Nada Tunnel Entrance

Day 4

My turn to lead the ride and we were heading for Red River Gorge which would not be fun to ride if it rained so I was praying all night for clear skies.  Saddled up at 9 and had to put on the rain suits because it was just beginning to spit.  Never did rain and in about an hour we were turning onto highway 715 going into the gorge.  We snaked our way over a blacktop path barely wide enough for one vehicle.  It was so quiet, and the smell of damp earth and rotting old trees was tantalizing.  Signs telling us to watch for bears were posted but we didn’t see any.  Not sure how many miles we traveled through the gorge up hill, down gullies around curves and hairpin turns making a few stops for picture opportunities.  Then we approached the Nada Tunnel, I had been looking forward to riding through this tunnel for months.  The tunnel was blasted and dug by hand to transport logs from the gorge in the early 19^th century.  The tunnel is only large enough for one vehicle but yet it is a two way tunnel.  When we pulled up to the tunnel I was a bit surprised because it looked like a small cave I was about to enter.  I was going to ride through first and then make sure no vehicles would enter from the other end so the rest of the group could come through.  As I entered this gaping mouth it was suddenly black as midnight; the walls of the tunnel seemed to be so close you could touch them and I couldn’t see if the road had any ruts, did it go all the way to the walls or did it have a drop off, were there critters in this cave; there was no light at the end of the tunnel just pitch black even with my bike headlight on high beam!  What had I entered?  My GPS said “satellite signal lost”. I kept creeping forward and finally I could see a light indicating the exit for me.  I pulled out into the sunshine and called an all clear to the group.  They told me later they couldn’t hear me because the mountain was blocking the radio signals for our CB’s.

 

Next stop was the Natural Bridge State Park where we had lunch in the lodge and then took the skylift a half mile up to the top of the mountain.  The view was awesome as long as I didn’t look down!  At the top we hiked to the very top of the mountain and walked along the sandstone arch that forms the natural bridge.  Getting back down required another skylift ride this time I had to really try to keep my eyes focused on the trees which were slightly below me and not on the gorge which was  very deep below me.  Don said one thing we could be sure of – if we fall we won’t suffer because we’ll die quickly.  Great – husband – real comfort. 

Heading back to the hotel we took a couple more back mountain roads before settling in to the rhythm of the Kentucky parkway for an hour or more.  Never had a drop of rain but the roads were wet in Paintsville.  Dinner in the bar and then some played corn-hole others cards and some enjoyed the hot tub.