drjfjr
Well-known member
Ride report East Tennessee and North Carolina May 26-28
I normally have pictures but my digital camera broke a few weeks ago and I haven’t replaced it yet.
I have a standing ride to the Smoky mountains every Memorial day weekend since 1996. We have had as many as 18 bikes on this trip but the last few years we have paired it down to three.
We normally ride down on Friday but my son was graduating high school so I waited till Saturday to head down. The other two took a route through southern Kentucky to end up on 135 in Tennessee near Cookeville. This is a good warm up route and has a great barbecue place just outside of Tompkinsville Kentucky.
I slabed it down to Gatlinburg Saturday morning and then road some twisties near there as a warm up to the next day. I met up with the guys at the hotel and planned our next days ride.
The next morning we were up at 6:30 had breakfast then headed for the Dragon. We went through the park to townsend and then across the foothills parkway. There is a fire near there and you could smell the burning forest. We hit deals gap by 9 am and had a great pass down to the crossroads. Very little traffic but we did have to honk our horns to get a diesel pulling a boat to pull over to let us by.
After a brief stop at the crossroads we headed to the Cherohala skyway. We go there buy way of Joyce Kilmer recreation area to avoid Robbinsville. It was a great ride across. Not much traffic going over. We stopped at the last scenic view on the skyway to take a break and then headed back.
On he way back we ran into all kinds of Cruiser riders which as it turns out was the way things were going to be the rest of the day. About 1/3rd the way back riders from the other direction were giving the slow down signal. Just around the curve were 3 or 4 bikes parked in the road with 2 others in the grass. We stopped to see if they needed assistance but everyone was fine and they were making sure their bikes were ok.
About ¾’s the way across we hit a swarm of little black bugs. In less then a minute my face shield was peppered enough that it was almost impossible to see through it. We rode a couple of more miles till we were sure there were no more swarms and the cleaned of our shields.
We wanted to avoid 441 over the mountains so we decided to ride back through the Dragon and get back to Gatlinburg. We normally avoid the Dragon on Weekends after 10 AM but how bad could it be?
Well it was worse than normal. As soon as we got past the crossroads there was a NC patrol with lights on. I didn’t see a bike or know why he was there but we took it easy until we hit the Tennessee border. It wasn’t long till we caught up with a group of cruisers. They weren’t letting us buy so we honked a couple of times and then they finally let us buy. Then we got the slow down sign and right around the bend was a wrecker with the cable down over the hill. I don’t know what type of bike it was but there was no ambulance so I guess the rider was OK. Then a couple of turns father up was another officer with lights on and it looked like a cruiser parked in the ditch. We couldn’t tell if he purposely parked there or ran of the road. Since an officer was present I would guess he ran off of the road. By this time we got behind more cruisers and as far as you could see ahead there were cars and cruisers. At this point I was just along to make it through and head for the hotel. I had gavin up on having a good run.
About a mile after the overlook traffic was stopped. There was an accident involving two cruisers and there were two ambulances their. We sat there for fifteen minutes until they let us through. No information on the status of the riders I sure hope they are going to be OK. The trip through the foothills parkway and the park were uneventful but there was a lot of traffic. We took the corkscrew from the bypass into Gatlinburg to avoid the traffic and got behind a Wisconsin Van that would not stay in their lane. I was worried that someone coming up the corkscrew would run into this person. Fortunately we made it back safe and sound to the Hotel.
Memorial day we slabbed it back home. I had to get ready for my son’s graduation party we took the fast route home.
I normally have pictures but my digital camera broke a few weeks ago and I haven’t replaced it yet.
I have a standing ride to the Smoky mountains every Memorial day weekend since 1996. We have had as many as 18 bikes on this trip but the last few years we have paired it down to three.
We normally ride down on Friday but my son was graduating high school so I waited till Saturday to head down. The other two took a route through southern Kentucky to end up on 135 in Tennessee near Cookeville. This is a good warm up route and has a great barbecue place just outside of Tompkinsville Kentucky.
I slabed it down to Gatlinburg Saturday morning and then road some twisties near there as a warm up to the next day. I met up with the guys at the hotel and planned our next days ride.
The next morning we were up at 6:30 had breakfast then headed for the Dragon. We went through the park to townsend and then across the foothills parkway. There is a fire near there and you could smell the burning forest. We hit deals gap by 9 am and had a great pass down to the crossroads. Very little traffic but we did have to honk our horns to get a diesel pulling a boat to pull over to let us by.
After a brief stop at the crossroads we headed to the Cherohala skyway. We go there buy way of Joyce Kilmer recreation area to avoid Robbinsville. It was a great ride across. Not much traffic going over. We stopped at the last scenic view on the skyway to take a break and then headed back.
On he way back we ran into all kinds of Cruiser riders which as it turns out was the way things were going to be the rest of the day. About 1/3rd the way back riders from the other direction were giving the slow down signal. Just around the curve were 3 or 4 bikes parked in the road with 2 others in the grass. We stopped to see if they needed assistance but everyone was fine and they were making sure their bikes were ok.
About ¾’s the way across we hit a swarm of little black bugs. In less then a minute my face shield was peppered enough that it was almost impossible to see through it. We rode a couple of more miles till we were sure there were no more swarms and the cleaned of our shields.
We wanted to avoid 441 over the mountains so we decided to ride back through the Dragon and get back to Gatlinburg. We normally avoid the Dragon on Weekends after 10 AM but how bad could it be?
Well it was worse than normal. As soon as we got past the crossroads there was a NC patrol with lights on. I didn’t see a bike or know why he was there but we took it easy until we hit the Tennessee border. It wasn’t long till we caught up with a group of cruisers. They weren’t letting us buy so we honked a couple of times and then they finally let us buy. Then we got the slow down sign and right around the bend was a wrecker with the cable down over the hill. I don’t know what type of bike it was but there was no ambulance so I guess the rider was OK. Then a couple of turns father up was another officer with lights on and it looked like a cruiser parked in the ditch. We couldn’t tell if he purposely parked there or ran of the road. Since an officer was present I would guess he ran off of the road. By this time we got behind more cruisers and as far as you could see ahead there were cars and cruisers. At this point I was just along to make it through and head for the hotel. I had gavin up on having a good run.
About a mile after the overlook traffic was stopped. There was an accident involving two cruisers and there were two ambulances their. We sat there for fifteen minutes until they let us through. No information on the status of the riders I sure hope they are going to be OK. The trip through the foothills parkway and the park were uneventful but there was a lot of traffic. We took the corkscrew from the bypass into Gatlinburg to avoid the traffic and got behind a Wisconsin Van that would not stay in their lane. I was worried that someone coming up the corkscrew would run into this person. Fortunately we made it back safe and sound to the Hotel.
Memorial day we slabbed it back home. I had to get ready for my son’s graduation party we took the fast route home.
