Riding the Cherohala Skyway and The Dragon in the Spring

Tuesday, 4-18-15, 43 degrees, blue sky, no rain predicted.  Time to ride.  At 7:15 a.m. I backed Sweet Thang out of the garage and rode down to the entrance to my subdivision to wait for fellow biker Paul.  Meet up for 7:20.  He arrived at 7:15 so off we went, heading south today to Vonore, TN to meet up with friend biker Randy.  Today's ride was going to take us down some back roads, as usual, to one of the three most noted motorcycle roads in the eastern part of the U.S.A.  They are the Cherohala Skyway (crossing from TN to NC), The Dragon (crossing from TN to NC) and the Blue Ridge Parkway (going from NC to VA).  At the end of the Blue Ridge is the Skyline Drive which is all in VA.

Met up with Randy at Hardee's in Vonore at 8:15 and decided to have a bite of breakfast as it would be a full day of riding.  At 9:00 a.m. we pulled out of Vonore heading further south to Tellico Plains, TN, the southern end of the Cherohala Skyway.  Here we stopped, had a coffee and topped off the gas tanks.  Temp was about 54 at this time.

No filters, no recoloring, just Mother Nature at it's glory this morning.

Even the weeds are pretty this spring.  Those yellow flowers are not planted by man, it's not a crop to be harvested, but a wild clover.  Makes a sea of yellow.

One of the TN back roads on our way from Vonore to Tellico Plains.  Like riding through a tunnel of trees.

The covered bridge crosses a river and is the entrance to a resort.  Very pretty construction and serves a useful purpose at the same time.

We seemed to follow along streams of one size or another for a lot of this morning's journey.  The sunlight reflecting off the water was really bright.

A little farther along another river and up a few miles it had ripples of small rapids as it raced down the mountain.

Changing in elevation was very noticeable.  In the valley Spring is here and a lot of the shrubs/trees have lost their blossoms and are now full of leaves.  Climbing higher on the mountain you could see trees just starting to put on their summer leaves.

At this pull out you can see the valley below from which we came.  At or about 4,000' elevation it looked like winter with the trees still bare of leaves.  

A real nice "sweeper" along the Cherohala Skyway.

At higher elevations you get a good look at the ripple effect of the mountains.  Just row after row pushed up like pleats in a piece of material.

Paul remembered a grave along the route of "an unknown man killed by the Kirkland Bushwackers".  It seems that shortly after the Civil War this route was known to have roaming bands of robbers and the Kirklands were some of the worse.





History goes on to tell that the man had a very pretty horse and the Kirklands wanted it.  Thus the man's demise, the loss of his horse, and now a gravestone marks his final resting place.

This lone puffy white cloud was practically standing still as we were riding through the area.  I kept waiting to see if there would be more as that would mean the Cherokee's were on the warpath.

Dead?  No, just still winter here at 4,000' elevation.  Will have about two or three more weeks before they turn green.









Paul, a.k.a., Scooter Trash, Randy and Sweet Thang on the edge of Cherohala Lake.

                   And here's the Money Shot, Sweet Thang by the lake.

Santeetlah Lake from a distance.

After cruising around Santeetlah Lake we came to Fontana Village, NC.  This is a rather large resort area and is on Fontana Lake.  It is also an area where car clubs and bike clubs hold rallies.  The white tents are vendor tents going up for a Mini Cooper rally this weekend.  Lots of cabins can be rented for vacationing.

No, that's not a UFO, it's a power line marker so that if aircraft decide to fly over the lake they won't get tangled up in the electric power transmission wires.  Hopefully they won't be trying to land at night.

After Fontana Village we stopped off at Deal's Gap, NC, the starting point of The Tail of The Dragon on the NC side of the mountains.  This photo was shot shortly after we left Deal's Gap.  Stay tuned to FB for a video of the 11 mile ride consisting of 318 curves.  Not much time to take pictures while riding The Dragon as you need both hands on the handlebars flipping from one curve to the next.

When the major portion of The Dragon ends and the road flattens out you will be riding along the side of Chilhowee Lake which is rather large and long.

