Silver Summit: Black Mountain, Kentucky (on May 1, 2014)

What says Kentucky more than the Kentucky Derby? Perhaps coal mining? or Bourbon?...Meth Labs? Sorry about that last one Kentucky fans, but Dean Sands is a big fan of the TV Show Justified which takes place in Harlan County, KY. When we stopped in a Harlan County McDonalds for a quick break he cautioned me to move quickly back into the car and drive quickly out of Harlan. Ah, the power of television to plant those "seeds" in our brain!

We arrived before dark at Colonel Chris Harmer's place in Louisville and began the decompression process from over ten hours in a car. What better decompression technique than Bourbon?

Chris Harmer's place serves as Derby Central for a tradition that began nearly 40 years ago. Each year friends gather and traditional events ensue. There was some debate over picking up a friend, Charlie, at the airport the next morning. His flight had been delayed because of bad weather. Dean appeared to be offering to pick Charlie up in the morning, I shot him "a glance" knowing that if he did that, I would not make it to Black Mountain on this trip. Without a word, Dean picked up my concern, selfish as it was. Highpointers, by definition, can be a bit obsessive. I am no exception. Dean and I left bright and early in the morning for the eight hour round trip drive to Black Mountain. We rose with the crew that was headed for their traditional visit to Dawn at The Downs, a wonderful chance to see the horses running in the Derby.

The drive took us into the heart of rural Kentucky, past working coal mines and processing areas. The following pictures were not taken by me, sorry I do not have an attribution, I took them from images I found of Kentucky coal. Again, we saw many similar scenes, but we were on a quest to tag the highpoint and return to the Derby so we seldom stopped to snap a picture.

Black Mountain is a "drive up highpoint". In this case, it's owned by a mining company. The company requires you to sign a waiver if you want to go on their property and they want you to limit your visit, out of the car, to the immediate highpoint area. The car climbed a long winding road up Route 161 past Lynch, Kentucky then rose steeply. Just before we reached the border of Virginia we turned on a dirt road. It passed an FAA navigation antenna before reaching the "summit" at 4,139 above sea level in the Cumberland Mountains.

There is not much view from the top, but the view below near the road we turned off features a strip mine....interesting. Highpointing is always enlightening. I had not seen coal mining operations firsthand before this trip.

Unharmed by methlab security personnel, we began the long ride home via another route that took us through the Red River Gorge of Kentucky. The Gorge is a famous area for rock climbing enthusiasts and my friend David Reitz had told me about a great pizza place called Miguels. We were hungry by the time we reached the area and Dean, as always, was willing to come along for the ride.

The people in the store were friendly and the place doubles as a climbing gear shop. What more could a hungry highpointer want? I'll be back.

Arriving back in Louisville concluded my highpoints on this trip. But, it was just the beginning of my Derby Weekend. I toured a Bourbon distillery, played basketball, partied and ate with friends, I bet every race and picked the winner! The company was a joy. It was a fantastic weekend. I returned to St Louis on Sunday, but stopped in Gillespie, IL. In 1859 the first Duffy's in my family came via Ireland and Huddersfield England to settle in this area! I spent a thrilling 36 hours talking to local folks and viewing family landmarks as part of my ancestry research. I even found the original document with which Anthony Duffy purchased land here and I actually went to see the property. This trip was really surprisingly fulfilling, regardless of the lack of a physical challenge or the absence of awesome natural beauty involved in the highpoints!