The Slaying of a Dragon (and other mythical beasts)

[Fencejumper09]

Per the Internet:

"Tail of the Dragon at Deals Gap with 318 curves in 11 miles: America's number one motorcycle and sports car road."

Since I consider myself a motorcyclist, and have been since age 8, it is truly a travesty that my chicken strips haven't been chewed up by this fabled stretch of pavement!

Time to make this right!!

Last month I received a call from my Dad at which time he informed me of his plan to ride up into Western North Carolina with a life long riding buddy to have some fun on some twisty roads.  I asked if I would be intruding if tagged along and he replied of course not.  I have grown up riding with dad (David SR.) and Ed so I was really excited to spend some time on two wheels with them.

Having recently purchased my first true street bike (KTM 990 SMR) I decided to plan a route from Bham up to Little Switzerland for our rendezvous on Friday. Leaving early Friday morning would allow enough time to experience some scenic and fun roads with a decent arrival time.  So the plan was set and a street ride was posted in this forum. As the time approached the cast was set!

The route would be long very doable!


Myself, @mojo1 and @Brian A would roll out of the Jack's on HWY 231 in Ashville by 7 AM on October 11.  I have ridden multiple times with both of these guys and knew it would be an exciting trip!!

Packed up and ready to roll at 5:45 AM!! Let the adventure begin!

[Fencejumper09]

We all arrived at Jack's around 6:30 AM to grab a quick breakfast and discuss the ride. We had a plan to get to Tellico Plains as quickly as possible with contingent routes around Chattanooga pending traffic.  I was the limiting factor when it came to gas stops as by bike can only get just over 100 miles per tank.  Fortunately we all agreed that is a good distance to stop and stretch the legs anyways.  We saddled up and hit the interstate up toward Tellico. 



The ride was uneventful besides the sunrise, it was glorious! Not necessarily the most beautiful but when looking through the visor of my helmet coupled with my anticipation for the upcoming weekend I couldn't help but smile and get all giddy inside!!

We arrived at the gas station in Tellico and decide to get a fast bite to eat at Hardees.  It was starting to get exciting as were were beginning to see a good number of other two wheeled adventurers!



We all loosened up our belts one notch after a "Hardee" meal and prepared to head for the Cherohala Skyway

[lazeebum]

Following!

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[Fencejumper09]

Quick intermission on the ride report:

As many of you know our dear friend @springer passed away on August 3, 2019. He and I had many encounters at weekly Gymkhanas, dual sport rides and other forum events. He was a solid guy and he will be missed by me and this community.

@dredman obtained some of Harvie's ashes and came up with idea to place a small portion in an urn and let him ride with those he has ridden so many miles with before.  I jumped at the chance to take him along with us on this ride so if you see this little guy in some of the pictures:



That is our man Harvie tagging along and watching over us!

[Fencejumper09]

The Cherohala Skyway is a 43-mile National Scenic Byway from Tellico Plains, Tennessee, to Robbinsville

The Cherohala Skyway was completed in the fall of 1996 after planning and construction for some thirty-four years. It was North Carolina's most expensive scenic highway carrying a price tag of $100,000,000. And if you ask me, it was worth every penny (of the NC resident's money)! It was a beautiful road with good pavement and amazing views. We did hit some traffic but nothing could dampen my spirits!



I did shoot a couple of videos and hope to get those edited up before 2025!!

We arrived in Robbinsville and turned north onto US 129, the freakin Dragon!! For those who aren't familiar (yeah right) The Dragon technically begins 16 miles to the north of Robbinsville and continues north into Tennessee. We arrived at Deal's Gap at around 12:30 central and began taking obligatory photos!







I made a small contribution to the store for some stickers and left a sticker of my own along the handrail!



As the anticipation built up we geared back up and made our way up The Tail of the Dragon!!!

It was a beautiful road with lots of tight twisties, unfortunately we did hit some traffic of both the two and four-wheeled varieties.  And of course they were generally right at the turns with photographers. I am not a fan of how any of the photos turned out since I generally only have one hand on the bars and it looks like I am out for a Sunday ride in my one piece leathers! (yeah they are as sexy as you think)

At the overlook I snagged a quick photo before heading back down!



A great run heading back into North Carolina with a little bit less traffic but still enough for bad photos (at least that is what I am blaming it on)!

We filled up with 100% gas (NOW WITH 100% MARK-UP)  at Deal's Gap and continued on to Hwy 28 (Moonshiner 28) with a quick stop at Fontana Dam



I got an update from my dad (Ed had bailed out of the trip the weekend before) and it looked like he would be able to meet us in Waynesville so we put Frog Level Brewing into our GPS and headed east on HWY 74.

We arrived to Frog Level 5 minutes before my dad and secured parking right up front. Before settling in we confirmed that in addition to libation they would provide weary travelers with sustenance and they produced a nice menu!

The beers were good and the tap handles were awesome!



The food hit the spot and was better than average. I ended up getting a pizza while the others tried the wraps and sandwiches.



Shiny head crew! ( I know karma has already started taking my flowing locks)



Somebody in our group made a comment about Birmingham while we were eating and a family walking by stopped and said "Alabama?" Turns out they were on vacation from Vestavia Hills so @Brian A told them his Canada story and we all had a good laugh! It is a small world!

[Nice Goat]

Great photos and enthusiastic writing = awesome ride report!

[klaviator]

Looks like ya'll had a great ride.  If I didn't have a wedding to go to that weekend I would probably have joined you.

[Fencejumper09]

After finishing our beers and food we saddled back up and headed to one of my most anticipated stops for the trip (non moto related).

