We left our hotel in Andrews, North Carolina to ride 63 miles to the start of the Cherohala Skyway in Tellico Plains, TN. One thing I learned is that you cannot get anywhere out here without riding some long sweeping, and tighter turns, both uphill and downhill. You really have to pay attention and make sure you choose the correct line through each turn. It take a LOT more attention than tooling along on the roads that I'm used to back in Chicago. The ride was going fine, when my phone started beeping through my bluetooth headset, telling me the battery was almost dead. What the heck? I had it plugged into my lighter adapter charger! When I looked at the plug going into the phone, it was all bent to hell. I still have NO idea how that happened. Who knows. So I had a spare USB cable and tried that. Still nothing. I thought I probably broke the port on the phone. We were pulled over by some abandoned building on the side of the road. Brian walked over and started getting all demanding, like he does. AFTER he told me that he knew how to get to the start of the Cherohala Skyway when I knew he rode past where we were supposed to turn. He told me to try the original Samsung cable, which I had with me. I didn't expect it to work either, but it DID. So after all his bitching, Brian actually saved the day and we were back on course. Here's a picture of the stop:
After this brief interruption, we were back on course to the Cherohala. We stopped at the visitor center and talked to some other bikers and got a map from the nice old lady working there. As it turns out, we completely ignored the map and rode right past one of the things we wanted to see, Bald River Falls. We saw ONE sign, that said "Bald River Falls - 6 miles" then never saw any mention of it again. So we rode right past. Oh well. There's LOTS of stuff to see out here, and just keeping the rubber side down takes most of your concentration.....we weren't riding on a tour bus!
Compared to the Tail of the Dragon, I MUCH preferred the Cherohala Skyway. Not many crazies, much nicer scenic overlooks, and the road wasn't as demanding as the dragon. Don't get me wrong, it was PLENTY demanding, but the Dragon was just ridiculous. One small mistake and you could eat it at the Dragon. The altitude of the Cherohala Skyway is MUCH higher than the dragon, too. The highest point was 5,390 feet, and at that point the leaves were JUST starting to bud. We didn't get as many pictures or stop as many places as we probably should have. But we really had a good time. I especially enjoyed the second half - the last 20 miles or so. I started to get into a rhythm with the turns, and was all by myself. I had pulled away from Brian and on a Monday afternoon, there just wasn't much traffic. I'd sometimes ride a mile without seeing another vehicle. Very eerie, and very cool. This was my favorite ride so far. Here's a few pictures from the visitor center before heading out on the Skyway. We got gas there too.....I rode 63 miles and put exactly ONE gallon in. Wow!
Here are a few pictures from out on the Skyway. Keep in mind that we RODE this thing...didn't stop much. It was breathtaking (esp at 5,400 feet) and I'm sorry to report that I didn't get all the pictures that I'd hoped to show you guys. Here are some of the pictures that I did get:
After the Cherohala Skyway, we stopped at a little local restaurant named "Lynn's", where the waitresses all have heavy southern accents and everyone is "hun" and when you order a pulled pork sandwich it comes with "taters". The pulled pork sandwich was one of the best I've ever had...they toasted the bun inside and it has some type of different flavoring which I can't describe, but it was awesome. We also ordered the sweet tea- I had 3 glasses...have to stay hydrated. And the peach cobbler was fantastic, too. After lunch we gassed up....I was shocked to see that I got 70 (yes that's not a typo) miles per gallon on the Cherohala Skyway. Going up and down the mountains resulted in the best mileage I've seen from the bike. Go figure!
Leaving Robbinsville, NC and the Cherohala behind, we had a 77 mile ride to the next hotel in Sapphire Valley / Cashiers, NC. 77 miles of what was almost as challenging as the dragon in spots. One thing I can promise....by the time we leave this area to come home, I will NOT say, "Man, I wish we could have done more turns in the mountains". Haha. It's greuling. After Cherohala, I just wanted to ride on a straight, level road to the hotel. That was NOT going to happen. The last 25 miles or so was a real challenge. I was at the end of my concentration level.....we were both relieved to finally arrive at our hotel. We parked the bikes and vowed not to get on them again until tomorrow morning. Here's some pictures from the hotel.
Tomorrow's ride, if it's not storming, will be 90 miles with a start and end at the hotel, which is nice. After the ride, we head to Asheville, NC 53 miles. We're waiting to see what kind of weather we get tomorrow....we've been lucky so far, but tomorrow may end that 3 day streak.
No comments:
Post a Comment