Day #14-Buckhorn to Big Hill, KY 58 miles

There was frost this morning.  It was clear and sunny but never quite warm enough that the downhills weren’t chilling.

The landscape softened gradually today.  More cows and horses.  Wider views.  The dogs were still waiting around every turn.  Sometimes it paid to be ahead and catch the dogs unaware; but sometimes being in front was a little like taking the point in one of those war films.  The stars of the film didn’t do that! There was still evidence of coal culture.  Often it was just a grassy field on the top of a hill-telltale signs of completed strip mining.  Many of the houses were heating with coal as evidenced by the sooty stain stretching down the roof from the chimney.

We camped at the Big Hill Welcome Center (above).  No water or bathrooms.  There was a cemetery just uphill from the welcome center and I found if I walked through it I could get cell phone reception.  The cemetery, as many others we encountered, suggested a vibrancy that had since disappeared in this small town.

We managed to hoard enough water for morning coffee.  Coffee drinkers understand.  It got down to freezing again but what a full moon!