My first craft beer was a Highland Brewing Company Oatmeal Porter. Although I only went to school a little over an hour from Asheville I had never been to this holy land!

And let me tell you.....it was just as glorious as I had expected!



I got a flight of four of the darkest and most flavorful beers they offered one of course being the Oatmeal Porter!



For those that care the remaining three included:
Chocolate Bonbon Stout with Raspberries
Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Thunderstruck
Thunderstruck Coffee Porter

We enjoyed the sights and the sounds of the brewery for a little while but we still had a little ways to go to get to our accommodations. So we packed up and headed up the Blue Ridge Parkway to Little Switzerland. The ride was fairly uneventful with more traffic than I would hope for but we made it to the Switzerland Inn just before the temperature dropped too much.

After getting out accommodations squared away in the Diamondback Lodge my dad and I headed to the Pub on site. Along the way we saw the fancy fire pit that consisted of a line of propane burners and some intoxicated cruiser riders.


I got the prime rib sandwich expecting sliced prime rib but I got a slab of prime rib on a roll! This would have been fine if the whole thing hadn't been breaded in seasoning salt. After a little scraping it was edible!


After that meal I decided to order a couple light beers to take back to the room and call it a night! It was a successful day of adventure!

[Fencejumper09]

The Switzerland Inn is on an eastern exposure of the mountains so I figured I would try to get up early enough to snag a few sunrise pictures.  I took Harvie along for the photo session!





We met @mojo1 for breakfast at the Country Cafe in Spruce Pine as he recommended it as a hole in the wall locals place from his last trip. @Brian A ended up lodging at the Big Lynn Lodge after a mix up on my end and they include dinner and breakfast so he would wait for us to eat since his hotel was on our route.



We filled up on a hearty breakfast and filled our bikes with petrol. We headed out of Spruce Pine down 226 toward 226A (aka the Diamondback) to meet up with Brian and start wearing out our tires.  The Diamondback was a fun road with very little traffic. I enjoyed it just as much if not more than the Dragon. I went ahead after making a few passes to grab some blurry photos.





It was a glorious road that I look forward to riding again.

We intersected 221 and headed south to Toms Creek Road and cut over to 80 (aka The Devil's Whip). The Devil's Whip was my second favorite road of the trip (#1 will come shortly). It was some tight twisties with great elevation change thrown in for good measure. At the top intersection with the Blue Ridge Parkway we stopped and got nice young lady to grab a group photo for us.  Brian is not pictured as he broke off to head back to Robbinsville with some friends at the end of The Diamondback.



It really was a scenic overlook



We continued up the Whip toward Micaville where stopped for some gas (small tank problems) after a quick discussion we decided to hammer through and make our lunch stop in Asheville. We turned left off of 19E onto HWY 197! Now this was my favorite road of the trip  :) :) :) The road starts off nice and curvy in a valley but you make a hard right hander and it turns into a glorious display of tight switchbacks and elevation changes. At one section there were spaced out trees, a gradual incline and several back to back switchbacks. I took a quick sneak over my shoulder and saw my dad coming up behind us and Mojo was ahead leading the way. Something about the scenery in that moment just completed the trip for me! It made every single highway mile worth it!



I unfortunately don't think I was running my Gopro for this but here is a streetview to give you an idea



The road continued on being amazing and abruptly switched to gravel (which we knew) for a few miles before continuing on as pavement. We made our way into Asheville and found some great parking right across the street from Green Man Brewing company just hoping they served food.



They don't serve food! No problem we realize we are in a highly populated area with hundred s of pedestrians around us so we assume we would surely be able to discover a place to eat. We start walking. We find a BBQ joint, 30 minute wait for a table of 3 and the bar was full. We pass several other establishments including donut shops and other breweries with no food. We walk into the Wicked Weed Funkatorium and low and behold....vittles were present!!

If you aren't familiar with the Funkatorium or Wicked Weed, Wicked Weed is a local brewery and the Funkatorium is where they serve their funkiest of brews! The sours! The bruts! The funky stuff! And a few classics. Luckily we were all able to find something we liked and the food was great too. We were too hungry to take pictures of the food but the fried chicken sandwich and fried fish sandwich were awesome!

I tried a few of the bourbon barrel aged sours and they were interesting and pretty tasty. Can't imagine having more than a few ounces of some of these though!





We headed back toward the bikes and I decided I needed a selfie! I caught mojo too!



After a little text message with @jrou111 he implored me to stop at Green Man Brewing. So I obliged and requested his suggestion if I only had time to devote to one beer. He suggested either of their imperial stouts.
They had a limited release of a 2015 Dweller Imperial Stout and it was fantastic!





We saddled back up and after filling up with gas made it back to the Blue Ridge Parkway toward our next stop at Mt. Mitchell. None of us had ever actually been up to the top or the top parking lot so we headed up in some heavy traffic as the temperature began to drop!
Family photo time!


We discussed riding with a fellow rider and then decided to continue on to try to get another go at the Whip and the Diamondback going the opposite direction.

[norton73]

A video my friend Silke made of 197 a few years ago;

Be sure to have the sound on for the full effect.

[lazeebum]

Great report and pictures!

[Fencejumper09]

A video my friend Silke made of 197 a few years ago;

Be sure to have the sound on for the full effect.

Now that is funny! I have met Silke a few times now at Notarally and Barbers!!

[Sweeper]

Did 197 last month. Stopped at the gravel for a break and the bottom fell out. Muddy gravel on a VFR was huge fun.


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