Cherohala/Deals Gap 10/20/07

I'm leaving 0700 from the Acworth, Georgia area on October 20th headed up to the Cherohala Skyway and Deals Gap. Anybody want to tag along give me a holler! :smile:

 

Would love to, however I'm in Birmingham, Al for the vintage show at Barbers.

 

Hey, how 'bout a little more notice next time. I would, but can't change plans now. Maybe next time. Have fun, and be safe.

p.s. Watch out for the po-po.

 

After playin' with the Dragon, ride HWY 28 from the Gap to Bryson City. It's another great road, FAST Sweepers!
There is a good BBQ joint on the left, headed out of BC towards Cherokee.
Did I say FAST sweepers?
Mac

 

If you said Sunday morning, I would be right there with you! I'm down the street from you, in Powder Springs. Give me a shout next time.

Amazin

 

I will try to give more notice next time, last minute kind of thing.... I had planned on hitting 28 for the first time, now I'm really excited- thanks Mac.

It sounds like THP has slacked off their anti-tourism campaign, is that true eddie? I know you are in the area, so any first hand knowledge you may have would be appreciated.

Amazin...absolutely, and let me know if you're headed anywhere too!

 

I am about 80 miles away. I havn't heard any reports from the area lately. Usually no news is good news. The last time I was there, there were 11 LEOs on the TN side. I would guess the po-po has slacked off. The THP has a short attention span.

 

I just finished planning my route. I am going to do the loop starting with Cherohala, coming down the Dragon and out 28 all the way into GA. I'll cut back toward Clayton, GA and head down to Helen. It's out Richard B. Russell scenic hwy, back onto 129 for a moment and then across 180 to Suches...out 60 to Blue Ridge, down 515 and follow my nose home. Hopefully I remember to stop and get some pictures! I'll try to post a ride report when I get back............

 

Sounds like a good ride, LOL damn to far away. be careful out there

 

Ride Report

Osoamazin reminded me that I needed to let everyone know about the ride, so here it is!

Hey man, the ride was great! I ended up cutting the route short because I had to go into work that evening. The traffic was heavier than it is during the week and also because of the fall colors. So if you go, try to go during the week if possible. I did a total of 460 miles, starting off from Acworth I went up 75 to get a jump start to 411N to Carters Lake/136E. I took 136 to 515N to Blue Ridge and went North on 60 into downtown Blue Ridge. There I took Spur 60 into N Carolina and joined up with 129 N in Murphy NC. Now this entire time the temp had slowly dropped from upper 40's in Acworth @ 0700 to lower 40's in NC @1000 (thank goodness for the Firstgear) Finally the temp started to go the other way as the sun got a little higher in the sky, and as I arrived in Robbinsville NC it was a balmy 53 degrees F. Finally hooking up with one of my favorite roads I turned on to 143/Cherohala Skyway with great anticipation, and saw a sign that made me worry for a moment-Loose Gravel- Great! Well the signs were an exaggeration, but do be advised that the connecting portion of 143 to the Skyway is under construction and they are grinding the pavement(looking forward to the completion because that portion is already very rough). The weather was perfect at this time, sunny with hardly a cloud in the sky, still cool but pleasant, and I started the ascent of the Skyway. By the time I got to the top @ 6000 ft the temp was back down to 41 F. The colors ware great from bright yellow to dark reds, but the best part was the color of the asphalt under my tires(OK that was cheesy). But honestly this is a gorgeous road to ride any time of the year, designed by someone who had to have a love affair with asphalt and the perfectly sculpted curves of a mountain road. The fall color pilgrims and the hunters (bear and boar season in TN) were out in force but all were polite and took advantage of frequent pull-offs to allow faster traffic to pass. As I descended into Tellico Plains, TN the temp steadily increased until it was hovering right around 60. Taking the turn onto 360 I stopped for a snack and a fuel stop and got back on the road. This was only the second time I had ridden this road and I was looking forward to it because of my last ride. 360 is a little mountain valley road with slight rolling hills, FAST sweepers good visibility and best of all- NO TRAFFIC! My feet didn't hit the ground again until I hopped onto 441 for a couple miles to hook up with 72 to take me to the Dragon. Turning Right onto 129S I was mindful of all the THP that have been anti bike recently, and had convinced myself that I would treat this as recon and try to go unnoticed. Mind you, I am not Rickey Racer but I do ride spiritedly, so imagine my horror when as I came out of the roadside port-a-john at the beginning of the Tail to have a THP Smokey sitting next to my VFR. As I walked over to my bike he nodded to me, looking at me as a predator eyes his next meal. I saddled up and he pulled off just ahead of me out toward the Tail and I followed at a respectful distance. A mile later just as we hit the 30MPH section he pulled off the side of the road in the shade to await his next victim:biggrin: . I didn't see another LEO the rest of the day. Traffic was the thickest I had ever seen at the Dragon but I found a nice gap in the traffic where if I got up behind a slow pack I could hit a pull-off for a moment until the slow traffic behind caught up and make another run of spirited corner carving. The Deals Gap Resort was PACKED with bikes, so much so that I stopped for a drink of water and quickly headed on out 28 toward Bryson City, NC. I stopped along the river and took off my heavy overpants and jacket liner because the temp was now peaking at 70 degrees. I finally remembered that I had a camera in my tank bag and took a couple pictures along the river. Hwy 28 was a very nice road that had some elevation change along with some twisties and sweepers. Coming into Bryson City, I realized that I would never make it through the entire route that I had planned and make it back to my station by 1900. So I re-routed back to 143 to Robbinsville, and mostly retraced my route back, arriving back in Acworth @1730. It was a wonderful day and as usual it only made me want to get out and ride more, more, more! Ride Safe & God Bless!

