Riding the Tennessee Plateau

Between Nashville and Knoxville, TN a plateau runs in a northeasterly direction.  Out west they would call it a mesa but it would not have as many trees as there are in East TN.  This plateau keeps the area between Knoxville and the Smoky Mountains shielded from a lot of the really bad weather.  The weather, coming out of the southwest, hits the plateau and goes up along the plateau towards the Bristol, TN/VA area.  Knoxville eastward to the mountains is more like a valley with a few high bumps in it.  The plateau is a very pretty area and it does have some mountainous portions.

Our Valkyrie Adventure of Saturday, April 5, 2015 started out early.  I pulled out of the drive at 7:00 a.m. to grab a quick breakfast at one of the two meet-up places on this journey.  White Star Market is a convenience store about 2 miles from the house and has a large drive area which lets you see up and down Boyds Creek Highway very easy.  It also has a pretty good breakfast and good coffee, so I partook of these this crisp morning.  Temp was 45 warming up to high 60s by afternoon.  Now that was the temp story for my area.  However, I forgot that we were going to ride south, then west, then northwest and climb in elevation which will make it "cooler".  Duh!!!  I was dressed rather lightly for this excursion as I later found out.

Biker buddy Paul met biker Henry a few miles north of my house at 8 and then they met up with me shortly afterward.  I just fell in behind them so they didn't have to stop.  The first leg of the trip would take us down US 411 from Seymour to Maryville, TN.  A nice two lane highway through farming country and rolling hills with one three mile section that had 11 curves.  Paul had met Henry over the internet and invited him along for the ride.  Henry is in the same age group as Paul and I along with the next rider we were to pick up near Lenoir City.

This is one of the older homes as you enter Maryville.  It is a decent size college town which is the home of Maryville College, a Presbyterian related learning establishment.  There are some very fine old homes in this town and the downtown area has been re-vitalized making it quaint.

As you can see on the right of the highway, the Redbuds are in full bloom and seem heavier in bloom this year than any time in the past.  Maybe it was because of all the very cold weather we experienced this year.  That little box thing sticking out ahead of the mirror is a GoPro Camera and if you go onto YouTube you can find some of the same rides posted there.  If you do you can feel like you're swinging the curves along with me.

 Paul, Henry and I met up with TerrE just out of Lenoir City for a meet and greet occasion and then took off heading west on US 321.  Many of the roads on today's ride were bigger highways with long sweeping curves and rolling hills.  Here we're crossing the end waters of Fort Loudon Lake.




This is the route of today's ride.  Sort of an elongated figure 8 as we did ride a piece of the same highway up and back.  After Lenoir City we turned off US 321 and ran back roads around until we caught TN 27.  This started us in a northwesterly direction toward our highpoint of the trip, Jamestown, TN.


 

Along our route the trees and shrubs were blooming at max rate.  Big high puffy clouds are leftovers from Friday night/early Saturday morning rain.  Roads were pretty much dry in most places.

The rains sure muddied up the rivers and streams along the way.  That old red clay taints the water a rusty brown or reddish brown depending on how much rain and how much red dirt is in the area.

As I said earlier, the roads for today are wider and smoother than most of our rides.  Nice long sweeping curves, a.k.a., sweepers, let you run at normal highway speeds without having to slow down for sharp curves.

Now you can't ask for much more of a scenic picture than this.  And scientist want you to believe a big bang cause sites such as this.  Phooey.  It was a big bang but molded by the hand of the Almighty.

If someone was handing out Bradford Pear trees, somebody from East TN was in line and bought a whole train load of them.  They're everywhere, they're everywhere.

One of our first points of the trip was to get to Clarkrange, TN.  We would be riding TN 62 into it and just outside of Clarksange we would turn onto TN 85.  Now it doesn't look like much when you first get on it but later you would be kissing your rear end on the switchback curves coming down the mountain.

It appears the ground is kissing the sky but it really isn't.  Just imagine this view when all the trees have leaves.  A forest of green against a bright blue sky.

As the sign indicates, the long sweeping curves have shortened up a bit to some sweepers and some kinks in the highway.  Your safety guard from running off the highway is a sturdy hardwood tree of some species. Nontheless, you will come to a very traumatic stop or at least your bike will.  Just love those squiggly yellow and black signs.

As mentioned earlier, this smooth nice wide pleasant highway will later become a bear out to get you.  Looks like a highway to the sky from this angle.

There are some very large farms on the plateau mainly because the land is more level, somewhat different in other areas east of here.

I'm always amazed at what you can see while riding along a highway.  Since you're out in the open you get a much better view of everything than you would riding in an automobile or a vehicle with a cab.  This scenic view is a "lawn mower graveyard".  What you're seeing is only part of what was parked around that house.

The ride has now turned into the mountains known as Clarkrange.  The senses have spooled up a couple of notches as you prepare for handling the curves, watching for loose material on the road surface and changing gears whenever necessary.  Aah, the thrill of the ride.

