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Heaven in Tennessee

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TexasShadow

TexasShadow

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Joined
Jun 7, 2006
Messages
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Location
Exit. Stage West.
Live from Tellico Plains!

I gave my bike some tarmac,
without no stones.

IMG_5863b.jpg


I gave my bike some gravel,
without no falls.

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I gave my bike some scenery,
without no rain.

IMG_5903b.jpg


I made some camp cobbler,
without no burning.

IMG_6018b.jpg

(photo op at Hunt's Motorcycle Lodge in TP, TN; hosts Lori and Jack on right)

Guess where we are!

IMG_6004b.jpg


More later after we return (don't really want to, either. Too many roads to ride on and off-road!)
 
I recognize pics 1 and 3. Sure makes me want to go back in a bad way... I LOVE that area!

I look forward to the rest! :popcorn:
 
Elzi and Ed, I hope that you both have a ton of fun. Although it already looks like you're having a blast.

I miss the camp cobbler, I wish I was there with you two.
 
Looks like a blast

The photos are getting me pumped up for the Fall Color Tour in Arkansas in a couple weeks.
 
Nice job on the song with pictures, Elzi!

Now I will be humming it all day. For that I am thankful, because up until I read your song, I was humming "and if you give me weeeeed, whiiiiites, and wiiiiine; and you show me a sign; then I'd be willin' to be movin'...."


*this post in no way condones the use of weed, whites, or wine*

heheheh
 
Hey Elzi! I see you got some cool new "dirty" riding gear for the Sherpa. Lookin' good! Did I catch a glimpse of Wilbur on the back of the Sherpa? Pat him on the head for me.

Randy
 
Back. Early this am. Work. Swollen eye (bee sting). Sleepy. Want. To. Go. Back.

Two teases.

I've fallen in love with this: (single track trails)
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*This* road rocked!
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Later.
 
Glad you are home safely and had fun!

The pictures look a lot like the woods in North Western Arkansas.
 
I thought of you -Rich, Ryan, Bill, Scott, Ken, Randy, Theresa, Russ,....- a lot of you all and more, while I was there. Wishing, hoping, wanting to share all of it with you. Some of you may already be acquainted with that area, and all of what it offers. But with my eyes, and experience, it was all new, yet I've been 'there' before. Decades ago in Maine and Oregon; an old rusting 125 dirt bike on the logging roads in Maine, hiking in Oregon, 4-wheeling both states and in Idaho.......

It's all an internal battle. I want to share it with everyone, yet I want to have it all to myself. But there...... so many roads, paved and dirt, one can have both.

Several times I felt like I was in a parallel universe where the norm was two-wheels and four-wheels were the minority. Bikes out-numbered other vehicles by a significant factor. It was Bike Heaven.

I'm going back for a week next year. :mrgreen:
 
Wiley had a blast as you can tell from his grin. He got splashed on the water crossings, dusted on the dirt roads, fresh air in the high meadows, and wind blown on the fast sweepers of the skyway.

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Here are some of my favorite shots:

Careless riding is not recommended. the down slope on the right is as steep as the up slope on the left, sliding off would hurt big time

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The single track rocked! Here is a shot very near the end of trail 82
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Where the creek had deep holes the water smoothed out in spectacular fashion... And there are fish in them thar holes. (no fishing gear or licence, so no fishing)

Creek2.jpg


The greenery in the forest.... what can I say.....

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More later
 
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Sitting on this rock, I am here, Maine, Oregon, Idaho....so many places like this. Mountains, trees, moss, rocks, dirt, leaves of many colors. Although I've never been on this rock until now, I have been 'here' before. Decades ago.