We're still on U.S. 129 but heading north to take an exit onto the Foothills Parkway.

You can notice from the pictures that the clouds are moving in.  A nice shot of them, a pine tree and Chilhowee Lake.

Rows of clouds or close flying planes and their contrails.  It's really just the clouds.  Shows how the air currents at high elevations move them around.

Finally we hit the Foothills Parkway.  There are actually two Foothills Parkways in TN.  This one goes between U.S. 129 and U.S. 321.  The other one is northeast of Sevierville and runs between U.S. 321 and I-40 toward Asheville, NC.






We dropped Randy off just north of Maryville as he lives in Knoxville and Paul and I continued on to Seymour, stopping off at a convenience store to gas up and drop in next door at McDonald's for a $1.00 cone of ice cream.  The end of the ride always warrants a treat.  Ending temp was 68.  Have to make sure you dress in layers in the Spring and Fall as the start offs are cool and it warms up during the day.  Peel off a layer or so to keep body cool as the temp rises.

Two great guys to ride with, two great roads to ride on and a heck of a day for a bike ride.  Couldn't have asked for more.  Total mileage door to door, 204 miles.  Total amount of fun, unexpressable.  So until the next Valkyrie Adventure, live life fully but remember, at the end you have to pay your dues.  Love your family, enjoy your country, and love your friends.

Valleys To and From Blackwater, VA

Saturday, 4-12-15, 7:25 a.m., 55 degrees and time to ride.  So I pushed Sweet Thang out of the garage and headed off to meet biker friend Paul at the Exxon Station about 4 miles away.  Topped off the gas tank, grabbed a cup of coffee and was answering some questions about the Valkyrie when Paul rode up.  Here I am again, a half cup coffee left and it's go time.  So I dumped the coffee into the trash can, put on the helmet and gloves and away we went.  Time, 7:50 and fog.  Not bad when I left the house but kept getting heavier as I rode northward.  Paul and I pulled out, destination to me unknown but some place up the road about one and a half hours to eat breakfast.  Going to be some new roads traveled today.

 As you can see the sun was trying very hard to burn its way through the mist but not for a while yet.  Visibility was about a mile or little less.  Not really really bad but just enough to keep you very alert.

Some places it was rather thin and yet just a little way down the road it would get thick again.  Shows the temperature changes along the way.

This was not many miles from our meet-up place.  You can barely see the oncoming car's headlights.  What was really scary was the vehicles that did not have their lights on or people driving with park lights instead of headlights.

I told Paul later that apparently a lot of people had not read the DMV manual on vehicle operation concerning when you're suppose to have your headlights on.  So if you don't know, in most states it is 30 minutes prior to sunset until 30 minutes after sunrise and in inclement weather conditions, i.e., fog, rain, smoke, dust, etc.

That small building in the distance is the Seven Islands School House.  Long no longer a school and very lonely sitting out in this pasture by itself.  Nature is taking its toll on the building.  It resembles a church complete with a bell tower.  I have photographed it at various periods through the last few years, once with snow on the ground.  An era slipping into the past.

Ole Sol was working hard to put some sunshine on us today but struggling to do so.

Finally we start seeing less and less fog.  Of course this is a mile by mile thing as later we would cross a river and you couldn't see it, just the bridge we were on.

Taking the back roads as usual, we pulled into Dandridge, TN, home of the TN Scotch-Irish festivities.  It is a pretty small town which dates back into the late 1700s.

The buildings look very much like those of New England and around Williamsburg, VA.

It is now protected by a very large earthen dam for Douglas Lake, a TVA hydro-generating facility.  I believe Betsy Ross came from this area.

Part of the downtown Dandridge area.

This building is where the annual Scotch-Irish Festival is headquartered.  The streets are blocked off and vendors, parades and songs are performed.

Leaving Dandridge you can still see some fog off in the distance but look how beautiful the shrubbery are.  In our area the White Dogwoods are starting to lose their flowers and leaves are appearing.  The Red and Pink Dogwoods are still well in bloom along with the Flowering Crabapple, Cherry and now comes the Snowball bushes.  Big round white flowers that look like snowballs on dark green leaves for a backdrop.

