[GPX file for day five is at the end of this post]
Okay, so day five, Thursday. Impending weather is iffy... It looks nice outside when I come out of the cabin to go get breakfast at the main building. It's a good breakfast. Then I head back to the cabin for a hot shower and to gear up. During breakfast we decided to change the plans for today and head back up to Deals Gap so Mason can check that off his been there done that list. I'm hoping it won't be crowded since it is a Thursday morning. We get checked out and get on the road, heading back up NC 28 to the Crossroads of Time (do they still call it that?).
The run up NC 28 is a really nice ride. There are some damp spots but otherwise the road is fantastic. With no traffic in front of us we can run a nice pace, meaning not crazy, but smooth and without causing any unexpected adrenaline spikes
I have tried to train myself over the years to pay attention to my heart rate when I am riding. If it starts going up and I am riding on pavement, that means I probably ought to take things down a notch. If we are off the pavement, it probably means I need to hang on and give the bike some more gas! It doesn't take long to reach the parking lot at the Deals Gap Resort. There are some folks here, but it is by no means crowded. Nice. We stop to do a quick walk around the parking lot and check out the hardware.
The infamous "Tree of Shame". Crash on the Dragon and you are supposed to leave a memorial piece of the bike. Unfortunately, there are numerous memorials to riders that never came back from the ride...
Not much ground clearance for cornering!
While checking out the bikes I start talking with some guys that are staying here and they let me check out their room. They have one of the "suites", which is basically two rooms with a tiny kitchenette and a bathroom. The rooms I've stayed in years ago were just one room with two bunk beds and a bathroom. The rooms do look like they've had a decent face lift since I stayed here back around 2002-2003. I think I payed $40/night at the time. I did not check to see what the current rates are, but I suspect they have gone up a bit.
Not my style, but I love the paint jobs I see on these bikes! Notice the wet ground...
The obligatory sign shot before we load up and head out.
Notice that Mason is wearing his rain gear. He's hoping that will keep it from raining...
And with that we head out...
We make the run all the way down to the lake again before turning around to make the run back through. We had a bit of traffic on the outbound run. Heading back, I pull over at the overlook and Roger and Mason go on past us. I slot in behind them. Roger must be feeling frisky because he is moving at a pretty good clip on the 690! Mason is hanging right there with him, nice and smooth. We make it most of the way back without getting caught behind any traffic. Because of this change in plans, it is already getting late in the morning. Today's route would have only been around 200 miles, but this little side trip has added a good hour and a half or more to the ride if we do the whole route. We get back to the beginning and head down US 129 toward Robbinsville.
A quick stop at the dam at the bottom of the mountain again...
Remnants of the original highway I guess... They kind of look like submarine conning towers.
Daniel is calling the shots
We get rolling again. Time is wasting!
This place has really gone upscale since I originally came out here! It is not far from the bridge/dam. The big "feature" of this place was that it was one of the few places you could stay that sold alcohol.
OLD water line that crosses US 129. I make my living designing leak sealing clamps for piping systems. Let me just say, they don't make them like this much any more! I'd be interested to know the history of this line.
We pick up NC 143 in Robbinsville and head West out of town. It is a nice twisty road with no shoulders to speak of in many places. The trees often come right up to the edge of the road. In some of the corners they are cut back a bit more. Where it cuts into the sides of the mountains, there is often a small "ditch" between the edge of the pavement and a rock face, about the width of a VFR 800. DAMHIK...
It eventually brings us to the start of the Cherohala Skyway.
Notice that little note there in the lower right corner of the sign? Basically it means a lot of motorcycles crash here... kind of like Deals Gap
Neither road is that technically challenging unless you are trying to ride them really fast to impress people. Even at well above the posted limit, it is not that challenging. There are some decreasing radius curves, which aren't too bad unless you are over cooking or you just don't know how to lean your bike and roll through them. You might also notice those grey clouds behind the sign... Yeah, they are getting dark and seem to be heading in our general direction. I take this time to switch to my rain gloves and Daniel decides it is time for his rain jacket. With the increase in elevation and the lack of sunlight, it is actually starting to get pretty cool.
