DAY 5
9/9/2015 – Loop from Deal’s Gap MC Resort, NC
I was up and drinking coffee by 6:30am, planning to go out for a back-and-forth ride on the Dragon before running it once more 2-up as part of our loop for the day – Ed’s Dragon Foothills loop ride from the NER site. Rain had been threatening since yesterday although nothing more than a sprinkling had actually fallen. I definitely wanted to get a run in on dry pavement for my first time.
I hit the road around 8:20a, one of the first of the day, and whooo, what an 11 mile ride! I was a bit nervous but focused on staying within my lane and my abilities. Twist after twist, never letting up, this bit of pavement certainly deserves its fame and followers. I saw a couple riders heading in the opposite direction but didn’t see any going my way as it was still pretty early. The squirrels are definitely cheeky and made me slow down a couple times. Made it to the overlook at the end for a nice view…hmm, wonder how that familiar oval got there 😉
Enjoyed the ride back just as much as the first run, especially knowing a little about what to expect. Arrived back at our door about 20 minutes later with a big smile on my face. That thing is like a roller coaster for adults. Got some breakfast there in the Iron Horse restaurant under all the t-shirts from everywhere.
Despite the threatening skies, we decided we were there to ride and packed up (more lightly this time since we’d be back in the evening) and headed out for our ride. Definitely a slower run with the extra weight and higher center of gravity, but we still had a blast. I asked Char to focus on leaning rather than taking photos (so I wouldn’t dump us), so all we have are the ones taken by the pros at some of the corners (which make it look wayyy smoother than I actually felt). Char did a better pose at the last Killboy corner, but I guess they didn’t get good photos from that pass, since they weren’t up on the website. Below are from Killboy.
We wound down the last mile or two of 129 and turned off on the Foothills Parkway, another 45mph scenic road with lots of curves and little traffic. Not too exciting in comparison to what we’d seen so far, but better than most roads in New England.
We turned on route 321 to 337 into Smokey Mountain National Park and got onto Little River Road, another amazing ride, ascending alongside a beautiful creek with frequent twists and curves. We pulled over to stretch our legs by the river a bit, enjoying the peace, quiet and lack of pressure to get to any destination that night. The lower portion of this road was one of my favorites so far in terms of ambiance.
The tourist traffic did get a bit thicker as we got further on up into the mountains, despite being mid-week after Labor Day, but we were treated to some nice views of the Smokey Mountains, draped in the ever-changing clouds due to the impending cold front and unstable weather patterns in the area.
When we reached the spur road for Clingman’s Dome, once again I couldn’t resist trying to bag another mountaintop road, despite the likelihood of zero visibility on top. Sure enough, the summit parking area was fogged in and when we read that the summit path was a 1/2 mile and steep and we didn’t bring our hiking sandals…we settled for a picture of the summit observation platform and a photo in front of some big cool boulders right there.
From Clingman’s we wound all the way down to Rte 441, which turned out to be yet another great riding road, though we had to deal with a bit of roadwork and traffic. That led us back past our old friend the BRP at the terminus in Cherokee. We decided to stop there for lunch at a place called the Sassy Sunflower. Kind of a Vanilla Bean vibe going on, with different types of healthy sandwiches and other options. I had what I think was the best lunch sandwich I’ve ever had, the Rosemary Bash: “Grilled bacon on toasted rosemary potato bread, topped with melted Havarti cheese, avocado, and spinach.” I almost ordered another one to take back to Deal’s Gap for dinner, but figured it wouldn’t weather the trip very well.
After lunch, it was a matter of retracing our route from yesterday back to Deal’s Gap, however, we stayed a bit longer on Rte 19 to find a grocery store to pick up a few items. While shopping in the IGA, the sky broke open and DUMPED water. I ran out to the bike to grab our raingear and helmets, as well as everything we’d left draped all over it. we finished our shopping and then stood under the overhang in front of the market watching the rain come down while we donned our gear. Using our phones to check the weather (yes we had a signal there in Bryson City), we could see the RED storm cell that had just crossed over our exact location, as well as other cells around the greater region. Looked like this one would be past soon and moving northeast while we were going southwest. It was only a simple downpour at this point (downgraded from biblical deluge) so we finished getting into our gear and headed out.
Sure enough, about 15 minutes after we hit the road, the rain petered out and we saw blue skies ahead of us. We made it back to Deal’s Gap without further incident. Logged a relaxing 170 or so miles for the day, with many stops. Dragon-slaying was still pretty much in progress on 129, since the rain hadn’t come through up there, but it was winding down for the day. Grabbed a quick bite at the restaurant before closing and retired to our rooms to relax. The rain started soon thereafter and continued on and off throughout the night.
