well another ride is in the wind. left out of augusta,ga at 0800 headin for hiawassee”s bell mountain. 3424 ft and a 360 surrounding view of the area. tropical storm idas was supposedly 5 hours ahead us. The mountain road is super twisty/steep. The storm/high winds have left the road with lots of debris. the summit looked looked like a different planet! all the rocks are painted(quite strange) my buddy tim on a fjr was impressed. Onward to franklin nc via 175 to us64. we tried fat buddies bar b q and really enjoyed it. we planned on takin wayah road over the mountain to robbinsville nc(29 miles south of the dragon) wayah road is very tight/twisty technical mountain road. once again the debris slowed our pace down a bit. hard to blast out of the corners with limbs/wet leaves everywhere. we stopped for a couple of cool photo ops. dumped out on us74 and picked up us129. weather so far had been lite sprinkles and winds/patchy sun. we talked as we rode how lucky we have been. 5 miles from the dragon the bottom dropped out! I had no rain gear and tim said keep goin. we ended up looking like drown rats, soaked from head to toe. checked in, bought our beer and changed into some dry cloths. kinda dead and many cancelled out.
day 2:
super foggy in the morn till10. We decided to do cherohala skyway and and tn360 back to tn72 which junctions into us129 on the top side of the dragon. Folks the skyway is a great ride! 80mph sweepers/no problem. the dorsoduro handled with ease. the nc side was bone dry as the canopy is cut back. tn side still had heavy debris. 360 as usual great. We stopped at the new dragoncity food joint. use to be great bar b q but the dragon inn/bar b q was bought out by a developer and transformed. headed back to down the dragon with full bellies. The dragon was bone dry and and runnin good. The dorsoduro is really at home in these ultra tight twisties. We got back/decided to check out fontana dam. amazing and great photo ops. I made one more dragon run with the video gear. one problem at the dragon. slower riders will not get over or wave you by. the dragon has multiple pull off lanes and they still will not pull over!! another ride buddy from atl was coming in 2nite. more riders were coming in and lots of ride stories/loops were discussed. People come from all around the usa to run the dragon/loops. Its that big. the internet has made this some kind of mecca.
day 3:
decided to do cherohala skyway again but go south on tn68 to ducktown. Another rider came in from dandridge tn for today's ride. picked up us74 and headed west. This area is where the atl olympics did their whitewater stuff. quite impressive. We turned north on tn30 and headed back up to tellico plains via the back way. We pick up tn315 to tn39 back to tn 360 and tn72 to us129(top of the dragon) dragon was dry and ran good. we were quite frazzled after the ride and started the party/fire.hit the sack at 0100 buzzed. decided to do a dragon run early in the morn before the zoo arrived.( we always leave on the weekend)
the police presence is really ramped up on the weekend. a trooper had 2 guys pulled over and that were probably speeding. trooper went north we we headed back down with the hope all was clear. packed up, headed home. ended up over 900 miles for wed-sat.
The dorsoduro maintained over 40mph which is quite good. The 3 gallon pnut gas tank, not so good. can’t wait for spring. check out the pics and vid, it rocks!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/sQYZbdJNprUTcPM7A