The Parkway starts out in North Carolina and then at the Tennessee state line it becomes TN 165. We start climbing from around 2700 feet and eventually get up around 5400 feet just before the state line near Mud Gap. The rain hits and then the fog. Soon we are crawling and I can barely even see the road. Once again my helmet is the biggest problem and it is driving me nuts! I have never had a helmet this bad in the rain! It reaches the point where I am only moving at about 15-20mph with my hazard lights flashing. Several times a car comes out of the fog towards us and it is not until they are almost right in front of us that I can even see their headlights! I am not having fun. The thought of some cager blasting up from behind us and hitting one of us looms large in my mind. I am not having much luck with this road. We had to turn around on our last trip out here because we encountered high wind, heavy rain, and a load of lightning! We never even made it to the state line that time before we high tailed back to our base at Balsam Grove on NC 215 South of the BRP. We can't do that today, but I am hoping we can make it to our turn off onto dirt a little further up the road and get down into the woods where the fog is not usually so bad and there is less traffic to worry about.
We continue slowly making our way forward and it gets cold, like down around 55 F according to my bike's thermometer. Not exactly what a Texan expects in June
We pass a few more cars and eventually a long train of wet and miserable looking cruiser riders heading East. About 10 miles or so past the state line we reach our turn, FR 345, which also becomes Citico Road. It is a nice paved road down through the woods. It is still wet and foggy, but it is getting better. It runs NE along the side of a ridge line. We soon reach a bunch of switchbacks that drop us further down into a valley below where we eventually find Double Camp Creek Road. This is dirt and climbs up the Double Creek valley from 1500 ft to just over 2800 ft at Farr Gap where it makes a turn back to the West and continues climbing to about 3100 ft before starting to wind back down the other side of the valley.
I think this is Cold Spring Road following Jake Best Creek as it flows back down to Citico Road and Citico Creek.
Once of the nicest dirt/gravel road you will ever find, even when it is wet!
A lot of these forest roads start out real nice as you ride by places like campgrounds and other areas where people come frequently. Then they usually keep going and once you get past those area, the quality of the road often degrades in terms of how well maintained it may be. Of course, whether or not this is "degrading" or improving may be a question of perspective
They will usually have some fun challenging sections where the surface is rougher and I have to pay more attention to the lines I might pick when going up or down steep sections. But then after a while they will usually return to an area that obviously sees more traffic and it will go back to being well maintained again. This loop we are doing has been much the same, but it never gets to the point where I question whether I really want to keep going while riding two up on the GS.
Roger waiting for Mason to bring up the rear
Once again, Mason's rain gear has not been up to the task and he's a bit soggy, so not super happy.
Most of the water you see on my visor is on the INSIDE... Those are the clear glasses I picked up at the store at Deal's Gap last night when Daniel and I stopped there. At least with them, I can ride with the visor up and have some chance of seeing, but even they get a good bit of water on them. At least the fog is no longer an issue.
Once back to Citico Road, we are back on pavement. It continues following the creek a ways. The pavement gets more and more narrow and bumpy, as in the ground below the pavement subsiding in the outer half of the lanes. There are also a lot of large tar patches and tar snakes everywhere. I keep the pace pretty mellow and brake early for every corner, going easy on the gas coming out of them. Even still, I manage to have the rear slide around as we are coming down a hill into a right right hand corner. I am barely even on the brakes, and even with the ABS, the rear still slides on the tar. Fortunately, we are still vertical and the front end stays put so we can lean through the corner without any other issues.
We reach Mount Pleasant Road and head East to make another out and back loop from Citico Road. It is a fun road with lots of fast elevation changes and tight corners. The pavement does start to dry out a bit and the sun starts to peak out from behind the clouds here and there. Of course, now we are down under 1000 ft and the heat is coming back on, as well as the humidity! Citico Road and Mount Pleasant Road follow the edge of the Cherokee NF. We eventually reach the Chillowee Lake not far from where Daniel and I had pulled over on US 129 yesterday and visited with the older gentleman that lived out here all his life. I can see the highway on the far side of the lake. Here we cut back West and eventually pick up Citico Road again. Citico Road turns to the SW and we make a run for TN 360. Daniel is complaining about being hot now so we stop to get rid of the rain gear.
Mason is still tired... Happy to be out of the rain gear, but still soggy...
Happy to get ALL of the rain gear off and vents opened!
