Day Five: Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2000
Morning comes and I am wakened by my wife poking me and telling me that some guy with a VFR is checking out my VFR. So I roll out and put on some clothes to meet him. It is a bright sunny cool morning in the mountains. Everything looks totally different in the daylight. The curious guy comes back and we start chatting. He is from New Hampshire and has been on the road for a week or so. This is his last day at the Gap and he is headed home. I have no idea what his name is, and even if he told me I would forget in a few minutes anyway. I am terrible with names. He is riding his new 2000 yellow VFR that also includes a new Sargent seat. He is complaining about wrist pain so I let him sit on my bike to see what the Heli-bars feel like. I think he will be ordering some as soon as he gets home hehe. We chat for a bit and then he is off to pack up the bike for a last run of the Gap.
Just what is the Gap? It is a stretch of road officially known as US 129 that runs through the western side of the Smokey Mountain National Park and crosses into Tennessee. The section known as Deals Gap, or the Dragon, is an eleven mile section that is claimed to have 318 curves. It is held throughout the motorcycling community with both endearment and terror. We are here to see for ourselves. The start of the Gap on the North Carolina side is at the intersection of NC 28 and US 129. It is here that the Crossroads of Time hotel/campground is located. It is nothing spectacular, but it has an atmosphere that is appealing. It is nestled all alone high in the mountains and is a gathering place for those seeking curved thrills of the non-feminine kind. Besides, it is only thirty-six bucks a night hehe.
I spot another VFR in the camping area and go over to introduce myself. His name is Duncan and he is riding a 98 VFR just like mine, but with a bit less plastic on the right side. He has a full Two Brothers high mount carbon fiber exhaust system. I ask him not to start it because it just torments me since I cannot afford to get one right now. Duncan is an Aussie and loves to talk about bikes. He has been camping at the Crossroads for the last eight days. He tells me about a great local place to get some breakfast back in Robbinsville, the Black Knights Cafe. As we are heading back to the gas pumps I stop to admire the Tree of Shame. This is a monument to those that have had the Dragon take a piece out of their hide on their runs through the Gap. Pay close attention to the exhaust pipe hanging on the left side by the R1 rear cowling. In the rear end of the pipe there is tree wood embedded in the area around the exhaust port. The bike hit so hard going BACKWARDS that it stuck the pipe into the side of a tree and cut out the wood like a cookie cutter! Ouch! We finish admiring the signed and dated debris and load up the bikes.
While we are gassing up and just hanging out at the entrance to the Crossroads, we spend some time checking out all the passersby and those that stop for gas or food. I note many nice looking new bikes whizzing by, several of the new Honda RC 51's, a few Suzook TL 1000's, some Honda Goldwings and Valkryies, various beaters and other assorted bikes. The coolest setup is a couple on some kind of Moto Guzzi pulling a teardrop aluminum trailer camper. This guy has a ten disc CD player and awesome stereo system in the trailer. It has a skylight and side doors/windows. Pretty sweet. Shane is visiting with a gentleman in his late fifties riding a sweet looking brand new Valkryie. He has just retired recently and is doing a road trip. He has just started Sunday and is pretty excited about doing the Deals Gap run. We chat for a while longer and then decide we were getting pretty hungry and should get going. So we take off back down US 129 for Robbinsville.
I must say that riding on 129 in the day time is a whole different experience than doing it after midnight in chilly temperatures. I am much more distracted during the day time. At night, it was just me and the road, no scenery. I think I actually made the run faster in the dark than I am right now. There are these annoying patches on the road that have grooves about 1-1/2 to 2 inches wide running parallel with the direction of travel. Hitting one of these in the middle of a corner is quite unnerving, and there are quite a few of them in corners! We take it slow and easy, coasting much of the way because the road is so steep. Once we reach the bottom of the mountain, we cross over the Cheoah Reservoir and the road flattens out all the way to Robbinsville. It is still a fun road because it has great sweepers around the base of the mountain sides.
