Exploring Some North Carolina Backroads

It was 6:40 a.m., Tuesday, August 30, 2016 when I pushed Mr. Red Bug out of the garage, me all donned in my riding clothing ready for a day of exploring some of the North Carolina back roads.  Temp, 70; high around 90.  A tad bit of fog but mostly over earthen area and not the roadways.  Meet-up point, Exxon on Boyds Creek Hwy.  All gassed up so I will have time for a cup of coffee before biker friend, Paul, arrives.  KSU (for you non-bikers this means "kick stands up"), ride starts at 7:15 a.m.

Boyds Creek Hwy. right outside of my subdivision, heading Northeast.

After the meet-up we head out and of course going in the direction choses for the day we passed one of my favorite scenes, Seven Islands School bathed in the morning sunrise.

It didn't take very long before Ole Sol made its way above the tree tops and put out its brilliance and of course, the heat that would come later in the day.

Morning mist is hanging in the air over the farmlands  Those humps in the background must be a river levee.  Nawh, that's down in LA where my friends and family members are drying out from the recent floods.

At Chestnut Hill, an unincorporated area and the home of Bush's Beans, have their irrigation system working this morning.

North of Chestnut Hill we continue heading for Newport, TN where we will jump on I-40 to speed up the ride to the trekking place.

I-40 was exceptionally nice this morning.  Very few trucks and not a lot of traffic.  Love this stretch of highway when you get near the TN/NC states lines as it becomes long sweepers and twists around the mountains.

As seen in the background, there was a smattering of fog, mostly hanging high above the roadway.

We turned off I-40 at the Fines Creek exit in NC continuing to head to those unknown roads that needed to be explored.










Most people around here can't tell you a highway number or a county road number but they can tell you the name of the road.  We, on this trip, rode on roads such as I-40, 411, Crabtree Mtn. Rd., Beaver Dam Rd., Willow Creek Rd., US 25, 208, 25W, Paint Creek Corridor, 107, Lonesome Mtn. Rd., etc.  And one was Cherokee National Forest Rd. 31.

Morning mist hanging in the air and below it a field that once had stalks of corn.  Now the stalks have been reaped, probably for silage, and nothing remains except corn stubbles.

In this valley a lot of corn and tomatoes are grown.  In fact, in one field of tomatoes, pickers were out in the field wit their baskets slung over their shoulders all the while their hands were plucking those ripe tomatoes off the bushes.

No, that's not a fire.  It's the morning mist or fog hanging over the ground.  Makes for a hazy looking picture.

We were heading toward a road that would bring us up the mountain near Canton, NC.

Rows and rows and rows of corn.  This field is till a long way from being ready to harvest.

The route chosen this morning runs us along and sometimes in a very pretty valley filled with lush farms.

Mountains to the left and mountains to the right and here we are traversing the only continuous road through the valley.

A stone fence of days of yore and a derelict building, all that is left of this old homestead.

It was actually cool at these higher elevations this morning such that I slipped on my rain liner of my jacket.  And it felt rather nice, especially while riding in the shade.

We crowned the mountain on this narrow winding road and now I peer down into the valley below which was very hazy today.  Added to the haze was the steam from the papermill at Canton, NC.  Of course you could smell it before you could see it.

We had stopped earlier in the morning and dined on jalepeno hot dogs at a Pilot truck stop.  Paul had free coupons.  That and a cup of coffee and we were off again.  However, at Canton we had to pass by an Ingle's Food Store which has a deli, a bakery, etc., and the lure of the apple fritters was just too much to handle so we stopped.  And ate.  Again.  Friend Paul trying to get back into his riding gear after a late breakfast.

At Canton we started another climb up another mountain still heading for those unknown roads.

This was a beautiful view of the valley below from atop one of the mountains.

Down on the other side I happened to notice something running when Paul went by.  I thought it was goats but it turned out to be a small herd of calves.  Maybe they were glad to see someone or maybe they were just coming down to inspect the rolls of hay that were nearby.

The valley had numerous corn and tomato fields.  And the corn was still a long way from being ready to harvest.  However, the tomatoes were turning red and in some fields we saw workers picking them.  In the town of Newport, TN ConAgra has a large processing plant and several of the items they make involve tomatoes, like catsup, coctail sauce, tomato paste, etc.

Not every neighborhood is picture perfect.  Some resemble a gathering of things in close proximity resembling a pile of junk.  To each his own.

Several old farm houses in the area and some look as if they are in their final stages of being useful.  I really hate to see them crumble but I sure can't afford to fix all of them up and maintain them.

One of the last good roads before we hit the gravel mountain road.  Shady and cool not to mention the nice twisty curves.

We make a turn onto this Cherokee National Forest gravel road.  Not too bad as they apparently had some rain not too long ago.  Still enough loose gravel to make you twitch every once in a while.  Real shady in spots.

And in some spots not so shady.  Going up isn't to bad, it's the coming down you have to watch for.  Keep repeating to yourself, back brake, back brake.  You just learn to slight feather your front brake for if you hit it to hard you will be going in a downward direction or off the mountain.

Slightly blurred but this was one of the wildflowers on the mountain.

This is NOT a wildflower, but more closely resembling a "wild child".  Paul decided it was time to take a break.

A nice uphill stretch.  Some places the ground was softer and more rutted and in others it was clear sailing.  Average speed here was 15 to 20 mph.










These roads had no barriers to keep you from running off he edge, no signs to let you know of cross roads or curves and if you made a grave mistake it could be the final act of your life for it is a long way to the bottom and a lot of trees to bounce off on the way down.





