With a big ride coming up in August (We're expecting 30+) I thought it would be a good idea to head up to Maggie Valley for a pre-ride and to check out the local conditions. I know that you're thinking that's a real tough job but someone has to do it.
A few others agreed to make the sacrifice and join me.
I got on the road early Sunday morning and got this pic leaving Huntsville.
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I was soon cold enough that I stopped and put a jacket under my mesh Jacket.
I met up with Rich (
@2372ighost ) near Chattanooga and we continued on. We rode some boring interstate through Chattanooga before getting off just before Cleveland and some more boring roads to get around Cleveland. Then we hit some nice twisty roads, 30, 315 and 39 to Tellico Plains where we stopped for lunch.
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Then we had a great run over the Skyway. There was very little traffic and it was nice and cool, actually downright cold at higher elevations. The Majesty just flows through the curves on this road. After the Skyway we rode 143 to 28 to 74. There were some bight yellow flowers on the side of 74 so I snapped a couple of pics.
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Rich was on a Yamaha majesty that he had just bought. He did some maintenance on it, rode it 70 miles then decided to ride it on this trip!
From 74 we got on the Blue Ridge Parkway and rode that to 19 into Maggie Valley. Our motel was the Tanglewood Inn.
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Steve, who had a much shorter ride than us was already there with his 2004 V-strom 650. All of us were on different bikes than we would be riding next month on the big ride.
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The Tanglewood, like most of the mom and pop motels in MV is an older motel. The rooms were a bit dated but nice. I like this kind of motel because you can park right outside your room and there were rocking chairs just outside the room as well. This kind of setup is much better for a group than a more modern motel where the room open to inside hallways.
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We walked over to the "butts on the Creek restaurant across the street but they had run out of food so we rode to Guayabitos Mexican Restaurant for dinner. Maggie Valley "ATTGATT"
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I got this pic of Rich and his "tiny" margarita.
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Dinner was good. After dinner we walked across the street for some ice cream.
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The view from the ice cream place.
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It was a cool and beautiful Monday morning.
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We had brought some food and ate breakfast at the motel. Soon Doug and Josh showed up. Both were on DR650s
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Last time I rode with Doug was 5 years ago in West Virginia. At that time he was 75 years young and his wife had just bought him track prepped GSXR750 to replace his "slow" SV650 for track riding. Now Doug is 80 and he told me he had decided to stop riding on the track.
Josh is a bit younger and has a very nicely set up DR650. I knew Josh through ADV
After some tire kicking we got on the road. It was still chilly so we started off with some layers under our mesh jackets.
Our route today was through some beeeuuutiful country side.
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It was also one of the curviest routes I have ever done.
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Riding into the town of Marshall.
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We stopped and took a break in Marshall.
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It was starting to warm up so I took off the light jacket under my mesh jacket. The weather here in the North Carolina mountains is amazing. It's hotter than hell in most of the country but it was very comfortable here.
We BS'd for a while and then continued the ride. Right out of Marshall we picked up a twisty and scenic as hell little road that most sportbike riders would probably hate. It's way twistier than the dragon and also a bit dirty. On a scooter or dualsport bike it rocks. I was too busy riding to get any pics until we came to a turn where I was able to get this one.
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Then we rode down to the river and took a break and this scenic spot.
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While we were there a train came by. The trees prevented me from getting much of it in a pic.
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Crossing under the railroad bridge. To bad I couldn't have timed it better to get a train in the pic.
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We then got on some of my favorite twisty roads. I'm talking non stop curves that seem to go on forever and have virtually no traffic. I was too busy riding to take pics until we came up behind some Harley's and had to slow down.
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They were moving along at a respectable pace, just not as fast as us. A few miles down the road at a convenient place they pulled over and waved us by.
I did get a few pics but they do no justice to how spectacular these roads are.
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The scenery is not Colorado spectacular, just very pretty. The roads on the other hand are a curvaholic's dream. I don't know anywhere that has better curvy roads. The dragon is merely a good warmup for these roads.