The little back roads in this part of Tennessee are no where near as nicely paved as similar roads in North Carolina. Seriously, I've not seen many other states that have roads as well maintained as North Carolina. On the other end of that spectrum is probably Louisiana
Once we reach TN 360, we head South for Tellico Plains. This is a fun paved highway and we can pick up the pace to get some wind flowing through the riding gear! The sun is cooking us now. Just before we reach TN 165 at Tellico Plains, we stop at a little gas station for gas and a break. They have a nice covered eating area outside where we can enjoy our ice cream and Gatorade. Roger and Mason make the decision to call it a day and head up TN 360 to Vonore on US 411, where we will be staying for the night. Mason wants to get into some dry clothes. It is also looking like it might start raining again
It's only about 3:30pm and I REALLY don't want to call it a day. It is obvious we won't be able to complete the whole route, but I am thinking Daniel and I can hit about half of the loop I had planned on the South side of TN 165. Specifically, I want to show him Bald River Falls. I tell Roger not to worry unless we don't show up by 6:00-6:30pm. That should give us time to make a shorter loop and then haul back up TN 360 to Vonore to meet them in time for dinner.
And then we are off...
Daniel and I hop on Tn 165 and head East out of town. The road follows the banks of the Tellico River and soon starts to twist and wind in nice sweepers. Where 165 peels away from the river and starts to climb up to the Cherohala Skyway, we head SE on River Road, which follows the river back up into the woods. It is a nice narrow paved road with trees forming a shaded tunnel, which feels good about now! The falls are a few miles ahead. We just enjoy a nice relaxed pace, checking out numerous smaller falls in the river and cool rock formations.
When he sees a rock wall like this, his urge to climb really kicks into high gear!!
When we reach the falls, there aren't tons of people, which is nice. I have been here when it was really crowded and that takes a LOT of the fun out of it.
While sitting there, we speak with the guy taking the pic for us. He's a local. I mentioned having seen people climbing out onto the upper levels of this water fall the last time I was here. He then informed us that a teenage boy had climbed out onto the falls last year and slipped, landing on that big rock just to the right of Daniel's head in the pic above. It killed him. Then rescue workers had to risk their lives to recover his body... Many of the falls in these areas have signs warning people about the danger of climbing out onto the falls and that people die every year from falling. Every year people ignore those signs and some fall to their death... It is hard to describe just how slick those algae covered rocks can be!! I am hoping Daniel is absorbing this.
Vid from iPhone -- there is a LOT of water coming down those falls and it makes quite a racket!
This was the first attempt at the pic above
The water flows under the bridge we are sitting on and joins the Tellico River just on the other side of the road. The amount of water flowing through here really is amazing because the head waters of the Bald River are not that far away. There are a few other feeder creeks that also start in the area. I am guessing they must be some pretty serious springs as this river flows year round at a fairly consistent level. Although, the local tells us about how high the water got under the bridge earlier this year after some REALLY heavy rains over a long period of time. Basically, the lower level of the falls from our shoulders down were submerged!
The climbing urge got the better of him on the way back to the bike
(He's not out over water, the parking lot is just out of frame at the bottom of this picture
)
We get back on the bike and get moving. It is HOT! My original route plan was to keep heading East on River Road and pick up North River Road, which climbs back up to the Skyway at the state line where NC 143 becomes TN 165. Just before the Skyway, we would turn back to the SW on Mud Gap road, which runs back down to the Tellico River and River Road. I drove a Toyota FourRunner out there years ago with Beth and Sarah (when she was 9 months old). It was all unpaved, but I can't really recall much else about it, like how long the loop might take on a bike or how difficult it might be riding two up. So I decide to just lop that section off the route and stick to the River Road until we reach Old Bald River road.
Without even realizing it, we ride right past Old Bald River Road, which ought to be a clue about the road... In fact, we ride right past Mud Gap road, not realizing it was on the other side of the river, accessible by a little bridge that goes over to a fish hatchery facility. Fortunately, not far past Mud Gap road I happened to glance down at the GPS and realized we were moving away from the route on the map! We turned around and found Mud Gap Road. It was a narrow two track trail heading up into the woods. I momentarily pondered riding it up to TN 165 and then running that back down to Tellico Plains, but the fresh memory of the fog and rain on the Skyway was still to fresh in my mind. It also did not look like it saw much traffic. Being alone with Daniel I am a little leery of getting into trouble in the middle of nowhere. So we turn around in the parking lot of the hatchery and head back toward Old Bald River Road, but first a quick pit stop at a camp area that has restrooms.
