Exploring KY Roads

[John Ranalletta]

Booked a couple of nights at Natural Bridge Kentucky State Park next week.  Hoping for good weather.

 

Started to plan some routes.  This one looks muy interesante.

[Scott9999]

4 hours ago, John Ranalletta said:

Booked a couple of nights at Natural Bridge Kentucky State Park next week.  Hoping for good weather.

 

Started to plan some routes.  This one looks muy interesante.

I don't believe that I've ever been to (or "thru") Kentucky.  I was looking for a certain kind of house (i.e. lakefront property), i.e. national search through about six states.  I found what looks like a perfect one in Kentucky.  Probably won't jump on a plane to go buy it (there's these little details like selling what I have first, etc.), but all of that gave me an opportunity to explore Kentucky "virtually".

 

It really looks like a beautiful state.  Enjoy your ride!

[Hosstage]

I ride thru it briefly years ago, I could have spent some time there exploring, it seemed quite  beautiful.

Make sure to let us know how you like it.

 

[John Ranalletta]

I’m anticipating we’ll see a lot of the flood’s damage. Don’t want to and if it looks like we’re in the way, we’ll avoid. 

[Tpoppa]

Ride the Dragon Slayer, KY 160 from Lynch, Kentucky to Big Stone Gap, Virginia.

There are some good roads in that area.

[John Ranalletta]

2 hours ago, Tpoppa said:

Ride the Dragon Slayer, KY 160 from Lynch, Kentucky to Big Stone Gap, Virginia.

There are some good roads in that area.

Just patched a route together inc. your suggestion.  Magenta, lower right.  About 280 mi loop.  More routes than time.  Thanks,

 

[Tpoppa]

BTW, there's a decent chance you could see bears in that part of KY.

I rode KY 160 on the way back to Ohio from Deals Gap.  I saw 4 or 5 of them outside of Lynch. 

 

[John Ranalletta]

The weather outlook for KY riding looks superb.  The ride (trailering) down looks wet but Weds/Thurs are sunny.  I have a GoPro 10Black arriving today.  Hope I can learn how to use it before the trip.

[John Ranalletta]

Great day on KY roads.  The Red route kinda' sucked and we ended up on 10-15 miles of gravel but it was fun.

Lots of flood damage.  Roads buckling and washed out; large piles of household goods, insulation, etc. being hauled away.  In one town, the school building was inundated.  The parking lot was destroyed and what was the parking lot is a temporary dump site.  Saw a FEMA station but it wasn't busy.  Likely most folks have made their claims.  Bad juju for the local folks.

The Natural Bridge Resort is state run and like most of them is 3-star.  Room as good as say Sparta.  Food good.  Scenery fantatic.  Didn't realize there were such high cliffs around.  This is near the Red River Gorge.

 

 

[John Ranalletta]

So, I'm in a tight right-hander headed uphill when the UFO went by in the opposing lane.

[John Ranalletta]

On 8/25/2022 at 5:33 PM, Tpoppa said:

Ride the Dragon Slayer, KY 160 from Lynch, Kentucky to Big Stone Gap, Virginia.

There are some good roads in that area.

Thanks.  Rode it down and back.  Great road.  Combination of Cherohala and Dragon.  

[John Ranalletta]

 

On 8/25/2022 at 8:01 PM, John Ranalletta said:

Just patched a route together inc. your suggestion.  Magenta, lower right.  About 280 mi loop.  More routes than time.  Thanks,

 

 

Didn't want to do 15 south again so reversed the Magenta route and rode 15 back to the lodge.

 

A portion of this route from Boonville to Lynch is kick ass.  

 

Almost forgot...saw 3 Democrats...err, 3 wild donkeys.  GoPro wasn't running.  Pretty animals.

 

Virtually every road has some flood damage.  The most seen sign is "Break in Pavement" which could mean a patch, gravel or a piece of the road is just gone.  Entire shoulders have disappeared taking some asphalt.  Occasionally, a 4'x4' deep chunk is gone.  They've done a great job marking bad spots.

 

 

[John Ranalletta]

[John Ranalletta]

We're taking one more 250mi ride tomorrow before heading home.  Just gotta say the riding here is superb.  The roads (even with occasional flood damage) are empty of traffic, well maintained and awesome.  Given both SE OH and this section of KY are both about 3.5hrs from our place, likely we'll find our way down here more often.

[Tpoppa]

I did a similar ride in WV after the devastating flood in 2016.

Some roads were unpassable, or even washed away.  Some areas were cutoff until temporary bridges could be put in place.

We saw dozens of enormous piles of debris that were once houses and other buildings.

It's hard to comprehend the impact of that kind of flooding until you see it in person.

[John Ranalletta]

The first minute of this video is the Nada Tunnel (skipt to :50)  The rest of the video, while boring is typical of the entire ride.  Superb roads.  No traffic.  One-lane asphalt though farm areas.  The best!

Underestimated the time and had to cut the ride short.  At the turnaround point, we stop to find we had not packed water when a young woman walked toward us from across the road with two bottles.  She and family had just moved to KY from Indiana.  You meet the nicest people!
 

 

[John Ranalletta]

We're at our turnaround and a young lady walked across the bridge to bring us cold water.  Sweetheart!