We get into Robbinsville and find the Black Knight Cafe. It is a small nondescript restaurant on the side of the road with a gravel parking lot. We pull up and go in for some grub. It appears that we are literally the only people in the building that are not smoking, except for a small child of about two years old and a newborn. Despite my intense dislike for eating while bathed in cigarette smoke, we stay and order breakfast. The food is quite good actually and the waitresses are very friendly. We stuff ourselves and start getting sleepy, all that food... lack of sleep... crazy hours... Snapping back to reality I note that it would be real cool to head back out onto the Cherohala Skyway during the day even if we only go out partway and come back. Everyone agrees and we head out to the parking lot to put on all the riding gear.
We head North on US 129 back to the turn off for NC 146 West, The first ten miles or so are along a very narrow and twisty road. It is hard to describe just how tight and twisty the road is going along the contours of the hill sides. I am tossing the bike from side to side and gliding along at a smooth pace. What fun! All along the edge of the road are rock faces with small purple flowers hanging off like a draped carpet and blooming. The smell is strong and sweet, wafting through my helmet vents. Eventually, the road dumps you out onto the official start of the Skyway and the road widens a bit and has more of a shoulder. Also the quality of the pavement improves.
The Skyway during the day is fantastic. It is not better or worse than the previous night, although it is a tad bit warmer now! The scenery is awesome. As far as I can see, nothing but woods, mountains and sky. There is almost no traffic other than the occasional motorcycle. We cruise out about thirty miles or so and pull off at several of the scenic overlooks along the way. Once again I am struck by the night and day difference on the same road. The night time ride was just so much more focused and intense. I think I would definitely like to do the night ride again when we go back.
While we are stopped we chat with a gentleman from Tennessee. He is fortunate enough to live nearby and to be able to ride this wonderful road and others like it on a fairly regular basis. I am not quite the shade of green as the beautiful flowering plants around me, but I am getting close. He fills us in on all the great things to see and do along the Blue Ridge Parkway, our destination for the next day. After a bit, we mount back up and head back down the Skyway to Robbinsville. We have to stop of there because Shane's gas guzzling VMax can only go about 75-80 miles before it starts to sputter. The ride back is fantastic! What a road!
We get back into town and stop at the BP gas station across the road from the Black Knight Cafe. As I am filling up the bike, I notice a rather unusual vending machine next to the coke machine. You might expect that it would be a snack vending machine, and for some folks it just might. This machine is stocked with several variety of live ground crawling squiggly bait! For a buck you are set to go fishing for the afternoon hehe. I neglect to get a good picture of the machine, something I am chided for later.
While we are finishing up with the gas, a gentleman on a tricked out Harley stops in to chat with us. It seems he is out for a ride and looking for good roads. His bike is a poster bike for the tassel industry. So many of them are dragging the ground, he could use the bike as a street sweeper. Considering none of us are riding a Harley, he is pretty cool to us. We tell him about the awesome ride we just had on the Skyway and that we are headed back up to Deals Gap to do a run before packing up and heading to Maggie Valley for the evening. It turns out that this guy is from Wisconsin, talk about an iron butt! After some more small talk he saddles up and hits the road. We suit back up and do likewise.
It is getting late in the afternoon, we still have to do our run through the Gap and then head over to Maggie Valley where we are renting a house for the next few days. We take off back down US 129 towards the Gap. I am riding a fairly brisk pace but not so fast that I am losing everyone behind me. I always make a habit of checking my mirrors to be sure the appropriate number of headlights are behind me. Everything is going fine at first, but then I start seeing an unknown headlight formation start bobbing in and out of traffic behind me. This guy is coming up through the traffic pretty quick. The area is known for its squiddly motorcycle antics so I figure it is some guy on a sports bike coming up. NOT!! When he finally begins to gain ground on me, it is the tasseled Harley! This guy is dragging his knees through the corners and hanging off the bike. Truly a hilarious site! I pick up the pace a bit and quickly lose him.
A few mile before we get to the Gap, there is a dam on the Cheoah Reservoir. It is right after this dam that the road curves sharply and begins its climb up the mountain side to the intersection of US 129 and NC 28 where the Crossroads of Time is located. We stop at the dam for a few pictures. Tassel dragger comes cruising by shortly after I stop to wait for the others to catch up to me and we exchange waves. We hang out for a few minutes and then get back on the road. The ride up the mountain on US 129 from the dam to the Crossroads is steep, tight and fun!
