Lilly Bridge Overlook Ride

Thursday, April 10th, 40 degrees at 7:30 a.m., insulated chaps, summer mesh riding jacket with two pull-over shirts, heated gloves.  Yep, ready to ride.  Pulled out for Micky D's to meet riding buddy Paul for a quick breakfast and then off to meet up with another riding friend, Terry about an hour away.  Clear sky, blue blue blue and a morning sun.  How much better can it get.  Today we were heading in a westerly direction for our ride.

Spring is showing well.
Various trees, especially the Red Buds, Cherry, and Dogwoods are bursting at their seams.  Apparently the very cold winter we had was just what they needed to be so beautiful.

It seems with the colder air, Sweet Thang (what I call my bike) has a little deeper sound.  I know it's not from smoking or drinking whiskey because I don't let her do those things.  Well, sometimes she smokes but that's usually her tires.  It felt really comfortable riding this morning.  Another dose of stress relief for me.

The Redbuds along the road gave a pinkish cast to the scenery.

Entering the town of Lenoir City, a sleepy little town on our way to meet with Terry.

Country living, quiet and
peaceful, old homesteads, horse ranches, farms, seems to be never ending.





We met up with Terry and the three of use headed West.  Destination, some very large boulders out in the middle of nowhere with enough elevation that you could stand on the rocks and see for miles.

But first we must go through
the town of Kingston, TN, a
built around a lake made
when TVA constructed a
very large coal fired power
plant.  The white plume in
the distance is the plant.

 The picture above right is one of two old home sites on the climb from the parking lot to the rock overlook.  The climb is rather steep and for this old fat man it was a struggle but well worth it.  On the way up you had to cross a natural spring that was flowing well.  There are a lot of springs here in East TN.

Terry and Paul crossing
the spring.  Someone had
made a log bridge from
broken limbs of nearby
trees.  One large rock
formation on the right.
Don't know how tree
could grow there.

Natural archway if you wanted to do a little wading. Terry on rock ledge looking into the valley below

  The valley from the rock ledge.

We walked back to the parking lot and to our bikes to ride to Crossville, TN to dine at the Wendy's at the Pilot Convenience Store.  Paul and I split a chili and baked potato along with a small Frosty.  Total cost, $1.36 each.  Did I mention that Paul is rather thrifty?  We gassed up our bikes, Terry headed off into another direction to test ride some roads while Paul and I headed North to Lilly Bridge Overlook.

After about 20 miles we arrived at the overlook's parking lot.  About 0.3 mile hike found us at the overlook.  It is a very picturesque place.  You're up high on the mountain side overlooking the intersection of two rivers way below you.

After a curve or two or
several hundred we finally
arrived at the Lilly Bridge
Overlook.

Some kind of moss or growth
on the ground beside the walkway.

            View of the river from
            the overlook area.




After the overlook our time was getting tight so we headed
back toward the house.  But not before going by Nemo Crossing Bridge, not in use except as a walkway for visitors.  Oh, and we went by another TVA Dam near Oak Ridge where the atomic bomb's uranium was enriched.  Oak Ridge Laboratories is still going strong today.

 Nemo Crossing Bridge


           TVA Dam near Oak            Ridge.




From Oak Ridge we rode like the wind back to the house.  Door to door mileage today was 258 miles.  Not a bad day's ride with beautiful weather.  Ending temp was 75.