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We stopped at the Little Creek cafe where we ate last year.
Since it was Monday they were closed. We headed maybe a mile down the road.
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Note the pizza on the bottom left :D
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We ate at the tables outside. I had a half of a slice of pizza. It was OK but nothing special.
Quote from: klaviator on July 17, 2020, 03:33:28 PM
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Excuse me, miss...? I ordered the "large" margarita.
Getting ready to go after lunch. The sky looked ominous but we never got any rain.
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We went over over a mountain road then turned around and rode it the other way. We stopped and got some pics at the turn around spot. We did the same thing last year at this same spot.
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After taking the above pics, Rich went ahead to set up by a curve and take our pics. He recently got a camera that he could use to take pics more easily like I do. Hopefully he'll come along and post those pics.
I also set up outside a curve and took some pics.
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Despite having just bought this scooter, Rich was doing just fine on it.
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I stopped at the end of the road and took this pic.
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It's hard to describe how great the riding was on this ride. The roads, the weather, the scenery, the other riders, it was all close to perfect. My pics don't really capture it. Just imagine riding all day with your bike leaned over one way or the other 90% of the time.
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If you rode here all the time you would never wear down the center of your tires.
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One of the very few times we came up behind another vehicle.
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If I remember correctly that truck turned off pretty quickly to we weren't stuck behind it for long.
Couldn't ask for a better group to ride with.
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We stopped again in Marshal. Steve pointed out that there was something he hadn't seen in a long time.
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Both Doug and Josh peeled off before we returned to Maggie Valley. Those lucky bums live locally.
Great photos as always, Win!
After getting back to the motel we researched options for dinner. Many of the local restaurants close on Mondays. The few that were open were most likely crowded so we just got takeout at Subway and ate at the motel.
After dinner I wandered around some. There is a creek by the motel and it had this tiny waterfalls.
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Interesting clouds around sunset.
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Tuesday morning was another breakfast at the motel day. Like the previous day our plan was to be on the road at 9. Since we had plenty of time Steve used it to detail his 16 year old V-Strom which looks like it rolled off the showroom floor earlier this year.
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Josh joined us again giving us four riders for the days ride.
We headed up to the BRP. I put my rain jacket over my mesh jacket along with a layer underneath so i wouldn't freeze.
Some pics on the BRP.
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We had our rain jackets on because it was cold!
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Then we had to ride some four lane to get to more good roads.
Sorry for the blurry pic but this sign is not kidding. There are some serious curves ahead.
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No pics of the curves.
I love riding along lakes!
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We stopped and took a break.
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I didn't get a pic but there is a sand beach just to the right.
After our break we stopped at one of my favorite photo spots.
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A bigger view.
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Then it was time for some more intense twisties. Eventually we ended up on 28/64 headed for Highlands. Shortly after getting into the good part of that road we were stopped by a flagman. Due to construction the road was only one lane for a bit. When we took off again we were stuck in a caravan of slow moving cages. At least it was easy to take pics.
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This is a spectacular piece of road with a cliff on one side and nearly sheer dropoff on the other. There is a small parking area where you can view Cullasaja falls so we stopped there.
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This is a spectacular waterfalls but leaves block most of the view. I took a pic but its not worth posting. To really see the falls you have to be there when there are no leaves on the trees or hike down a really steep trail.
So I just took this pic off of Wikipedia.
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We enjoyed the view and waited a few minutes. because of the flagman no more traffic came through before we took off.
More spectacular scenery.
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We had a clear twisty road ahead(https://advrider.com/f/styles/advrider_smilies/ricky.gif)(https://advrider.com/f/styles/advrider_smilies/ricky.gif)
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We had fun but didn't go real fast since we knew we would eventually catch up with the traffic ahead.
Eventually we did so we stopped for another short break so we could enjoy the road.
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This is a great road but typically has a lot of traffic. "Surfing the Gap" is often the best way to enjoy it.
