Question about roads south of Tazewell VA

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Goodman4

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I hopefully will ride up from Birmingham AL in a couple weeks through some of our favorite GA and NC areas.  If I make it up to 16 from Marion to Tazewell, I was looking at other road options coming back down to Bristol. My Butler map recommends 91 and 80 as great options but I can't tell if they have gravel sections.  I will be with Tammy and she is not very tolerant of gravel.

Does anybody know for sure? Or can you recommend a good path to Bristol, preferably including 421?  I did that a few years ago and would like to again.

 
80 between US19 and I-81 is a good ride,  paved, but not perfectly. If you are heading south there are some sketchy dropoffs on the right side of the road (observations from 2018). I do love riding through Thompson Valley and 80 but you sure can't go wrong by doing a uturn at Tazewell and running 16 back down. Take 16 all the way down to Volney, 58 over to Damascus. 133 from Damascus to Shady Valley and then run up and down 421 as much as you can stand. You don't mention a time frame. That part of Virginia is worth a whole day to itself. We do a loop/box around Jefferson National Forest with 16 on one side and 311/Paint Bank on the other side. Joyous! Do Roan Mountain on the way up.

https://vimeo.com/255579767

 
but you sure can't go wrong by doing a uturn at Tazewell and running 16 back down. Take 16 all the way down to Volney, 58 over to Damascus. 133 from Damascus to Shady Valley and then run up and down 421 as much as you can stand.
We did this. Thanks for the advice.  Actually, on the way up we went through Volney and headed west on 58 just to get a feel for it.  That is a fantastic road section.  So we stayed in Marion and then rode up to Tazewell and back down to Volney across to Damascus and down to Mountain City to ride the Snake.  Really good recommendation! Thanks!!

 
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