Once back at the Crossroads, we chat a bit with Ray, the grounds manager and local entertainment. He's a peculiar but really nice guy. He tells us that he just got a call to get the truck to go get a bike off the Gap. It turns out that some guy one a black Valkryie went off the road and broke his arm! It happens to be the same guy we had been talking to earlier this morning. So much for the retirement vacation on the bike. We pack up our gear and get ready for our own ride up the Gap.
As soon as you leave the parking lot of the Crossroads and head into the Gap, there is a straight about a hundred yards long that runs along the edge of the campground as it rises up into the hills. You can sit and watch folks leave from the Crossroads and see wheelies, burnouts and all sorts of squidom along this straight. Being the boring riders we are, we just putt up the road in anticipation of what is to come. It does not take long.
From the very first turn until the last, the Gap is one long continuous twisting winding road. To either side of us is a drop off into the woods down the side if the mountain or a steep cliff face going up the mountain. Blowing a turn here simply is not an option. It is amazing and scary to think that during the weekend, folks are known to pass you in your lane if they are in a hurry and you are sight seeing. There is a never ending stream of tight blind turns. I am leading and decide to just stick the bike in second gear and try to be smooth on the throttle.
I have read of guys racing their bikes through the Gap at phenomenal paces. I guess I am just a weenie. The straights between the turns aren't really straights, they are just quick sections where I can straighten the bike up as I transition to the lean for the next turn. So the idea of accelerating out of a turn and braking into the next turn just seems a wasted effort to me. I try to just roll on and off the throttle without using the brake and focus on smooth speed changes in and out of the curves. It is really quite fun! I notice Shane and Steph on the VMax sweeping in and out of turns leaning wayyy over hehe. Beth is bringing up the rear.
It is said that there are 318 curves in the Gap along an 11 mile stretch, I quickly lose count and just focus on what a great time I am having. There are some riders that claim to have made the run in under 11 minutes, we are certainly NOT on a track to beat that kind of time. As we round one of the corners, we come upon a scenic overlook and decide to pull over. I take the opportunity to snap even more pictures of the bikes, I can't ever have too many of those!
After I make everyone wait for me to finish taking pictures, we decide to keep heading out 129 to see where it takes us. It begins dropping in elevation as we pull away from the overlook. It is really fun riding a bike down hill on a twisty road. It is real easy to get into a rhythm. Eventually, the road levels out and follows the side of the mountains and the side of Chilhowee Lake. We pass the turn off for the Foothills Parkway, another great road I am told. Unfortunately, we did not have time to investigate the Foothills Parkway today, maybe on the next trip. A few miles down the road we come to the Chilhowee Dam and stop for more pictures. We actually drove out onto the top of this dam, very cool.
It is getting on in the afternoon and we still have to do a bit of riding to make it to Maggie Valley for the evening. So we decide to make our final run back up through the Gap, grab our luggage and head out. Beth leads the way at a pretty good pace. I get to ride behind the VMax and watch Shane carve up the road. There were quite a few times where the daylight between his center stand and the pavement was barely showing. He was pretty smooth and it was really cool to watch. Steph is a braver person that I am, I could never sit on the back like that on such a road!
As we get back into the really twisty parts of the Gap, I am having trouble keeping pace with Beth and Shane. The cupping of the tread on my front tire is causing a pretty severe head shake when I get up around 25-35 mph or so. This causes me to have to back off because I cannot push through to a higher speed where it damps out. But it does not hinder the fun to much. As we round a corner I am greeted with a crazy sight. Many people have been killed on the Gap due to riding accidents. It seems that there are several places where informal shrines have been built to honor the departed. What I see is the rear fender, half a rear wheel, and boots stuck into the side of the hill. Apparently that is the way the rider went out, head first into the side of the hill. So his riding comrades made a shrine in jest to make it look like a bike had impaled itself into the side of the hill. I wish I could stop and get a picture but I have no where to pull over.
There are numerous black skid marks along the road where people entered a curve to hot and locked up the brakes. Some stop short of the edge, others go right off the road. Some stop short of the rock faces, some go right up to the rock walls. Ouch! It is a good reminder to take our riding serious. As we near the end of the return trip through the Gap, we come around one of the last corners and get a huge face full of sunlight. It is blinding even with the tinted visors. I am thinking, "Oh great! We make it all this way and I am gonna crash at the last turn before the Crossroads!" I manage to do some serious squinting and make it through the turn. We pull into the parking lot at the Crossroads and everyone echoes the same sentiment about that turn. A close one.
