Hindman,KY to Rosedale,VA

On Wednesday morning we left the Knott County Historical Society B&B with our bellies full of David's great coffee and a good breakfast. We had a long day ahead of us with 68 miles on a variety of small local roads to the Breaks Interstate National Park on Hwy 80 with five big climbs. David told us five climbs unless you are an athlete then only three. Well we counted five, but towing the dog cart may count as an automatic upgrade! We noticed that some of the road cuts ( there are road cuts unlike in Missouri) had these black seams of coal. Coal trucks are a big part of the traffic mix throughout the Appalachia and, despite warnings from other riders we found the coal truck drivers to be professional and polite.



The Breaks is considered the Grand Canyon of the South. The gorge that the Pound River runs through is around 600 ft. deep.

We arrived at the Breaks and crossed the State line into Virginia quite late and very tired after over seven hours in the saddle.

The next day (Thursday) we started with another climb to cross the Breaks . It was soon obvious how much fatigue was left in our legs from the day before. We decided to cut our day short (with only three big climbs) in Council where we camped in a beautiful city park. The citizens of Council can really be proud of their park! Today after leaving Council, we climbed over Big A Mountain (not making this up!) As we descended the east side of Big A Mountain the country really opened up and we got vistas like we haven't had since western Kentucky.

Tomorrow continuing east on Hwy 80 from Rosedale we will make a very big climb through Hayter's Gap and descend to Meadowview where we will take another deviation from the Adventure Cycling route and take Hwy 11 east to Marion, avoiding going far to the south and a 3000 ft. climb.