[ride reports] [photo album this trip]
Deal's Gap
TN-NC ride
October 20-21,2002Highlights
Sunday Day 1
Our last track day of the season with NESBA was at Putnam. As I was looking it up on the map, I was thinking “Indianapolis is really close to Tennessee”. The sport touring freak in me wanted one last tour before the season ended. We decided to do our track day on a Saturday and after the last session of the day head straight for Deal’s Gap. We have never ridden the Dragon before but hearing so many stories about the crashes, we wanted to have the trailer handy just in case.
We arrived in Knoxville late at night and slept in late. The next morning we woke up to find out that there was going to be light rain in the area. We were planning on riding Sunday but we needed to pick up a lock for the trailer and hitch and had to make our bikes street legal again, so we couldn’t ride until later on anyway. Hopefully by then the rain would pass.
Looking at the map, we decided to get a room somewhere closer, like Maryville and ride from there. Picked up the lock, had lunch in Knoxville and towed the bikes to a Holiday Inn Express in Maryville, where we got a room for the night. It was already after 1PM and the skies were still gray and overcast with some drizzle here and there. We couldn’t tell if it was going to get better or worst. Being a bit tired from yesterday's cold track day, we decided to just spend the afternoon exploring. After all, if tomorrow was going to be our only day to ride, we couldn’t waste any time riding crappy roads.
We disconnected the trailer and took off in the truck for the dragon. As we proceeded southeast on 129, the road became curvier and curvier. By now the drizzle became light rain as we cornered swiftly in the Dodge pickup truck through the tight banked turns. We stopped at the Deal’s Gap motorcycle resort. Even though the rain was falling at a regular race now, there was a couple bikes in the parking lot. We took 28 to Cherohala Skyway, what an awesome road. The rain was on and off and some spots of the skyway were hidden under a thick blanket of fog. We didn’t see any sportbikes on these roads even though it was a Sunday afternoon, only a few cruisers.
We got back to Maryville and had a great dinner at the Up the Creek restaurant behind the Holiday Inn Express. We were hoping for better weather tomorrow, we knew exactly which roads we wanted to ride.
Monday Day 2
Monday morning the skies still looked gray but we couldn’t sit out another day. It wasn’t raining yet so off we went. Just as we got closer to the good stuff the drizzle started. The temperatures were in the low 60’s but the rain made it feel as if it was colder and having the perforated once piece on didn’t help matters. The Cherohala Skyway was the most enjoyable road to ride. We climbed into the clouds then left them below us as we reached 5000 feet in elevation. It was noticeably cooler up there and very foggy at times. The drizzle became light rain as we navigated the 35mph turns with caution.
After a few hours we were ready for lunch and stopped a Wendy’s at the 129 intersection . We were not all that hungry but wanted to get out of the rain for a bit. At that moment we felt a bit bummed, we came all this way to ride these roads but riding them in the rain wasn’t very fun. We talked about turning around and heading back to the hotel, but we didn't. After lunch the rain turned to drizzle and finally stopped. By the time we started to head back via the Skyway, the sun was out and shining brightly. We finally dried out and the temperatures became a bit warmer. We picked up the pace and started to really enjoy this great road.
At 7PM we got to the Maryville, packed up the bikes on the trailer and headed home, arriving at around 2AM Tuesday morning. Even thought we only got one day of riding, it was totally worth it. The roads are amazing and the scenery is especially beautiful in late October when the trees are changing colors. Next time we’ll have to allow more time to ride more roads.