The beginning of Old Bald River road looked a bit questionable, but after going around a few corners it changed and looked nice.
This will be the last picture I take... We didn't get real far before the road started getting narrower, rutted with erosion from rain run off, steep in places, and there were many places where I was ducking under low over hanging branches... But, it wasn't hard per se... We both noticed that there were at least two fresh sets of tire tracks in the road, so there are people driving through here. Also, in a real pinch, as much fun as it might not be, it would only be a few miles to walk to get back to the River Road if we really had trouble. So we pressed onward.
The road immediately starts climbing, rising over 600 feet in the first mile or so. We pass through an unnamed gap between Sugar Mtn and Maple Camp Lead (another mountain), and the road starts descending down toward the Bald River. We pass another road that would actually take us right up to the head waters of the river. If we had more time it would be fun to head up there and see what we might find, like a big spring just gushing up out of the ground. Not much further past this road, the river turns North away from us and heads back toward the water fall. There is actually a hiking trail that follows the river back through the woods to River Road. We press on and the road starts to climb again, now looking less and less traveled. We climb almost 1000 ft in less than a mile to reach Basin Gap. This is a five way intersection. We continue on our road and it starts getting really twisty, dropping slowly down the side of the mountain above Tobe Creek. About this time Daniel and I both notice that the tire tracks that we had been seeing earlier are gone...
Well, I can see on the GPS that it is not much further to get back to River Road. At Wildcat Road, Old Bald River Road turns North and wiggles its way down out of the mountains back to River Road. After a few fun switch backs it finally drops us back out onto pavement about half way between the water fall and TN 165. We are both somewhat relieved to be back on the highway, but also admit that Old Bald River Road was a lot of fun and it is too bad Roger and Mason missed it! Daniel even mentioned that it was too bad that both days they cut out early we immediately did something really fun.
The time for fun is mostly over. It is 5:30pm and we need to beat feet to the hotel before Roger starts to get worried about us! Fortunately, it is only about 30 miles or so to get there and it is a nice twisty highway. The pavement is dry. Apparently that almost rain never happened. We make good time and reach the hotel parking lot just after 6:00pm, to find Roger and Mason coming out to go get dinner (NOT worried about us
). They do at least wait while we drag most of our stuff up to the hotel and then come back down so we can go get some Mexican food with them in town. The restaurant turns out to be REALLY good, The Cielito Lindo Mexican Grill on US 411 a little West of TN 360.
Stuffed, we head back to the hotel. Amazingly, they sell beer at the hotel. Near the check in desk they have a small room with coolers in them. They are locked. All we have to do is let them know what we want and they grab them for us. So we spend a while sitting outside enjoying a really nice evening and watching Daniel chase lightning bugs again. Shortly after dark we head inside and call it a night.
237 miles for myself and Daniel.
One more day... I'm already getting bummed that the trip is almost over
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This time I am putting along and really watching the GPS, but I still never see a road!? I turn around again and go REAL slow, then I see it, two very faint tracks going up a VERY steep incline... It doesn't look like it has seen ANY traffic in years. I point it out to Mason and it doesn't take long to decide we'll pass on this one and just run up the new TN 68 (that has been there for well over 20 years at least). So we head back to the highway and continue North. We're only on the highway for a few miles, but those few miles are really fun, full of great curves.
We stop on US 64 in town to get gas, snacks, and to take a much needed break. The rain the past few days wasn't always fun, but it did keep things cooler!!
I can barely keep Roger and Mason in sight. We quickly come back to the second water crossing and I see Mason a hundred feet or so up the road on the other side looking back and waiting for us. I plunge in at about 5-10 mph, not enough to make a wake that splashes up onto us and we get across without issue. BUT...
Anyway, this was his turn. He'd already done a solo Arkansas trip with me back in 2017 for a long weekend, then the one we just did this past Memorial Day. He's a very active kid and has a hard time just sitting around with nothing to do. He did okay on day rides and the two Arkansas trips, but I was a little worried about how well he would do with six straight days of riding... 