Back into the fog again.  This is one of my favorite pictures of the day.

Some well recognized shapes and then some rather ghostly loom off in the distance.

What you're seeing is the concrete rail of a bridge crossing a river and somewhere in that fog is water, trust me, for I've seen it where there was no fog.

As the fog lifts the scenes appear much brighter and more recognizable.  The rains and warmer temps have turned most of the dank winter gray to bright spring greens.

Getting to this church reminds me of a saying my father had, I'll get there "if the creek doesn't rise and Devil doesn't care".  There were a lot of houses in the same fix.  And some of those bridges didn't look none to sturdy to drive across.

The grass is so green that you can almost smell the chlorophyll in it.

An old barn still in use.  Those ripples in the right picture are not terraces made by man but trails made by cattle grazing the hillside.

 After the run through the northbound valley we were now back into the mountains and those curvy roads.

You see a lot of natural gray barns, a lot of red and white barns but rarely do you see a blue barn.  The farther north we traveled the prettier the Redbud trees looked.

A section of this pasture had some type of wild yellow grass growing.  Just a weed but in clumps it was pretty.  The house to the right had a bright bronze metal roof.  Odd.

We have stopped by this church before on a ride.  They apparently on nice days have outside sermons held.  The building to the right is another business that over the years failed.

Lots of barn/building quilts, those patterns painted on the sides.  And then there are some that have no paint at all and the sides are leaning or gone.

Nice long sweeping curves running through this area with an occasional set of tight curves to keep your concentration level higher.

Indication of bridge engineering, one a foot bridge and one that is for vehicles.  I would imagine the vehicle crossing goes under water from time to time.

When riding through some of this country it makes me wonder how people found these places to build and raise families.  There's no real close towns and believe me, you won't run down the road in a minute or two to a grocery either.  You had better make a very good list of needs before you leave the house.

This was the Mahala Mullins house, moved from its original location to this spot back in the 1990s.  The house dates back to the 1700s.  The family were known as Mulungeons, or in Portuguese, mixed people.  They were decendants of Portuguese sailors and African-Americans originally from South Carolina.





The house had four rooms, two downstairs and two upstairs.

In the back of the house was some old horse drawn farm equipment, a mower, a hay rake and a disk.

Each lower room of the house.  Notice the stairs in the right picture for getting to the upper rooms.  Better be a small person to walk up those.



The Redbud tree in the back of the shed was a peak bloom.  Soon the buds fall off and leaves take their place.









This Presbyterian Church across the road from the Mullins house was built in 1889 and is still in use.

Miles down the road running in the valley along the Blackwater River, we took a moment to stop, stretch, drink a bottle of water and admire the beauty of nature.  We were now heading back to the house.

Not many sheep in this part of TN but you do occasionally run across a few.  Mountains become the backdrop to this farm along the valley road.


Out of the valley and over the mountains, ride cowboy ride.  Then along comes a pasture filled with horses grazing on the fresh green grasses the land had to offer.


Today we stopped again by my favorite motorcycle shop so that I could order a new rear tire and some other parts.  Time for a Spring Tune-up.  May have to dip into the grocery money this time as I'm nearing 100,000 miles on it and will need a few extra things attended to.  After that brief stop, off to the house and take care of some chores.  Arrived around 3:00, time to get the mower running and mow the lawn before the rain starts.  And I just barely finished as it was already dropping rain as I put up the mower.

The ride today was up and back through two beautiful valleys and lots of farms.  The weather was nice, the sun came out, and we made the run safe and sound.  Total mileage today, door to door, was 198 miles.  And a great time we had.  Sad part was that the little Country Market where we had breakfast is on its last financial leg.  It will soon be going out of business as they are way to small to be competitive with the larger supermarkets.  Great folks and hate to see them shut the doors.

So until the next Valkyrie Adventure, tune up your lives and explore what has been so graciously give to you.  Go see what's around the next bend in the road or over the next hill.  Life can be good so enjoy it.