Roan Mountain Ride

Saturday, Nov. 11, 2017, Veterans Day.  Cool Start, nice during the day and a good day to ride.  While others were standing for Veterans Day Parades or doing something patriotic this day I decided to take a ride up to Roan Mountain, TN.  I have not been there in some years and wanted to see the red colors of the Fall tree foliage.  It's not that I had any objections to going to Veterans Day events as I am also a veteran, but I needed to get away for a bit.  What better way than on two wheels.

Sun was already up when I pulled away from the house.  I decided to ride Red Bug today and take advantage of the great fuel mileage this little bike gets.

Going to be a great day, blue sky, no rain forecast and Fall weather.  You can smell it in the air.

And just a few miles up the road, fog.

Not too bad but bad enough for you to be very cautious.

And before I got to TN 66, back to the bright sunshine and blue skies.

At Kodak, TN I hit I-40 East and then will take I-81 North to Johnson City turn-off for Elizabethton, TN.











Interstate was a nice ride, mostly rolling hills and mountains far off in the distance.  Traffic was rather mild for a Saturday.  I guess a lot of people were busy doing other things than driving today.  And that's okay with me.

Picking up some tree color down in the lower valley.

It doesn't take long riding I-40 before you take the I-81 split heading North toward VA.

When I turned off I-81 I decided to grab a bite of breakfast as I couldn't remember too many places after Elizabethton that had food.  And I do like food.









After breakfast I mounted my trusty steed and rode on to Elizabethton, taking the old downtown route.










Back onto two lane roads heading for Roan Mountain.

A sliver of a waterfall barely peeks out from between the mountains and it is off in the distance.

Nice cut back of stone to make this highway and just enough dirt for a few trees to grow.  And the red color starts to show up.

And there it is, that big hunk of stone ahead, the beginning of Roan Mountain.

It's the getting there that makes you a little impatient but the roads are great.

And the scenery is pleasant to the eye also.

And finally we start getting to what we wanted to see from the beginning, Fall leaf color.

A single red tree among all of the others.  Timing in the Fall is everything and Mother Nature has total control of it.

Things are picking up as for color of leaves.

Then the climb starts, gently at first and slowly progressing toward the top of the mountain.

Homesteads, farmsteads and just plain living steads all along the way.  Also a stream adding to the picturesque scenery.

Nice sweeping curves of the highway that parallels the stream.

Roan Mountain State Park is a rather large place and is ever so clean and well taken care of.

The blue sky just adds to the color of the trees.  In a few weeks there will be blue sky but most everything else will have a shade of gray as the leaves fall and the colors go with them.

Shadows and colors.

And as the sun rises so does the elevation, slowly going to those mounds in the distance.

Leaf colors are just beginning in this stretch.

Almost like riding in an open air tunnel with the top being constructed by nature with limbs and leaves.

And as I get near the top, in the coolness of the shady side of the mountain, there still remains a few places that the snow had not melted.

And on the sunny side, no snow, it's all gone, melting and running off the side of the mountain to the nearest stream to join other droplets of its kind.

Round a curve, change the scenery.

Round it again and there's some more snow still holding on to the ground it fell on.

To my south LA and southeast TX friends, snow is that stuff you eat with flavored mixtures poured over the top.  You call them snowballs or snowcones.  Not quite the same but close.

Peaceful.

But peacefulness comes only to those that stand still for it.  The need to know what's over the hill and around the bend of the road brings real peace to those people known as "The Red People".

A little more snow

and then some icicles.

Tranquility.

Near the top of the mountain you cross over into NC.

I bet this was beautiful when in bloom.  Those bushes in light green are Rhododendron and are beautiful in bloom.

Old split rail fence almost unseen.

The light gray look of the highway is from salt brine put on it to help prevent the road surface from freezing.

Another picture of nature.

Highway scenery in NC.

The remnants of an old brick silo.

Another country church.

Pretty to look at

in view after view.

Once a dwelling, now a shamble of wood and nails.

A stone wall not to be careless of.  To hit it is to hurt.












Entering Bakersville, one of the many small towns in the area.

From this point on I headed back to Seymour by a different route.  The following pictures are some of the things along the way, buildings, vistas, mountains, farms, etc.  Just a sampling of what can be seen.

This was the route for the day's ride.  From the house to almost to VA over into NC via a beautiful park and back across the mountains to Seymour again.  Total miles today, 302.  Total scenery, uncountable.  And totally enjoyable.  Including the patches of snow.

So until the next Valkyrie Adventure I hope you dust off some of those old maps and enjoy the country we live in.