Escaping the heat in Maggie Valley

[klaviator]

With a big ride coming up in August (We're expecting 30+) I thought it would be a good idea to head up to Maggie Valley for a pre-ride and to check out the local conditions.  I know that you're thinking that's a real tough job but someone has to do it.

A few others agreed to make the sacrifice and join me.

I got on the road early Sunday morning and got this pic leaving Huntsville.



I was soon cold enough that I stopped and put a jacket under my mesh Jacket.

I met up with Rich ( @2372ighost ) near Chattanooga and we continued on. We rode some boring interstate through Chattanooga before getting off just before Cleveland and some more boring roads to get around Cleveland. Then we hit some nice twisty roads, 30, 315 and 39 to Tellico Plains where we stopped for lunch.



Then we had a great run over the Skyway. There was very little traffic and it was nice and cool, actually downright cold at higher elevations. The Majesty just flows through the curves on this road. After the Skyway we rode 143 to 28 to 74. There were some bight yellow flowers on the side of 74 so I snapped a couple of pics.



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Rich was on a Yamaha majesty that he had just bought.  He did some maintenance on it, rode it 70 miles then decided to ride it on this trip!

[klaviator]

From 74 we got on the Blue Ridge Parkway and rode that to 19 into Maggie Valley. Our motel was the Tanglewood Inn.



Steve, who had a much shorter ride than us was already there with his 2004 V-strom 650. All of us were on different bikes than we would be riding next month on the big ride.




The Tanglewood, like most of the mom and pop motels in MV is an older motel. The rooms were a bit dated but nice. I like this kind of motel because you can park right outside your room and there were rocking chairs just outside the room as well. This kind of setup is much better for a group than a more modern motel where the room open to inside hallways.



We walked over to the "butts on the Creek restaurant across the street but they had run out of food so we rode to Guayabitos Mexican Restaurant for dinner. Maggie Valley "ATTGATT"



I got this pic of Rich and his "tiny" margarita.



Dinner was good. After dinner we walked across the street for some ice cream.



The view from the ice cream place.

[klaviator]

It was a cool and beautiful Monday morning.




We had brought some food and ate breakfast at the motel. Soon Doug and Josh showed up. Both were on DR650s



Last time I rode with Doug was 5 years ago in West Virginia. At that time he was 75 years young and his wife had just bought him track prepped GSXR750 to replace his "slow" SV650 for track riding. Now Doug is 80 and he told me he had decided to stop riding on the track.

Josh is a bit younger and has a very nicely set up DR650.  I knew Josh through ADV

After some tire kicking we got on the road. It was still chilly so we started off with some layers under our mesh jackets.

Our route today was through some beeeuuutiful country side.



It was also one of the curviest routes I have ever done.



Riding into the town of Marshall.

[klaviator]

We stopped and took a break in Marshall.




It was starting to warm up so I took off the light jacket under my mesh jacket. The weather here in the North Carolina mountains is amazing. It's hotter than hell in most of the country but it was very comfortable here.

We BS'd for a while and then continued the ride. Right out of Marshall we picked up a twisty and scenic as hell little road that most sportbike riders would probably hate. It's way twistier than the dragon and also a bit dirty. On a scooter or dualsport bike it rocks. I was too busy riding to get any pics until we came to a turn where I was able to get this one.



Then we rode down to the river and took a break and this scenic spot.



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While we were there a train came by. The trees prevented me from getting much of it in a pic.



Crossing under the railroad bridge. To bad I couldn't have timed it better to get a train in the pic.



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[klaviator]

We then got on some of my favorite twisty roads. I'm talking non stop curves that seem to go on forever and have virtually no traffic. I was too busy riding to take pics until we came up behind some Harley's and had to slow down.




They were moving along at a respectable pace, just not as fast as us. A few miles down the road at a convenient place they pulled over and waved us by.

I did get a few pics but they do no justice to how spectacular these roads are.



The scenery is not Colorado spectacular, just very pretty. The roads on the other hand are a curvaholic's dream. I don't know anywhere that has better curvy roads. The dragon is merely a good warmup for these roads.



We stopped at the Little Creek cafe where we ate last year.

