Blythe Ferry and Sequatchie Valley

Thursday, June 11, 2015, a summer day with a chance of spotty showers and high temperatures but also a great day to ride.  Early start this morning while it was still reasonably cool, upper 60s at 7:00 a.m.  Donned my riding gear, backed the Shadow out of the garage and rode up to Wiegle's for the meet-up point.  Departure at 7:30 with Paul and Jim, same guys I rode with earlier in the week.

Today's ride would be a rather long one and the Shadow, although a heart little steed, is not as powerful nor as heavy as Sweet Thang which is back in the shop for an alternator replacement.  But, the Shadow does get great miles per gallon.  The trip today would be southeast from Seymour to the Hiawassee River area to a place called Blythe Ferry.  The map below does not show all of the wriggle lines we actually took as it would take a little more time to do than I'm patient for.

The return route would be through Dayton, TN northeastward and then Eastward back to Seymour, taking us through Sequatchie Valley, one of the most beautiful valleys in East Tennessee.  And it would let us stop by for a short visit with fellow biker friend, Mark in Dayton.

It was a "just right" kind of morning to take a ride.  Sky was clear, sun was bright and traffic was light as we headed down U.S. 411 towards Maryville, TN.










On the way down you pass this conglomeration of farm machinery, mostly faded paint and lots of rust.  If you're in the market for an antique tractor project or need a part for an older model tractor this fellow has it.  However, I've been told he thinks he's sitting on a pile of gold rather than a pile of rust.

Coming into Maryville you pass by some nice old homes, a few Victorian style and some rather brightly painted.  I just happen to like this house and couldn't resist taking a picture of it.

We did a ride around Maryville, meaning shortly after we hit town we took back streets through the country side to miss the downtown traffic of everyone going to work.  Work, that word hurts my mouth just to say it.  Meanwhile, this back road area had some 1%ers living there.  And mixed were a few 2%ers and several closer to 0 %.  This is in relation to the value of their property, 1% being richy rich, etc.

Several large dairy farms along this route.  This is a pasture of young Holstein cows quietly grazing their morning meal.

Just one of the older farm houses in the area.  Some of these farms are quite large considering the area.  Nothing like the Delta of MS, LA, AR and West TN.

 Looking back West from a rather high vantage point.  Way over there is I-40 near Knoxville.

After Maryville we continued on our southerly route to Madisonville, crossing the Tennessee River.  At Madisonville, a McDonald's pulled us into it's parking lot for a cup of coffee and a sausage burrito.  Sort of happens that way every once in a while.

After MickyD's we headed toward some ferry Paul wanted to visit and visit we did.  A twenty mile round trip to the end of the road, campground there, but no ferry.  And believe me, nothing to do but sleep and fish.  Boring place.  We did our about face and headed to the next destination on the list of today, Blythe Ferry.

Waving fields of winter wheat, resembling a tan ocean.  Feed and food for the trough or table.  Or it could even be exported.  Either way, some farmer is going to spend a few hours in the cab of a combine harvesting it.

The bigger the farm, the more silos needed.  They resemble large missiles standing ready for launching.  These are in very good condition.  Unfortunately some we see along our routes are in very poor condition as the farm dwindles so goes the facilities. 

This large red barn could be seen from some distance with its two large silos standing tall like sentinels on duty.

And next to it was a matching house hidden somewhere behind all of the bushes and shrubs.  You could barely see it from the road.  Well manicured, just a lot of growth.  Maybe to help keep people from seeing what's going on or just to help cut the road noise.

We did quite a bit of main road riding today, like this one.  Nice long curves, rolling hills and mountains in the far distance ahead of you.  Hammer Hammer, eating up those miles.

But alas, Paul never seems to go very far before he exits onto a more rural sedate road for part of the journey.  This is a 1 1/2 laner.  Makes you tighten up when you meet another vehicle.

And some of them turn into gravel.  Dusty, rough and noisy.  And my bike nor the trike in front of me nor the Ninja Paul rides are really built for this type riding.  So we proceed very slowly to keep from wrecking, beating up the bikes and to keep the dust down.

This road traveled is similar to riding in a large long tunnel with a skylight.

We came to the first Ferry Landing which was situated on the Hiawassee River.  Really calm today with a few fishermen out in their nice boats trying to lure a bite from below the water.

After getting off, stretching our legs, sipping a bottle of water we decided this was an adventure but one we wouldn't make again.  Rather dull as no ferry running any more and nothing to do but camp out and fish.  So on the bikes and back to traveling.

Some more farms, long rolling hills and beautiful scenery.  Sites along the way, some to remember and some to slip away.