Paul, the old man of the group, is in front on the White Rat scooter, Henry on a 650cc BMW that he bought from a friend in CA and rode it back to East TN, then TerrE on his Indian Chieftan.  I'm pulling drag on Sweet Thang.

The road changed often and the scenic qualities also.  Practically zero traffic on this road today, how marvelous.

Another one of those places that needs to be fenced.  People are just dying to get into that place.  I know, bad joke.  But true.

Lush valleys and mountains as a back drop makes for a nice artist's paint pallet.  Blues of the sky, white and some gray for clouds, grayish tan or taupe for the mountains and shades of green for the pasture lands.  Now you've had your painting lesson for the day.

Just change the position, change the colors and you've got a whole new scene trapped in your camera.

I like to look at the various strata in the rock cuts along the highway.  You can see the various layers of dirt and rock that time has built up, some thick and some thin.  A lot of material was moved to make this highway but not as much as I've seen in some areas.  You can even see the drill marks made to place the explosives in some places.  In others it's just drilling to make the rock crumble into smaller pieces to be hauled off.

By now we're getting close to Jamestown, the high point of our trip.  This old building has seen a lot during its time but time is leaving it behind along with some clutter.  After a quick burger stop and facility use we turned back southward heading for Wartburg.  In this general area is where we rode on the same highway when we went north.

A few more miles of mountains and we arrived in Wartburg.

The courthouse in Wartburg.  It is a pretty little town, very clean and well maintained.  It has a lot of patriots in the area and recently built a memorial to those that have and are serving in the military from this area.

A few miles south of Wartburg the road crosses the top of Potters Falls.  We stopped here for Henry to see them as he had never been in this area before.  This same stop is where I took the "million dollar shot" of Sweet Thang taking a short rest.

My cohorts are L-R: TerrE, Henry, and Paul.  I called them "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly".  Let them decide who is which one.

TerrE split off at Oak Ridge, home of the Manhattan Project of World War II to gas up and head south back to Lenoir City.  Henry later peeled off to take I-40 back up to Dandridge, TN where he lives and Paul and I kept rolling on I-140 better known as the Pellissippi Parkway.  Redbud trees and Daffodils a plenty.

I just love those Redbud trees.

About 15 more miles and we would be back in Seymour.  Where this highway ends we take back roads to Seymour.  It was a little cool until after lunch when it warmed up a bit.  That 10 mph wind didn't help much either and then riding along with that you could definitely feel the change in temperature when you got off the plateau.



It was a beautiful Easter Eve and we spent it doing a nice ride with lots of scenery and scenic views.  Camaraderie was great, no mechanical issues, no dents, ditches or dangerous situations and all fun.  Priceless again.  Mileage ridden today, 234 miles door to door.

Until the next adventure, I wish you all a time to enjoy life, experience new things and travel to new places.  Along the way renew old friendships.  Life if short so enjoy it.  Let the little things go away and concentrate of Faith, Family and Fun.

Trifecta: TN - KY - VA Loop

No, this isn't an April Fool's joke or story.  However, it did occur on April Fool's Day and what a day it was.  Temp at start up was 45* and slowly built up to 70s by late afternoon.  Pushed out of the garage at 7:35 to meet bike Paul at entrance of subdivision for 7:40.  He was right on time as usual.  I dressed in summer gear with a light jacket over a T-shirt, rain liner and summer riding jacket.  Used regular winter type gloves instead of the heated ones.  Not such a good idea as I forgot that we were heading north where it was cooler.  But too late now, let's ride.

We took all back roads to stay out of the morning rush hour traffic and to by-pass Knoxville altogether.  Only had a couple of school zones to contend with.  Air was crisp, very cool, but that blue sky made everything just wonderful along with Ole Sol beaming down.  Trees are budding out, some have already put on their flowers and many shrubs the same.  Lots of Daffodils in whites and yellows along with plenty of Redbud and Forsythia.  Wait a minuted, I'm starting to sound like a gardener rather than a biker.


This is the route we rode today, give or take a turn off or two.  You can see there are not too many straight sections in this route.  We rode up the left side of the loop and back via the right side.  Crossed several mountains and rode through a number of valleys.  No snow, no ice, no salt or salt dust, just you, your ride and Creation.

Farms now have green grass instead of the winter brown, trees budding out and everything is right with the world, well almost.  A few glitches in the world but not with us today.

There are lots and lots of Bradford Pear trees up here in East TN.  I have learned a thing or two about them.  One, they are beautiful when they bloom.  Two, the stink when the flowers are gone.  Three, they rot easily and with the large amount of leaves, a good wind has the tendency to break them.  But they are pretty for a short while.

 Another simple church on our path today.  And plenty of them in this part of the country also.  Would seem as if there would be no sinners around but then all of the churches aren't fill to capacity on Sundays.

