Doing The Dragon and The Cherohala Sky With Country Roads Group Riders

Saturday, September 24, 2016.  Alarm was about to go off at 6:00 a.m.  So I shut it off and started my day.  I had to get dressed, feed the dog and take him outside (an every morning thing), get the newspaper and get my riding clothes on.  It was in the mid 60s so my rainliner beneath my summer jacket would go along with my riding overpants.  Would be using heavier gloves this early and switch to summer gloves later in the day.  I had a 7:00 a.m. breakfast meeting at a restaurant about 15 minutes away.  I had already informed the meeting persons that I would be leaving promptly at 8 because I was meeting up with Dangerous Deacon Dan and his group at the Marathon Sta. in Walland, TN for a 9 a.m. departure.  I was a good 40 minutes away and needed time to top off my gas tank before leaving.  Promptly at 8 I departed the meeting, mounted Mr. Red Bug and scorched the highway to Walland, taking the back roads.

Outside of the Restaurant at 8 a.m.  Sun is up, no fog, time to ride.

Scenes along one of the back roads to the Walland meeting place.  Nothing like an early morning sun shining on a farm setting.

Remnants of yesteryear, an old farm house of times gone past.

Riding through the tunnel of trees.

Aha, the meeting place.  Filled up and sipping a cup of coffee before the ride starts.  Dangerous Deacon Dan getting off his shiny new 2017 HD.

Some of the other riders.  I knew some and had the chance to meet several that I did not know.  Just a bunch that likes to ride.

At 9:05 we headed out on US 321 to catch the Foothills Parkway over to US 129.

Zipping along the Foothills Parkway.

A view behind me at those following along.

As you round one of the turns this is the awesome terrible picture you have to look at if you make yourself glance over to the left.

At this point we are running along US129 heading for the Tail of The Dragon.

No pics on the Dragon, need both hands on the bars to keep it steady in the switchbacks.  Later, after a short stop at Deals Gap we headed out for our lunch stop at Lynn's Restaurant in Robbinsville, NC. 

Sunshine flickering through the trees, shadows cast upon the pavement, whining sounds of the tires on the road surface, wind whistling past my helmet, all the sounds heard when riding motorized two wheels.

One of our little short breaks along the way.

Back on the road and away we go.

 I believe this was at the end of the Brookside Dam.  The lake feeds a hydro plant.

We took a turn off the main road to go down to the picnic and camping area along the lake.

Looking out over the small lake surrounded by mountains and veiled in quietness, except for the MC noise.  A great place for a quiet few days or weekend.  Bring all you need for the closest grocery is miles away.

Due to the lack of rain most of the streams have been reduced to a few pools of water and a trickle or two.  Lots of rocky bottoms.

Back on the highway again cruising those nice elongated curves.  We did most of our traveling in or around 45 mph.

Dan Harvey, aka, Dangerous Deacon Dan, is the old wagon master of the group.  There was a mixture of bikes; HDs, Honda, Suzuki, Triumph, Indian etc., and a mixture of ages to go along with the bikes.  We stopped for a short time as we were running ahead of schedule for our alloted eating reservations.

Beauty is said to be in the eye of the beholder.  This beauty will be reflected in the eye of anyone looking at it.

A little closer look at the mountains without the frontal brush.

Then later we crossed the end of the lake.  The water was green, not dark emerald and not blue but somewhere in between.

A few homes along the lake's shore.

And on we rode, 9 bikes with 9 riders all headed in the same direction.  Imagine that.

Coming into the town of Robbinsville, NC.  Small little mountain town trying to hang on like a lot of other places.

Parked in front of Lynn's for our lunch break.  And she was smart, she put us in the far left of the dining area.

After lunch we were off and running again headed for the Cherohala Skyway.

It's that time of year when you see a lot of Fall produce stands along the roads.

On the Cherohala, a nice scenic drive that takes you up to approx. 5500 ft. elevation.

Looking across a few high hills at the mountains, cloud covering or could be smoke signals from some of the locals.

I wish I would have had time to stop and take a close-up of the trike you see parked in this turn-out.  It was something resembling the Beverly Hillbillies.  Whatever it was, its riders were having a nice day to show it off.

You can see some leaf color as we climb to the top of the Cherohala.  Fall is in the air.

With the clouds that patch of blue was the brightest of the day.  I guess because of all the white around it.  And some more coloring of leaves.

That sign that you can almost not see indicates that we are at the 4,000 ft. elevation level.

Although the clouds look like there may be rain, there was no rain forecast for today.  Looks like the weatherman may have missed his mark.

Steadily climb to the top and then steadily drop to the bottom and in between some nice curves and a couple of sleepers.  The first part of the Cherohala was freshly paved so it was a really smooth ride.

Whatever this weed is it is in abundance along this route.  Some type of wildflower/brush/week/growth.

If you look right at the lower center you will see a tall pole sticking up with a brace pointing to the left.  Across the highway there is another one just like it with the brace pointing toward the other one.  The story goes that these were put up in several places so that the flying squirrels could cross the road.  Apparently when they built the highway years ago the flying squirrels would not cross it.

A little dark but some more trees starting to change into their Fall dress.

Looking across the valley at the mountains on the other side.

Finally we start dropping lower and lower with the curves longer and flatter.

You can see the rough rock the road was carved away from and from this angle it looks like you will ride into the mouth of a tunnel, but no tunnels on this highway.

A slow easy flowing stream as we leave Tellico Plains, the end of the Cherohala Skyway.  Now we're taking TN 360 around to Vonore to catch US411 to Maryville and on to Seymour.

Lots of Kudzu.  This looked so smooth that it appears to have been groomed.

Another old relic of times gone by.  Age and weeds have almost taken its toll on the structure.

We have a few hills but this area is much flatter as it heads to a large lake, a state park and the small town of Vonore, TN.

In just a mile or two the group will disband in different directions.  Dan heads to Smoky Mountain HD so they can use his new bike for a showing, some head South, some West and I head North to Seymour.  It was a very good day to ride with excellent weather and a great bunch of guys to ride with.  Door to door for me was 194 miles.  Time to get off the riding clothes and do some relaxing.  Maybe even read the paper from this morning.  So until the next Adventure Story, behave yourself but have fun.