The day was Thursday, Jan. 29, 2015. The time to start was 9:00 a.m. The temperature was 28* and frosty. The meet-up was MickyDs in Downtown Seymour, TN. The act was crazy and involved two (2) crazy old men dressed to appear to be some resemblance of the Michelein Tire Man. Or the Popping Dough Boy. Anyway, after a sausage/egg burrito and a cup of coffee we pulled out for a southerly ride today as there was a threat of rain coming our way. Just prior to leaving, friend Paul checked his intelligent phone looking at the weather and yes, we might get a dab wet, damp even. But what the heck, it was going to be above freezing in an hour or so thus no need to worry about ice conditions.
But before I get started with this adventure tale, I would like to bring you up to speed on my biker friend Paul. He's not from TN and has lived here only about 7 years. He's traveled extensively with the work he did, electronic guidance systems, as well as living on the road with his lovely wife in a motorhome. Paul is about 4 years older than I and is in good shape. He works out at a local gym three days a week for several hours, rides his bikes and hikes up trails every so often. He's a tough old bird. In fact, my grandma would have him in a pressure cooker for days, not hours, days just to get him tender enough to cut with an axe. He's a good rider and will tackle any maintenance object with an objective of fixing it.
I started taking pictures just before we hit the Foothills Parkway since the ride to Fontana, NC took us pretty much over the same route. At the end of the Foothills Parkway is Calderwood Lake. From there we ran U.S.29 to the right instead of to the left which would have taken us over The Dragon.
About 54 miles from Seymour is the town of Tellico Plains, TN. It's a small town in a valley with the famous Cherohala Skyway starting there. It's a good place to top off the gas tank, grab a bite to eat and today, take in a cup of hot coffee to warm the "innards". This is the town that has a small sawmill just up the road from this building shown above.
I didn't inset a map of our route today as it would resemble a small child with a pencil being asked to draw their favorite picture. In other words, similar to a chicken scratching on the ground. Lots of loops, circles, deadends and some open roads. It was sort of a go to a destination but check out some of the roads that haven't been ridden before and possibly some new ones to ride next.
And with the looming storm clouds, we were trying to do it knowing at any time we could get wet. Yep, we got wet. About an hour into the ride it started sprinkling rain and drizzled for about another two hours before it finally passed over us. We were dressed in our raingear so the only thing we had to deal with was the wet roads. Which in a way was good as you have the tendency to ride a bit faster when the surface is dry.
The above picture is a wood structure church stained a dark brown. A bit unusual but the building serves the same purpose.
I put my camera away so as to not ruin it with the rain so the pics between start off and finish are missing a bunch. As you can see from this picture, the weather cleared and the day became beautiful.
In the summer you would see almost nothing but if you peer hard left about midway the pic you can see the structure of a dam. The highway was running alongside the river in this area.
On the upper side of the dam is the lake and you can see the bouy markers trying to keep you away from the water in-take structure.
The river is beautiful here. This is downstream from the dam. This water is cold in the summer and with the temperature this afternoon I'm sure it hasn't warmed up. No skinny dipping today. In fact, tomorrow either.
As we rode the sky kept getting darker and shortly afterward the rain came. But until that point, ride Cowboy ride.
Country roads have some of the best scenery. It often is like looking back in history, wondering how things were before all of the modern facilities came into the picture. I had a taste of some of this in my youth along with my brother while staying at one of our Grandparents during the summer. No electricity, no heat or cooking except with wood, no TV, etc.
You can tell many of the homes started out simple and as the family grew so did the size of the house. In some areas there wasn't sufficient room to grow much as you would have a river on one side and the mountain just outside of the back door.
This is one of the better back roads we traveled on this ride.
We finally arrived at the Hiwassee River Overlook. The river is wide and is not all that deep at this point. You can see a lot of the rock bottom now that the water is shallow.
An elegant picture, Sweet Thang and the White Rat, at rest.
One of the views, looking down stream, of the Hiwassee River. Just across the river is a railroad track and a train runs this route with tourists.
Looking upstream from the Overlook.
Now the ride back towards the house after a number of loops, side runs, etc. The road is damp so the riding is slower.
A few near 180* turns. The view would not be this open in the summer. Thus, you have to stay tuned to accept the road as it weaves and turns its way up and down the mountains.
Great run, and it has guard rails such that if you hit them with a motorcycle your bike possibly stops and you, the rider, go flying through the air unlike Superman. He has a cape, you, not much.
Often we will take a side road just to see where it leads. Sometimes there are signs telling you what's down the road and sometimes you can actually find it. We had one of those situations on this ride. We were looking for a mill but it hid from us.
Either the road is very high or the house is very low. Makes you wonder if they ever have any guests DROP in.
The Hiwassee has a rather large flood plain as this house indicates. It is built in the same style as houses in South Louisiana where flooding occurs. Some of these were even along the Mississippi where the living quarters is on the second floor and work areas are on the ground floor due to flooding, maybe every year or every so many years. Mother Nature is rather unpredictable.
This old house was elegant in it's prime but today it is rather run down and unkempt. I hate to see these old buildings go to the wayside but then, it costs a lot to maintain them.
Another great back road having a good surface and good views.
When you see those yellow signs with the wiggle on them, take heed, they're usually right. They just don't tell you how tight the turns will be but at least you've been notified. Ahead of time.
One of the routes we were going to take back as a short cut we found out from a local, that it turned to gravel just a short way down the road. So we went the long way and when we got to where it would have come out we turned down it to see how far it was before it turned to gravel. About a mile or so it did just that, turned from asphalt to gravel. So, while Paul rode about a mile or so down it to check it out, I waited here.
After a brief stop at the same pace we stopped that morning in Tellico Plains, we headed back to Seymour via TN 360. Love that road and it brought us out by Fort Loudon State Park. After a few more back roads we pulled into the convenience store next door to where we started from. Gassed up our bikes, swapped mileage and then departed for the house.
My door to door mileage today was a damp, chilly, sunny, enjoyable 206 miles. Tomorrow, being Friday, I'll clean my bike to get it ready for the next ride. Good times today, some new roads, some old roads and some almost no road at all. But the time seeing creations and enjoying friendship was worth every bit of any inconvenience. Wait, there really wasn't any real inconvenience. Just a little disturbance. So, until the next adventure, love your family, enjoy your friends, and take life for what it is. Short in the span of time.
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