North Alabama street ride, 11-16-19

[klaviator]

Today was another gorgeous day with wall to wall sunshine and some bright fall colors. It was a bit chilly but not a problem if dressed for it. I left my house around 10 and headed for Freedom Powersports on the other side of Huntsville. I met three other riders there.

I rode the Versys today.



Getting ready to go.  Most of you probably recognize the two characters on the right.  Solorider73 is on the left riding a DR650.



We headed south on 231.



Then we took Union Grove Church Rd to 69 into Guntersville.

[klaviator]

We rode through Guntersville. The real fun started when to rode up the steep twisties on Wyeth Mtn rd and the nice curves once up the mountain. Some nice colors there as well.



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Then we worked out way back to 227 which is a great road but just has too much traffic.



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I took a bunch of over the shoulder shots. Most of them were garbage but a few came out OK.

[klaviator]

More of 227.



Then we took 67.



When I ride across this causeway I remember the Sammax memorial ride and scattering his ashes here.



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[klaviator]

Our lunch stop was Tokyo Japan in Scottsboro. When we got there a couple more riders were waiting for us.



The food was good and even though we all probably ate too much i don't know that anyone finished their plate!

Yeah, it was a pretty motley looking crew :D

[klaviator]

After lunch David headed for home while the rest of us headed North out of Scottsboro.



We stopped to check something out. What could everyone be looking at?



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The world famous rock zoo of course :D

[klaviator]

Next up was CR39 up Crow mountain.  It doesn't start out all that impressive.



Eventually it has to climb up the side of Crow Mountain up ahead. When it does, watch out. It is probably the steepest twisty road in the state. The much more famous "dragon" is pretty tame compared to this road. I took some pics but they don't really show what this road is like.



Taking pics while riding one handed was a bit challenging on this road.



Re-grouping at the top.



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[klaviator]

After 39 we took a left and rode down Crow Mountain on 33.  It's not as steep and twisty as 39 and it's pretty bumpy but still a fun ride.  The guys on big dual sport bikes were on the prefect bikes for this road.



When we got to the bottom we turned around.  I rode ahead to get some pics.

First was James, he not on this forum.......yet.



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@thinwater  on his Himalayan.  When he rode the Bankhead ride in April he had something like a thousand miles on it.  Now he's over 17,000!



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@SoloRider73



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@TWJohn



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[klaviator]

Everyone was waiting for me up the road so and we took a short break there.  I took and over the shoulder shot while standing still and got a partial selfie.



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After that we continued on. 33 to 79 to 146 to 65 through Paint Rock Valley.

I think this was 146.



65:

[klaviator]

James told me that he had watched some SCCA races up Crow mountain years ago so I decided to google it.   Best I can tell the last race was in 2011. Here is an description of the course I found in my search:

"The Hill Climb site is located in Jackson County on Alabama County Highway 33 about 9 miles north of Scottsboro, AL."

"Crow Mountain Hill Climb serves up a challenging 1.85 mile uphill course with a 720 foot elevation change featuring 7 hairpin switchbacks nestled between a ¼ mile twisty drag race to the first turn, a ½ mile section with 3 separate "S" features, some 1/8 mile sprints, and a 6/10 mile high speed curved section with two blind left-handers. The course is fully lined with ditches, granite rock faces, and large trees which offer no margin for error. Most drivers say it was the fastest and scariest two minutes of their life."

IMO 39 which is steeper, tighter and has better pavement would make a better race course.  Maybe they couldn't use that because there is a house right at the bottom at the first curve.  I'm also guessing that 33 was in better shape back then.

Some pics:



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[jrobinson]

Unfortunately, a fatality cause the county to discontinue the race.

[TWJohn]

Thank you Klaviator for the write up. It was very fun as always.

[klaviator]

Thank you Klaviator for the write up. It was very fun as always.

Thanks for coming along!

[griff]

Looks like you guys had a great time!

I have worked the crow mountain hill climb for the SCCA. We used to swap labor as the timing guys would come help with our 4wd club's rock crawling event. It was a really neat hillclimb.  When I saw your post about going up crow mountain, I was going to post about the hillclimb.

[Guidedawg]

Nice report and excellent pics. It looks like everyone had a great time.

Thanks for sharing!

[jrm927]

Once again, thanks for leading us on a great ride!  I really enjoy your write-ups and pictures.  Now I'm waiting on the rain to pass through so i can get back out there! :'(