Day 52, July 18

Berea to Buckhorn, KY
69 miles

According to my map set I am now entering the Appalachian range.  The terrain certainly seems to be changing. I started the day climbing up to the very appropriately named town of Bighill. The picture below was taken just before the summit.

In McKee I met a young couple headed west toward Astoria. They were only two weeks or so into their journey and had many questions for me on what to expect ahead.

Sturgeon Creek between McKee and Booneville:

The picture below was taken as I was headed into Booneville. Restaurants are cheap in most places in Kentucky. In Bonneville $9 got me a catfish sandwich, fries, coleslaw, sweet tea and a peach cobbler.

Somewhere east of Booneville:

Just outside the campground in Buckhorn I stopped at this conveniece store. The owner appeared to be in his 80s and was clearly struggling to maintain the place. The assortment of random stuff inside was amazing. There were many things on the shelves that looked like they had been sitting there for 20 or more years.

After he asked me to sign a guest book we talked for a bit and it turned out that he had been running the same store back in 1976 when the transamerica bike trail was established during an event called Bikecentennial: during which several thousand cyclists rode across the U.S. together. He claimed to have collected around 3200 signatures in his guest book that year.

In addition to the items I picked up for dinner the store owner gave me a fresh tomato from his garden.

The view across the street in downtown Buckhorn:

I spent the night in a federal campground about half a mile from town.