We ended up flipping a coin in the morning to decide between two long routes down into northern Georgia. One included Blood Mountain, and the other War Woman Road and long stretches of Moonshiner 28. After some confusion about how a coin toss works (too early in the morning for me I guess) it came up heads and we left Blood Mountain for another day.
First up was Wayah Rd, which Dave and Peter had been on parts of before joining us yesterday. While certainly an interesting road that runs through a very scenic area, Jim and I were not really enjoying it. I think we were spoiled by the sheer perfection of yesterday's roads. I know I was really ready to continue riding perfectly paved roads where I could focus on the ride, not the road. Unfortunately Wayah Rd is more like a twistier version of a central PA road - iffy pavement in places, gravel when you least expect it, etc. It was very tight with lots of elevation changes.
After a quick photo stop at scenic cascades we quickly came across a rider down. We must have missed the crash by seconds, the rider was just getting up and surveying the damage. The rest of his riding group was just pulling over as well.
As best we could tell from their conversation, the crashed rider was pushing himself too hard playing "cat and mouse" (their words) and went down on a patch of gravel leading into a downhill left-hander. Someone in his group said he was doing "50 or 60" at the time, which would have been pretty damn quick for those conditions.
While the rider was OK, save for a little brush burn on his elbow, his beautiful old GS1100E was not. His day of riding was definitely over.
Cascades on Wayah Road
GS1100E was prettier a minute ago
"And right here's where he ran out of talent..."
"Which way to the Reservoir Dogs audition?"
You can see the gravel (light colored bad in the center lane) and his crash start (black stripe)
Nice set of curves on Wayah Rd - just watch out for the gravel
As we headed east on Wayah there were some very nice sections, with mediumly tight hairpins and perfect black pavement. After just a few miles though it reverted back to patchwork gray the crap on the road. After Wayah we had a short stretch on 64 to get to Hiawassee and head further south. 64 was fast 2 and 4-lane, nothing special, just a connector.
Woo-hoo! The only new state for the Multi on this trip
76, or Lookout Mountain Scenic Highway, carried us east with some nice twisty sections up and over mountains, then flattened out for a while as we approached Clayton. Stopped for lunch at the Savannah Street Cage, where we were assured that the special was "cooked by grandma". Lunch was served with pitchers of sweet tea - mmm, good. We picked up WarWoman Rd immediately east of Clayton. The first 10 miles or so were just so-so, but I did have a nice groove going once I got past a slow-moving truck that held up the rest of the guys for a bit. The last section of the road was flat-out spectacular, but over too quickly. Fortunately it ended at Moonshiner 28, which we were going to use to take us back to the Robbinsville area.
I must be practicing my Italian for something
Moonshiner is a treat, very remote and very twisty, with nearly all perfect pavement. Unfortunately the weather soon conspired against us, and the rain started coming down. Once we switched to rain gear the pace was distinctly slower as it drizzled for the next 20 miles. As we were passing through the upscale town of Highlands, NC the skies really opened up. We got a couple miles north, and decided to head back into town and find someplace to wait out the weather.
We picked a nice spot to change into our raingear
After finding some parking on the main drag (which had more BMW's, Mercedes, and Volvo's than I'd seen in a week) we found the local ice cream place and set down our wet gear to wait a bit. The place only had 2 chairs, so we had to take turns sitting down. After maybe an hour the rain was tapering off, so we ventured back out - but only as far as the liquor store next door. We were intent on not returning to Robbinsville without beer, lest we have another wasted evening. The place turned out to have a pretty decent selection of brews, so we chose several different varieties and packed up the bikes.
I could probably have gotten one more 6-pack in there. Very happy to find Fat Tire!
We continued on Moonshiner28 in and out of light rain all the way back up through Franklin. It's a shame the weather was not cooperating because it really was a hell of a good road, and very long to boot. My patience for wet hairpins ran out about 20 minutes before the road did though, so it was becoming just work getting to the end of it. We thought we were past the weather on our last quick blast into Robbinsville, but then it completely poured on us - for 5 minutes.
We got back to the hotel around 5:30, and Dave brought up the idea of going to see the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, about 15 miles west of us. Peter and Jim weren't too interested, but I figured a rainy afternoon is a good time to visit the forest - if the sun was shining, I'd rather be riding. I had in my head a relaxing 20 minute ride to the forest, an easy amble on a level path around some trees, and a short ride back. Didn't turn out quite that way though. First, the road there, CR1134, sucked. Crappy broken pavement, lots of junk in the road, not my idea of fun. Turns out it was Dave's idea of fun though - he quickly disappeared into the distance.
"C'mon, this will be fun!"
A nicer section of CR1134
"What's taking you so long? Oh, you're having a heart attack. See you at the top."
Once we got to the parking area for the "walk in the woods", we were eager to get on with it so I left my Phantom suit on and grabbed the DSLR. Turns out the path isn't just a "walk in the woods", but a mile+ round trip thaat climbed and climbed and climbed. I've done a lot of hiking in Colorado, so I wasn't unfamiliar with elevation gain, but I've never hiked with a full riding suit on, in muggy 90 degree conditions. After 10 minutes or so I was a wet dishrag. It was a struggle to keep up with Dave, clad in much more appropriate t-shirt. We made it as far as the memorial plaque, and I called it quits. Dave was free to continue to the trees if he wanted, but I was done. For the hike back down I carried the Phantom, which was an improvement, but I was already worn out. I was so soaked I debated putting the Phantom in the topcase and riding back squiddly, but just couldn't bring myself to do it. The ride back was great, a little bit of the Cherohala and 143 back to the hotel.
Bikes all tucked in
Just over 2000 miles on this trip so far
I got a shower once we got back, and Jim and I went shopping for stickers/shirts/souvineers in the hotel "store" behind the counter. The woman was quick to invite us back there, but once we were joined by Dave and Peter I think she was overwhelmed.
Nicely chilled by dinnertime
Dinner was had out on the porch of the hotel, 2 pizzas delivered. Which we consumed, along with our newly aquired beer, over conversation long into the night. A great way to end a day on the road.