I'm sitting on a rock alongside a logging road in Maine; the deep pine needle duff covering the ground silences footsteps and all I hear is wind rustling through the tree tops. Pine resin fills my nose, tiny pools of sunlight filtering through the tall pine trees and scattered hardwoods, and a thin layer of rusty tan dust covers my jeans, boots and long-sleeved shirt. The bike dropped out from under me as I tried to maneuver it over a fallen tree. Stepping over the trunk, I dragged the smelly machine over to the other side and leaned it up against the ledge across from my rock. Sit and catch my breath, listen to the woods talk to me, let my mind flow inward and out, then back again, while letting a few stray breezes that make it down to the floor of the forest cool me off. Let the bike sit before I have to fight with the kickstart again, before the loud chattering of the engine and exhaust drowns out the whispers and stories here.

This is an old forest, here long before I was born, before my parents and parents' parents were born. These are the Grandfathers, the Elders of the forests. And they have their own stories to tell: two-feet of rusted barbed wire encased several inches in the trunk of a pine tree as it laid down cellulose around it; layers and layers of brown pine needles cushioning like a feather bed any animal feet that dare step upon it; rings in wood radiating from their center reveal droughts, wet summers, infestations and fires; fronds of ferns several feet high slightly weaving in an occasional breeze that finds its way down through the tree canopies; small groups of spindly and opportunistic grasses thriving in places where sunlight filters through, playing tag with shadows; rotting tree trunks of fallen Elders where they lay long ago, their substance nourishing new tree saplings as insects and microbes digest the fibers, freeing nutrients that filter down through the soil during a rain.

This is the world before us, and the world that will outlive us. If we let it.

I sit on a rock. On a mountainside. In a forest. In Tennessee. I have no name, I am not a number. No car alarms, no telephones, no computers, and no TV. I'm a part of here and now. 'Just passing through, but I will take you all with me when I go.'

My bike leans onto its stand
in the middle of the dusty reddish beige road
and waits for me.
My steed through the forest Elders and time,
and all I want to see.
These rocks and trees were here before me,
and will be here after I'm gone.
But for now,
I have the moment.
And in this moment,
I am home.

IMG_6069b.jpg
 
I'm glad you guys are home safe and sound. Now I just can't wait to get home from work so I can actually SEE the pictures instead of seeing little red x's.
 
TexasShadow said:
But for now,
I have the moment.
And in this moment,
I am home.
Click to expand...

:tab That is it right there, all boiled down the to merest essence... That is the feeling that goes very deep when I am somewhere like the woods and mountains in that area. Every time I have left to come back to my daily life, I have felt like I have left a part of me behind. Then there is that lingering and nagging pull...
 
Tourmeister said:
Every time I have left to come back to my daily life, I have felt like I have left a part of me behind. Then there is that lingering and nagging pull...
Click to expand...
But you take it with you when you leave, too. And it becomes a part of you. Just as you are a part of it.
And, yes; there is always that pull. Let it pull you back. It's always like 'coming home'.

I'm going back for a week next year. May or early June :)
The Hunt for Single Track Trails.
 
That is beautiful country. I kayaked down the Nantahala River on two different trips during my 20's. We camped on those trips. I have run other rivers in that region. I was in the area on business years later and had the weekend off and wandered through the mountains in my van, with my brother. Your photos bring back many special memories. Thanks!
 
So, Elzi you have tasted the drug that is motorcycle riding in Tennessee and North Carolina. And I get the impression you are addicted. Well, there is even more drug to be had in the area - North Georgia. One of the best rides I remember was up the fire roads on Fort Mountain near Chatsworth, Ga.
Lots more food to feed the obsession over there, better start saving your vacation days. Or quit work! :mrgreen:
 
Yup, I'm addicted.
"Feed me, Seymour!"

I thought of you a lot, Theresa. "Oh man, I wish Theresa was here!"
Want to join me next year?
 
Well, I guess "So how are you and Sherpie getting along" has already been answered.... :clap:
 
I'm ALWAYS ready to go to TN, that is home! To really feed the addiction fully, trailering a dual-sport and street bike both (and room in the truck for backpacking gear) would be the ultimate! Oh, and of course, plenty of time off to :rider: :rider: !
 
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