I hope to go and hit some of the roads that I didn't get to on Nov. 1st, including Suches GA area and maybe Richard B. Russell. Let me know if you want to come along!

 

Thanks a lot for rubbing it in!!!:smash: I was stuck at a birthday party for my dad all day on Sat (10-20), and had relatives in all day Sunday.:ballchain:
Glad you had a fun, safe day in my neck of the woods. Next time I want to go!!

 

There were alot of professional photographers up there that day, and I know some of them like 129pics, Killboy, and dragonslayer, but I don't remember all of them. Does anyone know the names or websites of some of the others?

 

I've used www.us129photos.com and www.killboy.com a few times. Good picts from both places. Here are 2 picts I got from them.
(Yeah I know my jacket won't do much good in the tail bag, but with 14 LEOs in the 11 miles, I felt very safe:ballchain: )

 

I've found a few of the pics already and Nozzle sent me a link to a pic of myself on Killboy....Nozzle, empty some of your PM's so a brother can reply to ya.......

Here's some links:
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/OrderPage.aspx?pi=0QAK002U040569&po=569&c=
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/OrderPage.aspx?pi=0QAK002U040570&po=570&c=
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/OrderPage.aspx?pi=0QAK002U040571&po=571&c=
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/OrderPage.aspx?pi=0QAK002U040572&po=572&c=
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/OrderPage.aspx?pi=0QAK002U040573&po=573&c=
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/OrderPage.aspx?pi=04RK00LB050169&po=169&c=
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/OrderPage.aspx?pi=04RK00LB050170&po=170&c=

 

Looks like you had a GREAT day for riding! Nice picts!

 

I think I've found almost all of them now:

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/OrderPage.aspx?pi=0HH600K3050214&po=214&c=
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/OrderPage.aspx?pi=0HH600K3050215&po=215&c=
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/OrderPage.aspx?pi=0HH600K3050216&po=216&c=
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/OrderPage.aspx?pi=0HH600K3050217&po=217&c=

 

Deals Gap

Saw on your thread the you live near Acworth. I have a house in Acworth and thinking of going to Deals Gap soon - how long and how far? Use my e mail: dsidner@bellsouth.net

Thanks. Don