Ride to Meadow Creek Fire Tower

Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017.  Biker friend Paul and I decided to take a ride up to Meadow Creek Fire Tower.  There is no tower there now, just a viewing platform.  However, the ride there was very interesting.  Some new roads and some old faithful roads.  What you will be seeing are pictures taken along the route with some side remarks.  Hope you enjoy.

Cows grazing around my old favorite school house.











Nice early morning start.  Rather chilly but dressed warm.

 Running along side one of the fingers of Douglas Lake.  Water level is still way down.









And there is still a bit of color hanging on come of the trees.

Douglas Lake territory toward Dandridge, TN.

The land you see across the highway railing should have water over it.

Sun is up.  It's going to be a very nice day to ride.

Looking a bit ahead from the cockpit of the Red Bug machine.

Headed toward Newport, TN.

 Running alongside the French Broad River.

According to the sun and my stomach, it's getting near time for a breakfast stop.

Early start, now time for some food.  We ate breakfast at the Slab Cafe.  This is the second time we have stopped here.  Good food at a fair price.

After breakfast we head out again for the Fire Tower.

We took a little short cut on some gravel.

Now we're back on the road leading to our destination.

Paul checking his GPS to make sure which road we needed to take.  He uses his GPS so much that Google or Garmin should use him as a master tester.  He really uses it for rides.

Nice scenic highways, straight so not much to have to think about.

Some farm acreage his its winter crop planted and it really shows green next to the dead winter scrub left behind.

Some neat small houses up this way.

Weird shapes abound.

Our mountains in the distance.

Just another old barn.  Hard to not take a picture of them.

An old farm house showing its age.

Yet another road to travel.

This road has a small stream running alongside it with lots of leaves on the grown a bare limb trees.

Climbing up the mountainside.

The road tightens up a bit here.

Looks as if we're coming to visit them but we really aren't.

Turn off to the tower is a narrow gravel road.

It winds its way up to the top on a wintry forested road.

Last of the Fall colors show up well against the winter tree trunks of the trees.

Pretty colors

Paul stopped at a junction to double check his GPS.  Roads up in the mountains are not well marked.

Red Bug taking a rest while Paul does his checking.

We finally reach the parking area for the climb to the fire tower.

The following are views from atop the viewing platform where the original Meadow Creek Fire Tower once stood.

A smoky looking day.

Two ladies road the trail up from a resort down at the bottom of the mountain.  Nice looking Pintos.

After the fire tower we headed back toward the house on a different route.  Seems we rarely go anywhere in a straight direct route and can basically count on a loop ride.  Keeps from having to see the same thing twice.

Apparently this mobile home has seen its best days.

A coffee break at the Creekside Market.

 Along with a corned beef sandwich.

Then off we go again, heading back to the Seymour area.

We had a great ride today, met some interesting people, and enjoyed some very pretty scenery.  Today's ride netted 178 miles door to door.  Not a bad day at all.

I hope you enjoyed the pics as I enjoyed being at a location to take them.  So until the next Valkyrie Adventure, reach out and touch someone.  Even a stranger can be interesting.  Ride/drive safe.