Miles And Miles Of Roads In The Forest

Tuesday, March 8, 2016.  Morning temps around 45 top out in mid-70s.  Layered up so that you can remove as it warms up.  Pushed the Honda NC700X, aka, Little Hoss, out of the garage at 8:45 to have front tire mounted and then meet up with biker friend, Paul, at the Food City store near Blaine, TN.  He had a doctor's visit.  Well, my tire changer was working overtime so I called him and told him I was leaving the tire by his garage and back on Wed. morning for 9:00 a.m.  Took some easy back roads to kill some time as I would be early for meet up.

Such a beautiful day for a ride.  By now the temps were in the upper 50s and the living was easy.

Got to Food City early so I went in and grabbed a cup of coffee, went back out to the bike and pulled out a snack pack of breakfast cookies and had a picnic right there in the parking lot.  Then Paul rode up about 11:45 and we took off for the Sharp's Chapel area to do some adventure riding.

We have been crossing the old steel structure bridge for years and today we get to cross the new bridge that seemed to take forever to build.  It is nice and high and wide.  Just to the left is a marina as this body of water is a projection of Norris Lake, a TVA project many years ago.  Like in the late 1930s.

There's some really nice old homes in this area which was mostly farmers.  It has some very large rolling hills and with the blue sky and green grass made a lovely picture.

Of course there's a few fixer-uppers as well.  Would make a nice little weekend get away place.

We make our turn off and now we're in the Chuck Swan Forest, a very large area bordering along the Norris Lake.  Mixed hardwood and pines and miles and miles of unpaved roads.  Heaven has approached.

These roads are sometimes crushed rock, sometimes part natural gravel, sometimes clay and sometimes sand with an occasional mudhole or two, lots of "gotcha" rocks and plenty of rain washed ruts along with a smathering of mountain switchbacks.

And these first two pics of the roads are the more nicer stretches.  No real road markings except at intersections and that is a post with a name painted on it.  No guard rails, and it is two way traffic so you have to be alert to on-coming vehicles including log trucks.  A regular Garden Of Eden.

Since this property was taken over by the government to provide electricity to the area, all of the farms and homesteads are no more.  However, there are several churches and a bunch of cemeteries that are in tact and used by those families that once lived here and their descendants.  We're parked here at the Bridges-Miller Cemetery.  Little Hoss on the right.

Friend Paul is taking a picture of a scenic view giving me time to take a picture of him taking a picture.  Did I mention anything about taking a picture?

Sign pointing the way to the Mt. Olive Baptist Church.  Which we visited.

 Decisions, decisions.  To take the high road or the low road.  We took the high road putting us at the church and it wasn't even Sunday.  I did say "at" the church, not in it.

It is a Primitive Baptist Church complete with outdoor plumbing and sheltered eating area.  No instruments used here and songs are from the old shape note hymnals.









After the church we rode on down a ways to view the lake, which is down in water level due to maintenance and to off-set Spring rains forecasted to come.  It is also one of those "Million Dollar" pictures featuring Little Hoss.

We left our bikes at the top of the drive down to the picnic area and later wished we had ridden instead of having to walk up hill to reach them.  The brown area shown here is sandy clay and is normally covered with water.

When the water is down you get to see some places in the lake that you don't want to be with a boat.  Natural water erosion leaves some statues like these that could rip the bottom out of a boat in a heart beat.

You can see areas that were once cultivated and now are planted in grass or corn to feed the wildlife.  We thought that we would see plenty of deer but only saw two in the many miles of roads we traveled in the forest.

Looking far off into the distance you can see one of the forestry roads ambling over the top of the knoll.

There were several areas of controlled burning also.  Helps get rid of insects and makes room for new growth.  It does smart the eyes and makes you hold your breath every once in a while.

As the roads wind around the fingers of the lake you get another view from time to time.  The blue sky was surely reflecting on the lake water today.

Nearer the end of our ride we ran into this area which had recently been logged.  It made a good place to get off the bikes and take a look at the view that was behind us as we were on top of the mountain.

 From our logged out area we could see part of the lake several miles behind us and several hundred feet below us.










The roads kept getting narrower and narrower.  At one point, we came to a dead end.  Sign said "road closed" and they meant it.  They had cut a tree across the road.  So we would just the the fork to the left.  Nope.  Red sign said "No motorcycles/ATVs beyond this point.  So, being good law-abiding citizens, we turned around and back tracked until we could hit the next road.


Then the adventure really started for this road was muddy, narrow, full of mudholes and required several crossing of the same stream.

And cross we did.  Paul kept his right foot down for the brake and got it wet.  Imagine that happening.  And his boots were not waterproof.

We arrived at the next crossing and Paul held up saying maybe it was too deep.  Well, I sure didn't want to back track all the distance we came so I led off and told him I'd meet him on the other side.  He followed.  Didn't want to be down in those woods at night by himself.

After several water hazards, no that's in golf, after several water crossings we climbed up and over and around and between until we finally arrived back at the entrance.  According to Paul's GPS it was suppose to be 32 miles and take 1 1/2 hrs.  Well, it was way more miles, almost 50 I believe and took us over 4 hrs.  And we still had an hour and a half to get back to the house.

Butt tired, lots of hours doing isometrics riding, and now we were just going to burn the road back to the house.  And burn we did.

As our day was waning, the sky was being painted by The Man Himself with dark silhouettes, a blue background and whisps of white clouds reflecting the orange sun.

Getting closer to the house but the sun is getting lower in the sky.  The race is on.

And not far from my subdivision I get a last good look at the end of a beautiful fun filled day.  184 miles of pure punishment that just delighted the soul.  Beautiful sites, historical material, and plenty of natural beauty.  If only all the days could be this peaceful.

Many have voted and many are yet to vote.  My FB friends, take the opportunity of one of your freedoms and make the selection of your choice.

And remember to thank someone for doing something nice for you or just say thanks to a stranger.  It might start up a great conversation.  Whatever you do, make sure you are thankful for what you have as many on this earth have a lot less.  Until the next Adventure, be nice.