We wrapped up our exploring for the day and hit the road for the house stopping in Newport to gas up.  By now we were down in the valley and it was getting hot and time to get back to the house.

Door to door for me was 245 miles today filled with lots of scenery, smells and fun.  Looking forward to Thursday to do it all over again on different roads.  So until the next Adventure, be thankful for what you have as there are some that do not even enjoy that much.  Ride/drive safe.

Ride to Marshall, NC and Taking the Turnpike

Tuesday morning, August 16, 2016.  Temps in the low 70s.  Light to heavy fog depending on where you were.  High to be in lower 90s.  A good day for a ride.  So at 6:30 a.m. I pushed Red Bug out of the garage and fired him off, the beginning of a good day's ride.  Headed North to meet up with Biker Fried Paul a the Exxon on Boyds Creek.  Destination, over in NC to ride a couple of new roads, and a stretch called Turnpike which is in name only for it crosses a mountain and the surface for most of it is crushed rock.

This what it looked like shortly after leaving the Exxon Sta. meet-up.  Light fog over the highway but heavier over the land.

This blurred foggy scene is the Seven Islands School that I have taken so many pictures of.  Due to the fog I waited a bit too long to take the pic while riding by.

As he sun tries to burn its way through it makes a colorful picture in doing so.

Here's what riding directly into the sun looks like through a fog and a fog coated visor and lens.  A natural Star Burst.

As we ride toward Sevierville the fog lifts a bit here and yon and still gives some eerie but effective pictures.

Once we hit Interstate 40 the fog is all gone.  However, this doesn't last for very long as soon after we hit the fog again even thicker.

Coming back into the fog area and now we're starting to ride through the gaps in the mountain which start on the TN side just before you get to the NC state line.

Once again the air cleared and was so for the rest of the day.  Heading into the mountains.

After about 30 miles or so on the interstate we took a turn off to head to Canton, NC and our ride destination.  Roads with names like Stinky Creek, Skunk Hollow, Piney Ridge, etc.

One of the stretches of crushed rock roads that we would travel today.

A beautiful valley below, great farming land.  Lots of tomatoes and corn grown along with horses and cattle.

Paul stopped to take a picture of the valley below and the city of Canton, NC.  That smoke in the far distance is steam rising from a pulp mill.  The smell goes along with it.

Canton and prosperity as long as the mill operates.  It is the backbone of the economic pattern of this area.

After the gravel run we're back to hard pavement, riding along the edge of the mountains.

These two calves had gotten out of their pasture and was grazing along the side of the road.  I stopped to take their picture as they were looking straight at me.  Just before I snapped the pic they both turned away from me.  I guess they didn't want their picture displaced about the country.

Blue sky, green corn.  Makes for a nice picture.

Shady country lanes always looks so peaceful and today they really were for we saw very few cars on this part of our run.











Ah, at last we have arrived at Canton, NC and a good stopping place for breakfast.  Part of our breakfast came from next door at the Taco Bell and the rest came from Ingles which consisted of hot coffee and an apple fritter.

Right after eating breakfast we headed out for one of our main riding roads of the day.

It twisted and tuned up and down a mountain and along the way was tis small but pretty little waterfall.

A closer look at the waterfall.

Coming down off the mountain was very scenic with the forth coming of farms and settlements.

This turned out to be a great bike road with it twists and turns.  And every once in a while the twist turned into a corkscrew so you had to stay alert.

Corn, hay and tomatoes.  How green is green.  How picturesque can it get with the mountains on either side and at the end of the valley.

This old house was next door to an old store.  Paul took the picture of the store while I settled for the house.  It appears to be sinking into the ground but that's just an appearance.  The roadway is higher and the house site has been cut down making it appear the first floor is several feet below the top of the ground.

Cemeteries and churches dot the countryside.  Some church structures are unique.

Tomatoes.  Future canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato catsup, tomato soup just to name a few.  And most of all, tomato sandwiches.

Hillside cemetery.

To me this was a beautiful old house far out of town and very peaceful.

Here's Paul getting ready to enter this store.  He said that he'd passed it many times but never stopped.  Today we stopped.  It was built by two brothers 52 years ago.  One of them still runs the store, more for a hobby than a business.  Paul asked if they had coffee and how much.  He actually paid for my coffee.  It was 25 cents but Paul is a big spender so he gave the gentleman a dollar, half of it was for my cup.  Next time we buy coffee it will be my turn to pay and will cost $2 a cup.

A well use barn and well weathered too.

Kudsu, in the process of taking ove an old church.  I have kept smelling a faint sweet smell when riding where there was a lot of Kudsu along the roadway.  I found out on this ride that it actually blooms with a pale lavender flower.  It has a faint sweet but enjoyable aroma to it.

A view from one of the hilltops we crested.

Crossing the Holston River near Hot Springs, NC.  Very serene.  Like a good float trip to take your cares away.

Leaving Hot Springs we now head back in the direction of the house.  We will just burn and turn until Sevierville where we will stop and gas up.

It has looked several times as if we would be getting soaked by rain but the clouds move off or we out ran them but no raindrops on this trip.

It has been and enjoyable day to ride.  Even the rock roads which had the tendency to make you tighten up a bit were fun.  Now as the trip winds down, you can relax and just let it all go.

Door to door for me today was 206 miles averaging 79.1mpg.  I'm riding a refinery.

So until the next Valkyrie Adventure I wish you all peace and prosperity, truth and wisdom and most of all health and safety.  We live in a beautiful country so take the time to look around and enjoy it.  Ride/drive safe my friends.