Day 74 – Hazard, Kentucky to Lookout, Kentucky

Birthday Ride

Sunday morning I met Chris in the lobby of the motel for breakfast.  He had decided that the day before had been enough for him and chose not to continue to the coast. I could see why because the worst was yet to come.  He had joined Amina on the trip in Colorado and the Appalachian hills were really getting tough.

With this news, Amina was now trying to figure out what to do for the day.  She was leaning towards a short 22 mile day to the town of Hindman. I hadn’t had a day off in twelve days and one now  sounded like a good idea.  However, it was my birthday and I didn’t want to start the year by doing zero miles or 22. So I decided to ride 74 miles to the town of Lookout.   This was ambitious after the difficult 51 mile ride the day before,  but since it was Sunday and that meant less traffic it was another reason to go that far.

Hindman seemed like such a nice place when I arrived that  I was thinking of several excuses to stop there for the day.  But…after stopping at the Dairy queen for a Blizzard, I kept on riding, going through the towns of  Millie, Pippa Passes and Bevinsville.

It wasn’t until mile 44 that I encountered the first of the three long, steep climbs for the day.  This one was about as good as it gets as there were no cars at all up the winding road. The second climb after Bevinsville was a bit tougher, but the big one was coming up.

I had contacted a woman in Lookout early in the morning (when my T-Mobile service was actually working).  Her name was Alice and she runs the Freeda Harris Baptist Center.  Here, they let cyclists stay and have for the last 34 years.  She said I could stay there that evening. Later in the day I was able to get service again along the road on the other side of the mountain from Lookout and let her know that I would be there in about an hour.

As I turned onto the road to climb the mountain, as luck would have it the Sunshine Dairy Bar was there.  I hadn’t eaten much and stopped for a hamburger, where one of the customers asked me about my trip. He then told me about the climb I was about to make and was shaking his head about the difficulty, mentioning the steepness and to look for the cellphone tower they just put in as a sign you’re near the top.

It was getting late in the afternoon and I was moving at speeds under four mph.  I was going so slow that the little brother and sister I passed in front of their trailer could easily have a conversation with me. The boy saw me struggling and said “This hill goes a long way,” which wasn’t exactly motivating. But he was right. It just kept going and going. Finally, when I was out of breath and at the top, Alice called asking if I was close. The rest of the way was going to be the easy part.

When I arrived at the center, Alice told me to wheel my bike in and gave me the rundown. She said that in 1982 when they started allowing people to stay there, it was just letting them set up a tent under a tree. Now they have a set up where you stay inside upstairs in a bedroom. They have showers and also a pantry room absolutely full of food and a kitchen for you to use with all the cooking supplies. Amazing. –Alice also pointed out a message that Marcus and Kirsty left for me and a few others on the white board, saying hello and “Keep on pedaling.”

After that last climb over the mountain into Lookout when you’re totally wiped out, being able to roll your bike directly inside and get cleaned up, have dinner and a bed to sleep in is incredibly welcome.