Last Tuesday I headed for North Carolina to meet a friend, escape the Alabama heat and ride some of the best twisty roads in the country. Some pics from my ride there.
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The Secret Service doing some "training".
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After over 400 miles I got to Spruce pine where we would be spending the next 3 nights.
Our destination for the day was one of the more famous T shirt roads in the Eastern US. First we rode up over Roan Mountain. It was a beeeuutifull days and the roads leading to and up Roan mountain didn't suck
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At the top the skies changed to gloomy and the temperature took a big drop. I'm guessing mid 50s.
It was still a fun ride down the mountain until we hit a long delay for construction. They were repaving the road. In a few weeks it will be a great ride and I just happen to be heading back to that area in a month!
We stopped at Mountain View Motorcycle Campground since that's were we will be staying next month and Steve had never been there.
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We asked for directions on how to get over to Mountain City off of paved roads but on pavement. We were about to get more than we asked for! The Campground owner departing to pick up some suspension parts.
We followed the directions and found ourselves on a diabolically twisty and hilly back road. We were both wishing we were on our 250's because the power of the 650s was way overkill and they were a real workout. This road made the dragon look like a Kansas highway in comparison.
We stopped at a scenic spot that I recognized from my dual sport ride in June.
There was a delay as a crew was cleaning up damage from a recent storm.
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After a what seemed like endless curves we were back on "normal" roads.
We stopped for gas in Mountain City and then rode about 8 miles of
That would be half of the Snake going to Shady Valley.
Lunch was at the restaurant across the intersection.
Then we rode 133 to Damascus which took us a few miles into Virginia. We stopped at the Backbone Rock tunnel heading back to Shady Valley.
In Shady Valley we turned right to ride the second part of the snake
The dragon is more famous and a bit twistier but I think the snake is a better ride. It has way less traffic and the road is in better shape. We rode until the end of the curves and turned around stopping for some pics.
For this road our 650s were about perfect. We rode back to Shady Valley scrubbing rubber from the edges of our tires
In Shady Valley we took right on 91 which is also a great ride for a while until it approached Elizabethton. We took some back roads to detour around the traffic of the city. We stopped for a short break.
There were more great roads on the way back to Spruce Pine and it was a perfect day with temperatures in the low 70s.
On Thursday we just kind of winged it in the morning. We rode to Linnville falls and then headed North on the BRP. We just happened to get off to look at a map and saw this photo opportunity.
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We stopped to check out this view.
We continued on the BRP to the Linn Cove Viaduct Visitor's center which was closed years ago. Good thing we came to see the viaduct and not the visitor's center. Steve took the lead and I shot a bunch of pics.
After lunch we visited a friend who bought a house on top of a mountain with spectacular views and just off one of the best roads in the country. I won't divulge the exact location and i forgot to take a pic of the view even though we sat on his deck and enjoyed the view for at least a half hour.
Bueller ( on the other forum ) and his dogs.
I guess I did get some of the view.
After the visit we rode a bunch of super twisty and fun roads. Unlike the dragon these roads had very little traffic.
After that I was too busy riding to take any more pics. I did get a sunset pic that evening at the motel
Friday was the last day of our trip. For me it would be over 400 miles to get home. We started out in NC but I didn't take my first pic until we were in SC.
We rode a lot of great curves finally stopping for lunch in Clayton GA. After that we rode a while before splitting up. I got a couple of pics going through towns.
the sign said 83 degrees. That was the highest temperature I had seen in days.
Shortly after that Steve split off as he lives in N. GA.
I took another break on Fort Mountain in GA.
I was on the trail of tears route for a while. There is a huge ride in September were thousands of bikers ride the "trail of Tears". I have no desire to ever do that. Most if not all the roads on the route are pretty boring. they are OK as a means to get somewhere but I wouldn't ride them for fun.
I stopped for dinner at what has become my favorite BBQ joint.
The first and last days of this thrip were both over 400 miles. Those are the two longest rides I did this year. The two middle days were around 200 miles each and they included some of the twistiest roads in the country. If I lived in that area I'd wear all my tires out at the edges, not the middle
The weather while we were there was in the 60s and 70s. That was a real nice break from the August Alabama heat.
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