really having trouble getting a foot hold.  But we made it!

The last bit of the climb was grueling. The final 6 miles were rolling along the Kentucky River.  Here's a coal mine in action...

By the time we rolled into Combs we were so tired and just wanted to get to our hotel.   Google led us astray and took us up the “Combs Death March” up a road that was 10-15% with a sign at the bottom that said “no semis”. 

I’m in deep doo-doo with Doug because I led us here.  We walked our bikes for about 30 minutes up this crazy steep road so we could connect with the highway that took us to our only option for accommodation at a flea-bag motel.  Of course our room is on the 2nd floor with stairs only so we did this ridiculous very tired series of getting all our gear upstairs.

Showered, snacked, and clothes rinsed and hung for the day, we walked 10 minutes to the Big Blue Smokehouse for dinner.  Cute 15 year old boy was our waiter with his 1st week on the job.  He was proud that he was earning money and learning more about how to work.  The food was plentiful with the BBQ combo - way more meat than I could eat.  The sweet potato fries had cinnamon and sugar - that was weird.  A beer for Doug and a glass of wine for me and we are ready for bed.