On Monday most of us split into a couple of groups to ride the "southern Highlands" route. I call it this because much of the ride is at high elevation and also it goes through the town of Highlands, NC. I led the "fast' group. We started by riding up to the BRP.
This was some of my group. We were waiting for the rest to catch up.
The first part of the BRP was a long uphill climb. I was able to run it all around 45 MPH which happens to be the speed limit. I remember many year ago when I was much younger I would run this road at 60+ MPH on my EX500. Now 45 feels plenty fast.
At some point well past Waterrock Knob I stopped to regroup and a few riders pulled in behind me and we waited. I took a pic of Mark and Dawn. We met years ago through the MaxiScoots forum.
We waited for a while but no one else came.
Oh OH! I headed back and was hoping it was just a flat tire or mechanical issue. Unfortunately one of the riders had crashed just past Waterrock knob in a curve. He was on the ground an awake but they had called an ambulance. His scooter was toast. The front wheel had been ripped off.
We were all standing around there. Candace took charge and said most of us should head off. She and a few others would stay and the ambulance was on the way. So we headed off. Withing a few minutes we passed at least a half a dozen emergency vehicles coming the other way.
It was a while before we knew the riders status but from what I know he had no life threatening injuries. A few broken ribs and probably a concussion. He was wearing good riding gear and I'm sure that made a difference.
So this ride was not off to a great start. Another rider in my group was
@Capt Scoots on a Vespa GTS. He had his check engine light come on. He decided to disconnect the battery and reconnect it to see if the light would go away.
The light didn't go out but his scooter was running fine so we continued on. At the exit for 74 I got off and stopped on the side of the road. A couple more pulled in and then
@Capt Scoots came by. He didn't see us and just rode by as we were waving out harms trying to get his attention.
This day was not off to a good start.
Mark and Dawn came along. We waited a bit and headed off. We found out later that
@Capt Scoots ended up having a good ride on his own.
We ride to Sylva and stooped for gas. Then we continued. I was stopped at a light and Mark came up behind me and said the rider on the AK550 had pulled off and waved him on.
Great. Another issue
He quickly caught up. I found out later that he thought he had lost a hearing aid but it had just turned off.