I managed to get going from my hotel a little after sunrise. I had still more hill to climb going through Mount Vernon proper. The street I planned to take out of town looked ridiculous, so I quickly glanced at the map and saw an alternate a little ways down. It turned out to be just as steep anyway. The first few miles were like this, steep climbs and descents as I rode through the Daniel Boone National Forest. I crossed the Sheltowee trace, a long singletrack trail that bikes are allowed on that's on my bucket list to do one day. I picked some decent roads to skirt around most of London and finally leave I-75 for good. I stopped at a Dollar General which had shelves so bare it was useless but I did get a little smoothie for another breakfast. I ate bars to tide me over to a proper resupply. The road out of London was pretty flat and had some traffic but people were courteous. Gradually the houses thinned out and the ride through to Barbourville was hilly and beautiful and completely traffic free. I made such good time making miles to Barbourville that I decided to grab a Subway. I also got more snacks for my neverending appetite at a much nicer Dollar General in town. My cashier had a proper southern Appalachian accent, which gave me great joy. I didn't think I'd be this happy when I got back to the south! Everything, all the little touches remind me a bit of home: the endless discarded mountain dew bottles, the cars and trucks with holes in the exhaust, the accents of the people, the country churches around every corner just as common as coffee shops out west, and my favorite reminder that I'm in the south again, stray dogs at every house in the country. And Kentucky is it's own special kind of weird. The kind of place where it's equally likely to see a car with a huge John 3:16 sticker on the back window as it is to see a truck with the word PUSSMOBILE in huge black spray paint on the tailgate. Around a place called Flat Lick where 4 old pre white settlement trails joined near the Cumberland river, the stray dogs were out of control. It was like Mississippi again. Thankfully I didn't really have a problem with most of them. Slow down a bit and soft pedal to deactivate their chase instinct, talk nice to them and usually they calmed down. I had to dismount for a couple, but soon was safely past. Right after this guard dog gauntlet, I turned onto another really narrow back road following the river. It had a half inch of water over the road all the way through a long sweeping curve. Suddenly a beatup jalopy came barrelling around the corner doing twice the safe speed, and I decided to bail and ride off the road onto the grass. Only once I did, my front tire instantly sank almost to the hub in mud. Thankfully the person got the vehicle under control and I didn't get too muddy and all was well. I didn't see another car for a couple miles at least after that. At length I came to Pineville. It was a very cute old town set in a narrow gap in the mountains. I had to ride a couple busy roads going out of town but thankfully had a decent shoulder. I was glad after 5 or so miles to get back on a deserted road. It was pretty fast for many miles leaving Pineville as I followed the Cumberland river and had a westerly tailwind. The weather was perfect for riding today. Mid fifties and light winds, and cloudy. Not too hot or cold. Gradually i began to climb and crossed into Cumberland gap national historical park. Originally I planned to just stealth camp somewhere on the Kentucky side but decided since I felt great and it was a good time to cross the gap, to go ahead and get it over with. I had no trouble walking the bike on the wilderness trail to the gap and since I hadn't seen anyone yet, figured I could run up to the tri state point. So I parked my bike there and hoofed it fast up the the spot where Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia meet, and went quickly back down. Walked the bike the remaining bit to civilization again and the cute little town of Cumberland Gap, TN. There was a little festival gearing up as I rode through, with music and people already milling about at 5:30. I crossed into Virginia, and jumped onto a bike legal portion of the wilderness road. I had thought it would be like a bike path since it was an actual vehicle road only a few decades ago, but it was actually proper singletrack. So it took longer than I would have liked to get to the campground but the trail was fun. And the leaf colors around me were especially beautiful. The red maples in particular. It was painless to secure a campsite as it was less than a third full. I was a bit worried about highway noise but it's completely a non issue. Nice campground and at a good price! National park service you redeemed yourself. Even if the service road to get here was technically not open to bikes. That was the only way in from the end of the bike legal singletrack. It was a ROAD that wasn't bike legal. Yeah of course I rode it rather than go back. It was a two tenth of a mile gravel road. Seriously, what the hell NPS?