We caught the traffic again and took advantage of that to get a pic of this great view.
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We were soon in Highlands.
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Its a pretty little town but very crowded and very expensive.
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Steve calls it the Telluride of the East or something like that.
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I had plenty of time to take pics while stuck in traffic.
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What great roads, and it looks like a fun group to ride with! As always, we really appreciate the reports.
After Highlands we hit a fun road. Intense, steep hairpins, great scenery and a mile of dirt road thrown in. Normally that mile of dirt is no big deal but must have been recently graded and made the scooter feel squirrely. No big deal, it was only a mile.
Then we came to another of my favorite picture spots.
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Steve didn't ride his Strom up on to the picture spot because....
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Turning a big, heavy bike around is a bit of work.
We rode into Cashiers and ate at Wendy's. This is not your typical Wendy's.
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We ate outside. It was perfect. I think it was around 75 degrees.
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More riding after lunch.
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We pulled into a Jackson County park.
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I normally stop here. It has shade, a real restroom and a great view.
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It's a great place to solve all the world's problems ;)
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We also stopped at another potential picnic area. We were scoping it out in case someone wanted to do a picnic lunch at next months ride.
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This was Balsam Lake, a National Forest site.
From the first picnic area to this one Steve and Josh swapped bikes. Its always cool to get the chance to try other bikes. Steve had owned a DR650 in the past but not as nicely set up as this one. Josh had never ridden a V-Strom before.
A little later Josh and I swapped bikes. It was his first scooter ride. I had ridden a DR650 before but it was not like this one. This was a serious dual sport bike.
We swapped back after stopping here:
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We continued on the BRP.
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Heat?? What heat? it was nice and cool up here!
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We came up behind a couple of Harleys. They weren't going real slow so we followed for a while. It was a good chance for me to take some pics with bikes in them.
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At some point we pulled off and Rich and I swapped bikes. His Majesty had an Airhawk Knockoff seat cushion and he had a laminar lip on his windscreen. The scooter felt very much like mine as you would expect despite different tires. I loved his seat cushion and will be getting one. I'm not sure the laminar lip made that much difference but it could be mounted farther up. I haven't decided on that yet.
I had rotated my bars forward and Rich liked that.
We rode a bit and stopped and swapped back.
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When we returned to the motel we found Larry and his Reflex waiting for us.
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It's always great meeting people that you have interacted with online. Just a short time in person and you will get to know them much more than online.
We talked a while then Josh headed home. It was really great having Josh along for two days of riding and socializing. I'm looking forward to seeing him again in August.
The four of us who were left went across the street to Butts on the Creek for some BBQ. We were not disappointed. Then we stayed up late BSing at the motel.
The next morning would be our last in MV for this trip. We decided eat breakfast at Joey's Pancake house....purely as research for the August ride of course ;) We knew it would be busy as there had been a crowd outside the day before when we rode buy around 9. We went at 7:30 to hopefully beat the rush. It worked. When i went to the door a lady asked how many in our party and handed me a buzzer. She said it would be around 10 minutes. She lied, it was less than one.
We went in, wearing our masks until we were seated at our table. The food was great as we expected.
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While we were eating we saw two employees clean a nearby table. They wiped down everything including the salt and pepper shakers and syrup bottles. They were really taking the Covid precautions seriously.
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At checkout they never touched my credit card and I did everything on a touch screen which was wiped down between every customer.
When we left there were more people waiting to get in.
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This place is only open for breakfast.
Returning to the motel.
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We hung out a while at the motel before packing up and getting on the road. We would all ride together for about 20 miles and then start splitting up as we were all going different directions. Heading up 19 we got stuck behind an extremely slow moving truck so I pulled over and got this pic.
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Then we continued to the BRP where it we had a great ride. We made one last stop before splitting up.
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After this stop Rich and I continued on together. We had to do some four lane and go through Robbinsville before having some great riding on 143 and the Skyway. It got downright chilly at the top but as we descended into Tellico Plains it felt like riding into an oven. We had been spoiled with the cooler weather in and around MV.
