June 10-11th – Rosedale, VA to Breaks, VA to Hindman, KY

Mileage: 48 miles, 72 miles
Terrain: Hilly
Temperature: 90 ish degrees
On the morning of June 10th I woke up at the church where I slept very well. They had really thick carpeting in the church that was much more comfortable with my sleeping pad, it was quiet and cool. We then began our adventure to Breaks National Park which is on the Virginia Kentucky border!! I was so excited to almost be to Kentucky, it is finally feeling like I/ we are making progress. It was a shorter ride than many of the previous days with only 48 miles. I was thankful for this after coming out of two very long hard days. However, even though it was shorter I was still in for a treat with the monstrous hills!! Surprisingly I am actually getting used to the hills because you get a break from pedaling and really feel like you accomplished something after you get to the top. You feel like you concurred it!! We got to Breaks National Park and stayed at the campground there. I was happy to get a shower since I had not gotten one the night before and only used a hose to wash my hair. So I went straight to the shower house and got a nice refreshing shower. I was excited to get in earlier as many days we don’t get in till the afternoon due to the many stops and things to see along the way. Also because there is usually nothing to do once you get where I am sleeping. So really there is no rush! So I hung around camp for the rest of the evening and then went to the lodge where many people in our group had gone and had a small bite to eat as I had already eaten a ton from my food pantry.
This morning, June 11th I got up and we hit the road at about 8:00 am for the KY border. Of course we had to stop shortly to take pictures!! We then moved on and knew that we had 5 big climbs for the day as we had previously looked at the elevation profile. We also felt it necessary to start counting dogs chasing us and giving them ratings as well based on how threatening they are. So it is known to cyclist that KY has many dogs that are not chained and it was CRAZY how true this is because we did not have one single dog chase us in VA and now that we are in KY there have been tons of dogs along the road barking at us and a few chasing. So we are only counting the ones that are a threat and it has been 3. There is a spray that cyclist use called “HALT” and many of the cyclist have it and one of the girls had to use it today, it was quite the experience. Also I hate to say it but KY isn’t as well kept as VA, there is a lot more garbage in the ditches and houses/trailers are not well kept in the areas we are going through. We road for about 20 miles or so and then stopped at our first provided rest stop, had a snack got some water and moved on to the next stop which was in Bevinsville and we ate at a small mom and pop shop and then moved on knowing that we had 2 more climbs of the day. So the speed for the day was either 5 mph when climbing up or 25+ mph when going down, it was kind of nice to get a break from pedaling and sail through the hills on the way down, also a great way to cool off as by the time you get to the top of these hills you are dripping sweat!! Finally, we arrived in Hindman where we are staying at a church’s youth center and good news, they have one shower. I was very excited when I found this out because on our way in to Hindman, KY when we were about 3 miles out it started to down pour so we had to stop under a shelter by a barn to avoid the down pour. We waited there for about 20 minutes until we decided that the rain had slowed down enough to ride the last 3 miles to the youth center. I didn’t want the rain to be my only shower of the day!! Once I got here I got a shower and set up my sleeping mat and got a bite to eat. It has now stopped raining and I am contemplating putting my bike in the stand they have set up outside for bikes and starting to clean it. It really does need some tender loving care as it is disgustingly dirty and has tons of break dust all over it and grime from the rain that I have been riding in. I am going to need new brake pads in a few weeks as I have been using them a lot with all of the amazing descents!! Still more climbing to come!!