For Christmas I gave Claude two Groupons. One of them was for an off-road drive on Black Mountain in Harlan County, Kentucky. We scheduled it for Monday, April 15th at 10am. Since it is a three hour drive from our home, we determined we would go up Sunday night and stay in Harlan so we could be rested for our 4-hour adventure on Monday. When I scheduled this through Ken Cridder, the owner of Black Mountain Adventure Tours, I told him we would come up on Sunday evening. He mentioned that he owned the Little Inn of Harlan. I checked it out on the Internet, picked the room we would like to stay in and called to make a reservation. His wife, Drenda, reserved the Coal Room for us. All was set.
Sunday we woke up to two rain showers that were pretty strong. Ken had promised to call if we needed to move the date due to bad weather. Claude and I went to Church. Then I visited with Papa. As we prepared to leave Georgetown, I received a call from Ken. He said the skies were clear and all was a go. As we left Georgetown, the sky was clear and there was a little wind. Then we headed south on I-75 to Corbin and turned west to Harlan. This turned out to be one horrific drive. The wind began to blow the Jeep all over the place. Fortunately, Claude is strong and was able to keep it on the road. The rain started to come down in buckets. We kept receiving text messages and eMail warnings about tornadoes in the cities we were driving past. We were very grateful to get to Harlan and find that Little Inn of Harlan. We were greeted by Drenda and she showed us to our room. We rested for a bit and then went out to find dinner at the local Pizza Hut. We dined on salads and bread sticks. Good meal. Then back to the Inn and another good visit with Drenda before retiring for the night.
Monday Ken greeted us when we were going to leave and find breakfast. He said there was a lot of rain on Black Mountain and it might be a little warmer to wait till 11am for our drive. We visited with Ken a bit and then left to find breakfast at Hardee's before driving to Evarts where the trailhead is for our off-road trip. Ken was there with two Arctic Cat Side-by-Sides. Ken would drive one in front of us to lead the way. Claude would drive ours and try his best to follow where Ken drove. Ken was born and raised in Harlan County. He was a Highway Patrol officer and retired from the position. He knows and loves Harlan County. He also knows Black Mountain and was instrumental in the creation of the off-road trails park on Black Mountain. He knows the area very well. We were in for a wonderful adventure.
First, Ken took Claude on a brief ride to let him get used to driving the Arctic Cat we would be in for the next 4 hours. This also gives Ken a feel for how the person might handle the drive and which trails he might use. While Ken and Claude did this brief drive, I roamed the parking area while Ghost, Ken's dog, observed my wanderings. Ghost would ride with Ken on the drive.
Once Claude was trained in how our Arctic Cat worked, we were off to tackle Black Mountain. We started on gentler slopes to our first pause for a photo op. It was exhilarating. At this stop Ken confirmed we were seeing coal seams along the sides to our trail.
Then it was onward up the mountain.
There were level places where strip mining took place.
We paused for a bit of a lunch break on the side of Black Mountain. This view is through a valley with Virginia in the distance.
Now we would climb up Black Mountain a little further. At this point we knew that Ken was pleased with Claude's ability to climb the mountain. He was taking us on trails that were more difficult.
We passed rocks left by miners that people have painted on. More coal seams in the mountain. Higher and higher we drove.
One more pull over for a picture.
Now for the final push to the top of Black Mountain. Due to the rains the day before, we enjoyed many puddles of water. Some seemed like small ponds. Ken pointed out the logs and the bark scraped off them. He told us this was from the black bears that live there. They tear the bark off looking for grubs in the wood. We had two really steep climbs. The final one was really big rocks up a steep hill.
This put us at the top of Black Mountain, the highest elevation in Kentucky. In the second picture you can see a level spot alone the top of the mountain. This level spot runs over several mountains. Ken explained its a huge coal seam in the mountain. The coal seams run like that through the mountains. I did not realize this. They would take these seams and strip mine right along them. Then restore them when the seam played out.
This is Claude and me at the top of the mountain and then loaded up to head back down.
This is the road we came up to get to the top of the mountain. We would have to take it and several others to go back down. That is the rule. You can get up the mountain but you must also go back down the mountain to get to the Jeep.
As we went down Black Mountain I was able to get this picture of some of the steepest trails we saw on our ride. These trails were pretty much straight up. They reminded me of those videos you see on television of the competitions where people roll their vehicle as they try to climb an impossible hill. We did some steep roads but not quite like these.
This was just the most fun. I remember yelling to Claude at one point that I felt young again. Ken said he could hear us laughing. I would highly recommend this to anyone interested. The mountain is also used by those with their own side-by-sides. You just get a permit to ride on it first. I'm going to post the flyer in case anyone reading this is interested. Lots of fun up on Black Mountain!
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