Day nine, 200 miles. We ran some fantastic little paved backroads out the back side of Fontana Village Resort over to US 129 and the Joyce Kilmer road over the NC 145, the Cherohala Skyway. This is 55 miles of paved motorcycle bliss. We basically had it all to ourselves. We took a break in Tellico Plains, TN., before heading into the woods on Old Furnace Rd., another nice flowing dirt road through the mountains. We did a short stint on TN 68 down to Joe Brown Highway and cut back East back into North Carolina. This was all excellent twisty pavement with little traffic. We eventually back North over the mountains on Davis Creek Rd., and Tipton Creek Rd., which were both superb dirt! I let Daniel take point and followed to shoot video. He set a really smooth pace and it was a blast to watch. We reached the Tellico River and followed it for a while. It was paved and fun, but we soon turned back onto dirt on Green Cove and then Bald River Roads. These had a lot of fresh gravel, which was nice, except for this one corner…
At that point I was leading and we here heading down the mountain. Coming into the corner I was carrying more speed than I wanted and went for the back brake. It locked up, which is not unusual when riding dirt, but it wasn’t slowing me down and I came in a bit hot. I was hollering at myself, “TURN THE BIKE!!” Also not unusual because it help override the natural tendency to panic and freeze up. Daniel is right behind me listening and watching all of this. Make the turn or go off the side of the mountain… I ran a bit wide and that fresh new gravel got the best of me. It was deep on the outside of the corner and my front end tucked, causing the bike to land on the right side and slide. Fortunately, by the time I went down, I had scrubbed a good bit of speed and was traveling parallel to the edge of the road, so I did not go over the side, which would have been a longggg way down and STEEP. As it was, I just slid a few feet on my right side. My riding gear did its job. No injuries. The crash bars on the bike did their job. No damage to the bike. Daniel managed not to target fixate and run me over, getting himself stopped next to me. He immediately asked if I was okay. When I said yes, he immediately took a picture before I could even get up off the ground
He and Roger helped me lift the bike and we continued on our way, eventually getting back to Tellico where we stopped for lunch and gas. We headed out of town on TN 360to Rafter Road. This was yet another super twisty paved road and it connected to Indian Boundary Rd. Somewhere along the way it became dirt and seemed to endlessly follow creeks and or rivers. We turned onto Doublecamp Creek Rd. All over the place there was evidence of storm damage. Trees were down all over the place. Whoever maintains the roads had done a great job of getting in here and clearing the road fast, like maybe in the last day or two! We turned back East on Cold Spring Rd., and it got very rocky and rough!! It was hard to miss all the big rocks and was taking some pretty good hits to the front end of the bike. I was really wishing I had the new front end shock installed. It wasn’t working and I had to replace it with my old one just days before leave for this trip. By the time we got back to pavement, I was beat! We rolled in Vonore, TN., gassed up the bikes and grabbed some snacks. Then we found our hotel and settled in for the evening. It was another great day of riding in motorcycle Nirvana!
View from our back porch
Cool moth outside our cabin this morning
Some kind of Ducati next door. He had the TV on ALL NIGHT at a fairly high volume
The view from Roger’s room
Just before we dropped out onto US 129
That is US 129 down below us. This pipe has to be at least 8 feet in diameter and OLD. It is all riveted steel rather than welded. It also leaks.
Looking from one of the overlooks on the NC side of the Cherohala Skyway.
This might be part of Old Furnace Road South of Tellico Plains.
Tellico River along River Road
That one corner… on Bald River Road coming down the North side of the mountains back to the Skyway (TN 165).
It got deep and soft where Daniel is standing
Ready to get back to business!
Excellent lunch at very inexpensive prices!!
She let me take this so I could text it to Sarah and Rachel because I knew they’d love them.
These little dudes were all over the place
On in… there are 5-6 babies trying to keep up with momma. The current was moving pretty fast because of all the storms, but they were able to stay with her! No idea what kind of duck it was?
It’s a 1920 something. The wife was kind of grumpy so I moved on
There are TONS of abandoned homes, businesses, and vehicles in these mountains!
Near the start of Doublecamp Creek Rd., and it started getting really bumpy and rocky after this!!
There were quite a few recently cleared trees all along the roads. This one had been cut some time ago from the looks of it.