Some one that owned this property had a chunk of money tied up in wood fencing.  You're only seeing a small portion of it here.  Later on we came across a horse farm that was fenced with those white plastic boards and posts.  Looked pretty but rather costly.  Must have been a banker, a lawyer or a doctor.  Certainly wasn't a trucker.

Riding U.S. 25 North toward Kentucky, Dani'l Boone country.  It's a nice 4-lane highway and only one of three that we rode today.  All others were narrow two lane or barely two lanes.

Crossing from TN to KY on U.S. Rte. 25 requires you to go through a long 4-lane tunnel.  It is quite amazing as it is as clean or cleaner than most shopping malls, extremely well lighted and no water drips.  

As you can see, the inside of the tunnel is very neat.  The bike in front is friend Paul on his Burgman 400 Scooter, a.k.a., The White Rat.  This route goes through Harrogate, TN, home of the Lincoln Memorial University and home of the Abraham Lincoln Library and museum.  A nice relaxing place to take a stroll back through time.

On the Kentucky side of the tunnel is Middlesboro, KY.  But we're not going there as we will turn off to the entrance to The Cumberland Gap National Historical Park.  It straddles the Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee State lines.  It's a very pretty place to visit, picnic and enjoy what nature has made.  A nice museum there also.

Looking toward Middlesboro, KY and the turn-off to the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park.  We're taking a short cut across the edge of the Park today.

And this is the rode we were looking for.  Notice the lack of greenery.  They are a few weeks behind where I live and they had one bad winter this year.  However, in a few more weeks the place will be green and very shady.





This is our road type for the day.  The more curves the better.  As in a lot of roads in this part of the USA, guard rails aren't included in the design phase in most cases.  Rider beware or I should say, Rider Be Aware.  One oops may be one too many.  Crash, bang, ouch!!

Riding these back roads brings you through all types of living, some like this square log house which is middle class, 

a few fixer-uppers all the way to

"certainly this is not to be a place to live in" all the way to











some of these abodes.  Friends, some of this area has very little flat land, most of the jobs are logging or coal mining and most of the coal mines have been shut down.  When they say you're dirt poor, well some of these places don't even have the dirt.






Then you run across some nice old home such as this.  In fact, in the small towns you may see quite a few like this.  Looking at some of the places makes you feel really proud of what you have attained over the years.








Just outside of the small towns you pick up some more good roads, this time a little wider.  Along the right side is a river we followed for many miles.  Today traffic was very very light.







On some of the roads just a small stream flowed and in some instances quite rapidly.

And then some of them looked like this on the other side of the road.  Strata.  In some places it is black, a coal layer mixed in.

After a couple of hours we came to Smith Recreational Area.  A very nice calm lake surrounded by mountains.

And somehow this lone hardwood tree, probably a Maple, was left standing near the end of the roadway.  Looked kind of lonesome standing there all by itself.

After a pit stop, for Paul, we were back on the twisties again.  This section was great.  Wider lanes and long curves.  Twisted the throttle a bit along here.  Cleans out the carbs.

And along the way this pops up.  A one lane tunnel beneath the railroad tracks.  At least it was straight so that you could see oncoming vehicles.

This caught my eye as we were passing by it on our way back to the house.  At the end of the lane was a beautiful farm house.  Bradford Pear trees, all in rows.

In Grainger County the farmers were preparing their fields for planting.  To be planted here are tomatoes.  They grow hundreds of acres of tomatoes here and are known for their particular tomatoes, sort of like Louisiana is known for its Creole tomatoes.  Love fresh tomatoes.  Eat them anyway they can be prepared.

This field was just beautiful with its wild clover.  Looked a lot like a low growing lavender crop.  Unfortunately, I have some of the same stuff in my yard.  Can grow anywhere.  I think it could grow on concrete.  But it's pretty to look at in someone else's field/yard.

Down through the valleys winding up the engine as it won't be long before the ride will stop at Mountain Motorsports in Kodak, TN.  Pit stop, free coffee, prowl through the new and use motorcycles, ATVs, etc., and some friendly conversation with the staff here.  Great bunch of folks.

Pass another large barn, one of many along our ride today.  Can you just imagine the number of people you could put in here for a "Hoe Down".  What's a little smell for Blue Grass lovers.

Along side of Cherokee Lake, over a few more hills, around a bunch more curves and hello Kodak.  After the stop another 20 miles and I'll be back at the house.  A great day for a ride.  A great handmade sandwich at a small roadside grocery crammed with any and everything.  Nice people run it.  A thick slice of pressed ham, several large slices of tomato with some lettuce on sandwich bread and a coke, all for less than $3.00.

The amount of fun was incalculable.  The amount of fun, enormous.  The stress relief, extreme.  Mileage today, 236 door to door.  And Sweet Thang loved every mile of it. 

So until the next Valkyrie Adventure, smile more, listen more and don't text and drive.  I might be the one you hit while distracted.