Tellico Plains area dual sport ride 28-30 September

[Jwwr]

Quick solo run this morning.

Bald river falls


Some road hidden behind a guardrail

[klaviator]

We had great rides Friday and Saturday.  Here's some pics from Friday.



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[klaviator]

A few details on Friday's ride.

The players: Jeff on his KTM350
Rich on his Husaburg 390
Steve on his KLX250
And of course me on my prehistoric KLR650

We headed out from CMTC at around 3PM. First we rode some forest service roads on and around Starr mountain. I had seen signs to Starr mountain for years but had never ridden there. Pretty nice dirt/gravel roads but nothing spectacular. Then we go back on 315 which we rode to Reliance where we stopped at the old gas station. From there we headed back across the bridge (North on 315) and took a right turn just after the bridge. Then it was a series of roads, some paved and some not. None of us knew where we were but eventually we came out on 68 which was my plan. We road 69 to Tellico Plains and ate dinner at a place I can't remember the name of. It was behind the Exxon station and was pretty good.

Then it was back to the campground where we hung out around the fire for a while and BSed.

The ride that day was only around 65 miles but most of it was new roads to us and it was a fun ride. Saturday would be much longer.

[klaviator]

We started Saturday morning with breakfast at the campground.  There was a pretty good menu to choose from.  After eating about 500% of our minimum daily requirement of cholesterol we got on our bikes and went riding.

We started by riding Rafter road to Rafter.  This road is not real well known.  It's paved and would be perfect for a super moto but a dual sport bike works great too.  I took a couple of pics on the go.



No double yellow line?  We don't need no stinking double yellow!



In the booming metropolis of Rafter we took a left and did a series of paved (barely) and gravel roads.  These roads are super twisty and often resemble a roller coaster.  They where perfect for dual sport bikes.  It was a beautiful day.  The sun was ouut.  It wasn't too hot or cold.  Rains earlier in the week meant no dust. 



Eventually we got to the forest road that goes up to Farr Gap.  I took this pic at that point.



The ride up to Farr Gap was fun.  It's a super twisty unpaved road.  Unfortunately there were a lot of hunters out.  Normally there is no traffic on this road.  I didn't get many pics, I was too busy riding.  Here's one on the go between farr Gap and the Skyway.



Eventually we ended up on the Skyway.  From there we rode the Skyway to Robbinsville.  Rich was worried about fuel range with the 2.1 Gal tank on the Husaberg.  He filled up in Robbinsville.  84 miles and 1.55 gallons. 

Then we ate lunch at this place:

 

I just had a salad from the salad bar which was fine.  I'm not sure how good everyone else's food was.  I didn't hear any complaints or comments of it being great.

[klaviator]

After lunch we rode Tatum Gap.



Then it was straight to FR304 which I think is Porterfield Gap.  When we got over the mountain Steve and Rich Swapped bikes for a while.  I rode ahead and set up for some action shots.

Not exactly an action shot.  I took this while waiting for the others.



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Everyone stopped there and Steve and Rich swapped back to their own bikes.  I rode ahead again.



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[klaviator]

Because of Rich's limited fuel range we headed back to Robbinsville again to top off.  The Sunoco at 143 and 129 was packed with bikes of all kinds.  Two vintage Indians showed up.  The bikes were in great condition but I'm sure the riders were committing some sort of fashion trangression since they were both wearing Harley jackets :o



Then we rode back to the beginning of the Skyway where we rode up FR81 and then continued on Gravel down to River Rd.



During all this riding we would switch the order we were in depending on whether we were on pavement or dirt.  On the pavement I led but when we got on gravel Steve would lead with Jeff behind him and me and Rich trailing a ways behind.

We stopped at Bald River Falls expecting to see a lot of water coming over the falls.  What we didn't expect to see was this:



Two guys with Kayaks and climbing ropes were trying to get to the top of the falls.  Looking at the falls we all agreed that would be insane.  Well they couldn't figure out how to get all the way to the top but one of them decided to ride the falls part way down ???



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And people think us motorcycle riders are crazy.

After that we rode to Tellico Plains where we had a great dinner at the Tellicafe.  Then we got back to the campground just before it got dark.  Mileage for the day was right around 200 miles.

[Fencejumper09]

I really look forward to riding that area!

Thanks for taking us along!

[klaviator]

I really look forward to riding that area!

Thanks for taking us along!

It's a great area.  I would have likes a few more days since we only rode a fraction of what's in the area.

We still had Sunday's ride to go.  Stay tuned!

[klaviator]

The plan for Sunday was to leave at 630 for Deal's Gap and ride it real early before traffic showed up.  Sunrise was 7:30 and the forecast called for dense patchy fog so we decided to do a later local ride for a few hours.  We planned on getting back at around noon and hopefully by then everything would be dry and we could pack up our tents then.

It was a beautiful morning at CMTC.



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Rich and his "deluxe" accomodations.



We rode south on 68 and then took a left on the Joe Brown "Highway". 



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[klaviator]

At the end of the unpaved part of Joe Brown we took a left towards the Hiwassee Dam.  It had probably been 10 years since my last time to the dam.  The road is a great twisty ride with no traffic on it. 

There is a parking area and visitors center there.



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[klaviator]

After the Dam we continued to 294 then 68 north until we got to the road to Buck Bald which we rode up.



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Then it was back to 68 and north.  We made a stop to let slow traffic move along and that gave us the chance to take this pic at the beginning of the Joe Brown Highway.



We got back to the campground by noon, packed up and headed for home.

It was a great weekend.  The weather was about perfect.  Steve, Jeff and Rich were great to ride and hang out with.  I think I rode around 340 miles total.  I'll try to set up some more rides in the area next year.

[klaviator]

One last pic I forgot to post earlier.

[norton73]

Bald River is runnable, but not the falls in the pictures. The put in is at Holly Flats Campground. You do need to know when to takeout before the falls, it could be deadly!

https://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/detail/id/1716/