Roadtrip Sept 14, 2009
- Monday – September 14, 2009 -
Well I’m all packed up and ready to roll. My travel companions are still fast asleep and show no signs of getting up anytime soon. So much for getting an early start today. I hung out until 9:00am and still no life from them. Screw it! I’m breaking out on my own. I didn’t come on a bike trip to sleep the days away. I hit the parkway and about 5 miles down the road ran over a squirrel. Felt bad about that, but I wasn’t going to wreck trying to avoid it. If you’ve never been on the parkway this is really where the real mountains begin. The last 100 miles or so down through North Carolina are, in my opinion, the best section of the entire road. My first stop today would be Mt Mitchell. It’s the highest peak east of the Mississippi. Below are some of the highlights of the ride there.
Entering the mountain and tunnel section of the parkway
Up we go
In and out of the clouds..
More alpine type trees and exposed rock here
Made it!
It was a long STEEP walk to the top
Halfway there, looking back down
Yup, I'm above the clouds
That's a tomb up there
You are here
I walked from there
And here is a view from the top…
Time to head back down and get back on the road.
At this point I was really low on gas and had to make it about 40 miles to the first available gas station in Asheville, NC. The old lady in the gift shop assured me that it was mostly downhill so I should be ok. So for the next few miles it was a lot of this…
Check out how this cloud was running up the side of this mountain peak.
Not too long after taking this picture I came up on a group of Harley riders that were traveling about 5mph under the limit. There wasn’t really a straightaway where I could get around them so I looked for a place to pull over and let them make their way down the road. I was also well into reserve on gas so I couldn’t pull and shenanigans. I decided to pull over at the highest point marker. I rolled up to the sign and took the standard pics everybody takes. One of the bikers there came over and took my photo as well for me.
I got back on the road and it didn’t take long to roll up behind the same group of wild hogs.
The hogs finally pulled over and I coasted into Asheville on fumes. There as a gas station as soon as you get off the parkway so I filled up there and checked the maps. I got back on the parkway and rode the remainder of the parkway down to Cherokee, NC. This is a really nice section and I didn’t stop or take any photos along here.
If you’ve never been to Cherokee, NC don’t bother. It’s the biggest Indian tourist trap hell hole in the east. Beth would love it! I stopped at the local dairy queen for a late lunch and to borrow some wi-fi from the hotel next door. At this point I was headed over toward Deal’s Gap. I quick hop on the highway and I got off on route 28. I followed 28 all the way over to Deals Gap. It wasn’t raining but it looked like it could stop at any time. Very cloudy and extremely humid.
Made it to The Gap
Not very crowded today
For those not familiar with it, Deals gap is a stretch of US Highway 129 between North Carolina and Tennesee that boasts 318 turns in 11 miles. It’s one of those must ride roads among motorcyclist and sports car nuts. The locals seem to know this and stay off it for the most part. It’s essentially a racetrack on a public road. No pic from me here. There are some guys that take pics from the side of the road and make a living by selling them to riders. Below are links to a couple photos from their websites. If you use the forward and back buttons on thier sites you can see additional photos as well.
US129 Photo Link photos 452, 453, 454, 467
Zee Photo Link photos 305 – 309
Killboy Photo Link photos 594-597
After two runs through the gap I headed over toward the Cherohala Skyway. This road just sweeps along the tops of the ridges for miles and miles.
You are here!!
Cherohala Skyway
Shortly after getting on the Skyway the skies opened up and it poured down rain. About halfway across they skyway the rain stopped and I finished up in Tellico Plains, TN.
At this point I needed to decide where I was going. I decided that since I don’t get down this way very often I would head toward the Barber Motorsports Museum in Birmingham, Alabama. I knew I wouldn’t make it there tonight but I wanted to get within an hour or two of it tonight so I could hit it early in the morning. I ended up driving through Georgia and into Alabama. By now it had already been dark for about an hour. The speed limits down there are all 70mph, so you can cruise along at 80mph with no worries, but I wanted to get off the road soon since there’s a lot of wildlife running around. Lots of dead armadillo’s as well. They seem to be the opossum of the south. I ended up stopping in Fort Payne, Alabama and stayed at a Holiday Inn Express. I got settled in and called the wife on Skype. A great day today.
Mr. Ccchhhrrriiisss,
Glad everyone made it to the top of Mt. Mitchell. We got to 12,000 ft. in the Rockys. Tough breathing. Deals Gap population “0″. At least they had a place for you clowns to eat.
Mr. Stump