Since it was Monday they were closed. We headed maybe a mile down the road.



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Note the pizza on the bottom left :D



We ate at the tables outside. I had a half of a slice of pizza. It was OK but nothing special.

[Nice Goat]

Excuse me, miss...?  I ordered the "large" margarita.

[klaviator]

Getting ready to go after lunch. The sky looked ominous but we never got any rain.



We went over over a mountain road then turned around and rode it the other way. We stopped and got some pics at the turn around spot. We did the same thing last year at this same spot.



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[klaviator]

After taking the above pics, Rich went ahead to set up by a curve and take our pics. He recently got a camera that he could use to take pics more easily like I do. Hopefully he'll come along and post those pics.

I also set up outside a curve and took some pics.



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Despite having just bought this scooter, Rich was doing just fine on it.



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I stopped at the end of the road and took this pic.

[klaviator]

It's hard to describe how great the riding was on this ride. The roads, the weather, the scenery, the other riders, it was all close to perfect. My pics don't really capture it. Just imagine riding all day with your bike leaned over one way or the other 90% of the time.



If you rode here all the time you would never wear down the center of your tires.



One of the very few times we came up behind another vehicle.




If I remember correctly that truck turned off pretty quickly to we weren't stuck behind it for long.

Couldn't ask for a better group to ride with.




We stopped again in Marshal. Steve pointed out that there was something he hadn't seen in a long time.



Both Doug and Josh peeled off before we returned to Maggie Valley. Those lucky bums live locally.

[Nice Goat]

Great photos as always, Win!

[klaviator]

After getting back to the motel we researched options for dinner. Many of the local restaurants close on Mondays. The few that were open were most likely crowded so we just got takeout at Subway and ate at the motel.

After dinner I wandered around some. There is a creek by the motel and it had this tiny waterfalls.



Interesting clouds around sunset.

[klaviator]

Tuesday morning was another breakfast at the motel day. Like the previous day our plan was to be on the road at 9. Since we had plenty of time Steve used it to detail his 16 year old V-Strom which looks like it rolled off the showroom floor earlier this year.



Josh joined us again giving us four riders for the days ride.

We headed up to the BRP. I put my rain jacket over my mesh jacket along with a layer underneath so i wouldn't freeze.

Some pics on the BRP.



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We had our rain jackets on because it was cold!



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Then we had to ride some four lane to get to more good roads.

Sorry for the blurry pic but this sign is not kidding. There are some serious curves ahead.



No pics of the curves.

I love riding along lakes!



We stopped and took a break.



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I didn't get a pic but there is a sand beach just to the right.

[klaviator]

After our break we stopped at one of my favorite photo spots.



A bigger view.



Then it was time for some more intense twisties. Eventually we ended up on 28/64 headed for Highlands. Shortly after getting into the good part of that road we were stopped by a flagman. Due to construction the road was only one lane for a bit. When we took off again we were stuck in a caravan of slow moving cages. At least it was easy to take pics.



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This is a spectacular piece of road with a cliff on one side and nearly sheer dropoff on the other. There is a small parking area where you can view Cullasaja falls so we stopped there.




This is a spectacular waterfalls but leaves block most of the view. I took a pic but its not worth posting. To really see the falls you have to be there when there are no leaves on the trees or hike down a really steep trail.

So I just took this pic off of Wikipedia.

[klaviator]

We enjoyed the view and waited a few minutes. because of the flagman no more traffic came through before we took off.

More spectacular scenery.



We had a clear twisty road ahead



We had fun but didn't go real fast since we knew we would eventually catch up with the traffic ahead.

Eventually we did so we stopped for another short break so we could enjoy the road.



This is a great road but typically has a lot of traffic. "Surfing the Gap" is often the best way to enjoy it.

We caught the traffic again and took advantage of that to get a pic of this great view.



We were soon in Highlands.



Its a pretty little town but very crowded and very expensive.



Steve calls it the Telluride of the East or something like that.



I had plenty of time to take pics while stuck in traffic.

[Guidedawg]

What great roads, and it looks like a fun group to ride with!  As always, we really appreciate the reports.