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SPRING 2017 ISSUE 01 / VOL. 02
Kentucky Route 3024 is only a few miles long, but the peaks offer a dramatic autumn view when there’ s fog in the“ holler.”
protests by those who wanted to keep it more rugged and less traveled, it’ s still the kind of road that keeps a motorcycle in first or second gear. Short as it is, the Little Shepherd Trail could suck up a good portion of my day. So I passed.
Half an hour later, I was happy with my choice. At Cumberland, I turned left onto State Route 160. The little coal country towns of Benham and Lynch slipped past and the road steepened and narrowed. Route 160 tops out near the peak of Black Mountain, the highest point in Kentucky. The ride up the western slope is an endless series of S-turns, squeezing between a guardrail on one side and ragged rock cliffs on the other.
Crossing the Virginia state line, the first view is a strip mine. Did I mention I was in coal country? While the ascent of