We stopped at the Tellicafe for Lunch and then headed off down 39, 315 and 30. We did this route in reverse coming up but for some reason 315 just felt like crap. First it felt so rough I thought maybe there was something wrong with my suspension. Then at some point there where a shitload of tar snake which felt really slippery.
30 on the other had was sublime with fresh pavement and great curves. After that the riding was boring and mostly four lanes. We hit some stop and go traffic riding through Chattanooga and my temperature gauge got as high as 99 degrees ??? I was so glad I had put on my cooling vest in Tellico.
After Chattanooga Rich headed south towards Birmingham while I continued west to Huntsville.
One last pic on I-24 west of Chattanooga.
(https://photos.smugmug.com/2020-B/i-kGqJr4p/0/f87d15e5/XL/P7150238-XL.jpg)
I got home around 5 with 335 miles on my odo.
The Majesty worked great on this trip. Its comfortable and has plenty of power for cruising the Interstates. It just flows through the sweeping curves on roads like the skyway and BRP. It's also super nimble and handles the tighter curves great as well. It does lack passing power when stuck behind slower traffic and is a little slow coming out of tight uphill hairpins.
Gas mileage varied from 55 MPG or better on the highways to 65+ on the back roads.
The rear tire had 3500 miles on it when I left. The last two metzlers I ran on this scooter were replaced at just over 5,000 miles so I figured I had plenty of tread left for an 1100 mile ride.
This is what it looked like after I got home.
(https://advrider.com/f/attachments/0717201228-jpg.2430508/)
I think that running at high speed on the interstate with really hot temperatures was hard on it because it still looked OK in Maggie Valley. Luckily I had already ordered a new one and got it mounted a few days ago.
My next big trip will be back to Maggie Valley on August 2nd to spend 4 days riding the area with about 30 other riders. I plan on taking my smaller scooter for that trip.
30 Days in Maggie Valley?
That sounds like an epic trip!
Thanks for taking us along on this ride!
Quote from: Fencejumper09 on July 27, 2020, 09:07:31 AM
30 Days in Maggie Valley?
That sounds like an epic trip!
Thanks for taking us along on this ride!
I wish! That was a typo. I'll be there for about 4 1/2 days with about 30 riders.
So what is your route to Maggie Valley? If I were to ride from Bham would you recommend slabbing to Chattanooga?
Quote from: Fencejumper09 on July 28, 2020, 04:56:47 PM
So what is your route to Maggie Valley? If I were to ride from Bham would you recommend slabbing to Chattanooga?
59 to 24 to 75 north. Take the 64 bypass around Cleveland and then 30 to 315 to 39 to Tellico Plains. Skyway/143 to 28 to 74 to the BRP to 19 to Maggie Valley.
Or if you have more time you could probably do more back roads but they probably won't be as good as the roads around Maggie Valley. You planning on heading up there this year?
Hopefully!
There is actually a small dual sport ride this weekend around Maggie Valley so keep an eye out for Jrou!
Quote from: Fencejumper09 on July 29, 2020, 08:26:58 AM
Hopefully!
There is actually a small dual sport ride this weekend around Maggie Valley so keep an eye out for Jrou!
I won't get there until Sunday afternoon but I'll keep an eye open for Jrou.
I used to ride a lot of dual sport out of Maggie Valley but its been a few years. I'm going to try to take my KLX up there at least once this year.
07-17 though 07-25.
What a ride! Wish I was retired. :(
Have an awesome trip Win! Looks like good weather this next week.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Quote from: Sweeper on July 31, 2020, 06:48:38 PM
Have an awesome trip Win! Looks like good weather this next week.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thanks. We might get rained out on Monday if this tropical storm tracks west but the rest of the week looks OK with some refreshingly cool weather. Forecast calls for highs in the low to mid 70s and lows in the 50s.