Ride To The Top

Ride To The Top

It was such a beautiful wintry afternoon to stay put inside of the house so I donned my winter riding gear and cranked up Sweet Thang (that's what I call my bike) and headed out from Seymour, TN where I live to the top of the mountain where TN and NC meet up.  This location is Newfound Gap, the highest point where U.S. 441 crosses the Appalachian Mountains from Gatlinburg, TN to Cherokee, NC.  The most difficult part of the trip is getting through Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg.  Seems all of the tourists were out to enjoy the day also.

Once we left Gatlinburg we hit the edge of the Smoky Mountain National Park boundary.  The flashing sign along side of the road cautioned of ice and snow on the roadway.  Well, it had warmed up after the big snow fall so I felt pretty safe with most of the road that was in the sun.  However, on the shady side of the mountain there could still be some ice.  And there was ice, in several spots but the Park had put some finely crushed limestone on it for traction.  They don't use salt on the roads in the Park for environmental reasons.

There was still plenty of snow along the sides of the highway, especially where the sun was not hitting it.  It made everything softer to the look and the gray tree trunks showed like match sticks along the way.  Riding a motorcycle allows a much better look at nature than inside the cab of a vehicle.  And with the feel of the crisp air you didn't have to guess whether the thermometer had a low reading.  The vehicular traffic was not too bad but there were enough traffic to make you stay very alert to those wanting to slow down to take pictures or try to find a place to pull off the roadway and play in the snow.

The sky was so blue and the clouds were just large white puff balls floating about.  In certain areas the snow was gone and just the dull gray of winter was left.  As you climbed in elevation you could feel the changing temperature and see more evergreen trees mixed with the bare hardwood tree trunks.  There was some snow on the bare tree limbs that made the bare trees show even more.  The snow on the evergreens had a tendency to make their limbs sag with the snow weight.

You go through a couple of tunnels getting to the top of the mountain, around a few corkscrew turns and after tiptoeing over the ice patches I finally got to the top.  Newfound Gap parking lot which was only partially open as the National Park Service had pushed the snow towards the center blocking a lot of parking spaces.  Sweet Thang, even being very dirty from the dust and snowmelt we went through, glistened with the snow backdrop.

The final picture is standing in the parking lot and looking Westward.  Even after several days the amount of snow at the top of the mountain was rather deep.  Nothing like you would find in the Rocky Mountains, but for this part of the country, it was a very big snow fall and very wet.

Winter has a lot of beauty, more so than a lot of people think or talk about.  The start white of the snow makes shadows show up more and makes numerous shapes form.  Rocks with a mound of snow on top appear as iced cupcakes, rocky ledges can appear as zebras without heads or tails, or maybe this is just my imagination running wild.  Regardless, I love the beauty of winter.  It was 35 degrees while we were at the parking lot with a nice breeze blowing.  After a snack bar and some conversation with a Georgia couple, Sweet Thang and I headed back down the mountain and to the house.  Next would be a hot cup of coffee to celebrate a good winter ride.