Harlan County Ridge Runners New Year's Ride 12/30/06
I went on the club's annual ride this year and had a lot of fun. The ride started at the trailhead in Evarts, Ky. Evarts has set themselves up (in my opinion) as the welcome center for ATVs. The town caters to ATVs in every way, including having flashing warning signs that ATVs will be on the roadways. I wish I could have gotten a picture of one of those signs, they are pretty neat. Evarts allows driving on their streets (just obey the traffic laws!), they have food, gas, lodging, a couple RV parks and lots of parking. The town is great!

This New Year's Day ride was about 60 miles through some of Kentucky's beautiful mountains. The trails were easy to moderate and the ride was fantastic. At last count I heard there were about 160 ATVs and RUVs that participated. The Ridge Runners broke us into four groups with club members as guides for each group as well as recovery personel for those who had problems. They provided a great ride, fantastic views and lots of fun with refreshments for everyone after we got back to town that evening. If you want to learn more about this area, the club or the trails click www.kyoutdoors.com or use my LINKS page to go there and visit their site and their forum.

Ride Video Clips
I also took some video clips during the ride. Click on the links below to view them.

Vid 1

Vid 2

Vid 3

Vid 4

Taking a break on the trail.
12.2Mb

Lunch time!
4.1Mb

Riding down one of the trails.
10.3Mb

Waiting for the group to catch up.
4.4Mb

Ride Pictures

Everyone that didn't camp or stay in Evarts began arriving and gathering at the campground area pretty early. By 9 AM there were a lot of vehicles showing up and people everywhere. The first group left about 9:45 and there were 4 groups in all. 3 groups were for the ATVs and 1 for the RUVs. All groups had several guides to make sure no one got lost, separated or to far behind their group. A few riders that had mechanical problems were helped by club members and safely returned back to the meeting area.

I'm not going to detail each picture, I think they speak for themselves. The views were awesome,
the ride was a lot of fun and the other riders were very freindly. We all had a great time.

More views along the trails at a couple of our rest stops. That creek was quite a ways down and it was a very steep slope down to it!

This is a wide angle view of our lunch break. Time to refuel ourselves as well as the bikes,
fix any problems you could and socialize with the other riders.

More views of Kentucky along the trails after our lunch break.

Thanks again to the Harlan County Ridge Runners Club. It was a great ride and loads of fun. The views were fantastic and the hospitality after the ride was unexpected but very appreciated.
Keep up the great work, Evarts, Ky is one place you really need to visit!

 As we approachest the highest point in KY we had some snow left from a week ago. It was a nice climb to the top and the weather wasn't really cold.

I was told this was supposed to be the highest point in KY, I hope I'm not wrong. Anyway, there was a survey marker in the rock, elevation 4139.274 feet.