All in all, the Gap was fun. The road surface is not in very good condition. It would be a fantastic road if it was repaved so that the surface was more consistent. We still have to watch for sticks and loose gavel in the road. I had planned the trip so that we would be riding the Gap on a weekday. This was in an attempt to miss most of the weekend traffic and hooliganisms. It seems to have worked quite well. For the most part there was little if any traffic. Although, there was the Ford F150 coming directly at Beth and completely in her lane because he was cutting a corner. Fortunately, she kept her cool and he managed to get back over in his lane. But still, it was fun.
We find out from Ray that there is supposed to be a VMax rally at the Crossroads this coming weekend. Shane and Steph will have already headed home by then, but Beth and I were already planning on coming back this way on Friday or Saturday to check out the bike crowd. It should be real fun. We grab the luggage, gas up and head down NC 28 towards Fontana Lake. It is pushing 4:00pm.
I had been told by a fellow VFR rider and friend that HWY 28 is a must ride. He is right! The highway runs along the edge of the Little Tennessee River and the Cheoah Reservoir. There are not very many elevations changes but it is a fun twisting road with a better surface than Deals Gap. I now have the full GIVI luggage setup back on my bike because Shane has decided he has had enough riding for one day. Wimp! He loaded the VMax into the truck before leaving the Gap and they are following Beth and me. The addition of the weight on the bike has increased the head shaking as I move through 20-30 mph. Fortunately, I can go about 40-50 mph most of the time and stay above the problem area. Steph manages to get some really good pictures from the truck.
After about 35 or 40 minutes, we reach HWY 19. This is a nice four lane highway running basically east and west. The plan is to take 19 all the way to Maggie Valley. Due to my inability to interpret road signs fast enough, we actually wind up getting on US 74, which also runs basically east and west, just along a different route. These are really fun highways. We get up to about 75 mph and just zoom in and out of some great sweeping curves through the mountains. There are lots of elevation changes and nothing but woods all along the way, truly a fun ride. As the saying sometimes goes, "All roads lead to the same place." We wind up in Maggie Valley eventually, having just gone slightly out of the way. It turns out for the better because shortly before reaching Maggie Valley, I notice a large Honda motorcycle dealership. Mental note, get new tire first thing tomorrow morning!
Maggie Valley is a small town nestled in a long narrow valley. Hwy 19 runs right through the middle of town. Had we stayed on 19 earlier, not only would I have missed seeing the cycle shop, we would have had to ride through tons of street lights, so going a bit out of the way paid off. I'd like to say I planned that, but I think we know better. We find the rental office without any problems and get our keys and directions to the cabin. It is just up the road about a mile or so and about a quarter of a mile up the side of the mountain along a steep paved road.
The turn into the cabin driveway is pure motorcycle torture. It is a hard right up hill followed by a hard left 180 degree turn back up hill into the driveway. Not for the faint of heart. The "cabin" is actually a very nice house. It has a garage, so we can keep the bikes inside. I tried to take pictures of the cabin but because it is so well hidden by the surrounding trees and shrubbery, there is no clear shot that will show the house, even partially. So I just forego any pictures of the cabin.
The interior of the cabin is great. It has carpeting everywhere, nice furniture, a fully stocked kitchen, a fireplace, a game room, hot tub, bar-b-que grill on the deck and many many more amenities. For $125 a night, this place is a steal!! We found the place by searching the internet. A local realtor has a great site with many cabins to choose from. I snagged the pictures from their site to use here, hopefully they won't mind the free advertising. Our plan is to stay here for three nights.
After we get settled in, we head back out expecting to have a night on the town. No such luck. This is a small town and it shuts down pretty doggone early! We settle for dinner at the local Waffle House Restaurant. Once again, we seem to be the only people in the building that are not smoking. I guess it is because North Carolina is one of the largest producers of Tobacco? We head back to the cabin and settle in for the night. Shane and I spend some time looking over the maps of the area deciding where we want to go tomorrow. Then it is off to bed to rest up for another exciting day.