DAY 6
9/10/2015 – Deal’s Gap MC Resort, NC to Guntersville, AL
Rain was still falling lightly in the morning, off and on. After a light snack breakfast, we packed up, donned rain gear, and headed out. We rode down 129 (away from the Dragon) along the Cheoah River, this part of the road no slouch itself, especially on a wet morning. Stopped to take a pic of Santeetlah Dam:
We turned right onto the portion of Rte 143 that becomes the Cherohala Skyway, another marvelous feat of road engineering that rolls and twists over 50 miles through the Nantahala National Forest. The views are amazing, the twists and turns made for carving…uh, so I’m told. The heavy cloud cover became a thick fog to us as we gained elevation. No views to be had and the visibility varied down to about 10 feet on the road! Plus the mist of course beaded on the windshield and our visors, making a tough job seeing even harder. So we puttered along most of the length of the Skyway, so focused on SEEING our way, that we couldn’t be bothered to think much about the views and riding we were missing out on. Ah well, there is always another time. We managed a few photos on the way up, before things got too froggy:
We came down from the mountains to the town of Tellico Plains and stopped in at the Tellico Grains Bakery (since it was listed as a stop on the NER route). We took off the rain gear (no drops since being up in the fog) and had a nice stopover for a ham & cheese croissant and a delicious apple turnover with coffee.
A trio of riders from Louisiana, two women and a man, also stopped in and we chatted about our trip a bit with them. They asked about our riding season up north and how we dealt with the cold (Answer: “Gerbing”). Nice brunch stop, but it started pouring again while we were in there and I had to repeat my rush out into the deluge to grab our stuff. We actually had cell signal and were able to check the radar and saw that it was an isolated storm cell and we were in the clear to the southwest.
We headed west on Rtes 39 and 310 to Etowah – more nice riding skirting the Cherokee National Forest. We zigzagged down to Rte 64 and the 64 Bypass to the south of Cleveland around to I75, and we slabbed it through Chattanooga, and into the NW corner of Georgia. Exited on Rte 136 and went up a couple long switchbacks with a mean hairpin (a la Mohawk Trail, maybe sharper) to get up on top of the long ridge of smaller mountains/hills running to the south.
We went south on 301 which entered Alabama and turned to state Rte 75 and CR 400. Loooong and straight were the rule of the road now, through farmland and passing through small townships. The heat was on and the sky was clear and we finally shed our rain gear for good during one of our stretch breaks.
Saw this unexpected sign in Lakeview for the Trail of Tears, and stopped for a bonus photo for the Whispering Giant Tour:
At last we reached Lake Guntersville State Park:
Within the park, it was still several miles to the Lodge and we enjoyed the ride by the lake.
Before heading to the Lodge, we drove around a loop road to see the facilities of the park, which included a campground, day-use beach area, and large concrete pavillion area with boat slips.
The Guntersville State Park Lodge is located in the park, up on top of one of the bluffs next to the lake. It’s a full hotel and function facility (hence the wedding). It’s quite a nice place and must have done a number on the parks budget when it was built. We checked into our room and were blown away by the large room and view.
After some of the cramped hotels and some degree of (self-imposed) pressure to get out early on the road each day, here was someplace we could be comfortable and stretch out for a few days after our long journey down. Time to relax! (unless you happen to be the maid of honor, which I’m not…doh!). Ended the day with some catfish and hushpuppies from the hotel restaurant.
About 225 miles for the day.