We came to the Tennessee River again and to our southern most destination, Blythe Ferry.  The Tenn. River is rather scenic and would make a nice boating trip, if I had a boat.

We arrived at Blythe Ferry.  A very interesting place and one that I had read about but never visited until today.  For those that may have not known or read of, Blythe Ferry was a ferry crossing used when the Union Army rounded up all of the Cherokee Indians of GA, AL and TN, placed them in a stockade (started in Jan. and was completed in June) where they were held prior to the long march to Oklahoma Territory.  Referred to as "The Trail of Tears".

 A mock-up of a cabin is at the location and the next few pictures show the inside and some of the furnishings of the time.  It was a one room building made of square cut logs.

A typical dress worn by Cherokee women of the time.  Cherokees were primarily farmers and owned most of the land from the Florida Panhandle up to Virginia.  Some were very prosperous.

This is a photo of the Syllabary used by the Cherokee for writing.  They were the only Indian tribe to establish reading and writing.  

On the grounds is a map of stone signifying the Cherokee and the Trail of Tears route they took.

These stone tablets list the names of the Cherokee Indians that were amassed.  The stones list names from Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee.  Over 15,000 Cherokee were brought to Blythe Ferry.  Many died before they started the march from lack of food and water and many died along the route to Oklahoma.

The exterior of the museum building.

I just happened to turn from reading some of the information on the stones and saw this beautiful butterfly gathering nectar from a flowering plant nearby.

 The history of the Cherokee plight is listed here on stone tablets.  A lot of granite slabs were used to place the information making it a very pretty historical documentation of the events.

Near the entrance to the monument area was this old split rail fence along with a tripod holding a cooking pot.

About a quarter of a mile walk or ride, although it was mostly gravel, is an overlook of the ferry crossing.  About an inch from the left top corner is the road that lead to the crossing point on the north side of the river.  This pic was standing on a high bluff above the river.

I had to chuckle when I read the shirt Jim was wearing.  He and his wife are snowbirds.  They travel from near Greenbay, WI in the Fall to southern Florida to spend the winter.  Then they travel back to WI after staying a week or two in our area.  The Dragon's Tale is a highway going from TN to NC and has 318 curves in 11 miles.  Jim thought it would be good for his riding group in FL to have a shirt also but his indicates 11 curves in 318 miles. 

Those large white things seen along the way and to the left in this picture or not large grub worms but rather rolls of hay wrapped in white plastic to keep them dry.  Could possibly make a good science fiction movie, "The Grubs" or something like that.

We left Blythe Ferry and headed to Dayton where we met Mark for a short chat, gassed up and took off for Sequatchie Valley.  I have no pics of that leg of the journey as it started raining about 5 miles out of Dayton.  But one of the main roads later was taking us Northward to Crossville, TN.

We pulled over next to a very clear running stream for a stretch, water, BS break.  Paul, a.k.a., Scooter Trash, and Big Jim, a smooth slow talking Cheese Head.  Don't want to even get into what they were talking about.  Something about stopping for ice cream at Crab Orchard.

 Gathering hay.  Sun is shining and grass is on the ground.  Make hay as the sun shines.  Soon weather would bring rain and then the grass can't be rolled or bales until it dries again.  Lot of this going on at this time of the year.

Another stretch on a back road which was cooler due to the trees that shaded most of the road.

Then we get back to one of the main roads and just South of Crossville, TN, we come upon this.  No fatalities, but both vehicles were trashed.  Appears someone pulled out in front of someone and now you see the rest of the story.

I pondered for about a millisecond if these were smoke signals but quickly determined the Indians were not on the warpath so it must be caused from air currents.

From Crossville we took highway 70 and later arrived in Crab Orchard at the Market for a large dip of ice cream, Blueberry Pie.  Not bad, not bad.  And as hot as it was, a very good move for cooling down.

After a run on I-40 for a short distance, then off on a main road for a few miles, then back onto I-140 we came down to the home stretch of back roads to arrive at Seymour again.  Jim cut out for his motorcoach which was about 15 miles further North, Paul pulled into Wiegle's to gas up his bike and I pulled in also to thank him for the ride today.  Then I pulled back out and returned to the house.



Got a bit damp at one point in the ride, but nothing to worry about.  Had some great history lessons, chatted with friends along the way and spent a lot of seat time on the Shadow riding with my buddies.  Not a bad day if I do say so.  Total mileage today door to door was 272.  And my seat was feeling all of them by now.

So until the next Valkyrie Adventure, I hope you'll take time to enjoy the family, smell the roses and experience something new.  God Bless you all.