Friday May 17th, 2019
Day 3.
I awoke to a lovely Alpine morning.
I opened the door to let in the morning light and my jaw literally dropped at the view I was presented with.
It was so dark last night, I had no way of seeing what lay off in the distance.
The mountains and valley that lay ahead, captivated me completely!
I sauntered downstairs after putting my batteries and bluetooth unit and equipment on charge.
Breakfast was cooked right in front of me and didn’t come any fresher.
A couple of waffles, some strips of bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs and coffee to boot, I sat around a table and chatted with other patrons, Mike and his wife for the next half hour or so.
Mike is a lexicon of history of the area and in particular, of the establishment he and his wife now own, which has quite a grand and checkered history of its own, with a wall full of photographs to support the stories from the days of old.
Mike recommended my mornings’ ride. It was another one I had been dreaming of experiencing for a number of years now, but I had the advantage and benefit of his personal experience and guidance for the locale.
As part of his establishment, Mike rents out bikes as well and knows all the great rides in this area.
So I loaded up, suited up and headed out to ride the now fabled Diamond Back. It’s a combination of North Carolina routes 226, 226A, 221, 80 and the Blue Ridge Parkway.
These roads twisted and turned with thrilling hairpins and elevation changes galore.
I loved every inch of them.
A great thrill ride!
If you’re within “a gazillion miles” of this place, definitely go experience this loop.
A “must-ride”, if you love curvy roads!
So it was time now to carry on my journey in search of additional twisty and thrilling roads along my way.
That was the essence of the trip/tour this year.
So far, I had not been disappointed by any of the roads I had plied - with the exception of the road through the Smoky Mountain Park and the surrounding tourist towns!
My next destination - Marion, VA.
I went through there in 2015 and promised myself to come back again. I had particularly enjoyed riding VA 16 - a.k.a The Back Of The Dragon - through the mountains from Marion to Tazewell. Another gem of a mountainous, twisty and gorgeously set road with expansive valley views.
This road boasts many more curves than the “Tail Of The Dragon” and over a longer distance as well - all 32 miles (51 km) of it.
So I jumped onto the Blue Ridge Parkway and continued my ride northwards.
Again as before, it was a gorgeous ride. You will just have to take my word for it and enjoy the photos in the album I have selected to share with you.
I went by Grandfather mountain, experienced another engineering marvel of a road - The Linn Cove Viaduct, which I describe as “A Ribbon in the Sky”.
Here, due to impressive construction, the road was constructed with minimal impact to to the natural surroundings and has made for a highway that wraps around the mountainside, seemingly hanging or floating in the air, with views of the Smoky Mountain Ridge literally second to none!
They chose this construction design purposely so as not to destroy the boulder field of the mountain it wraps around. It allowed for minimal impact to the land.
It’s another of those places that I had for so long wanted to visit and experience; and now here I was!
I mulled around a while, taking it all in and experiencing the area before moving on again.
The road continued its twists and turns until I got to my exit point off the parkway at Boone, NC.
Here I turned onto Highway 421.
Aaah TN 421, a.k.a. “The Snake” - and oh boy did it live up to its name!
Lovely twists and turns through the mountains and then dropping into the valleys to go through through the towns of Zionville and Mountain City (befitting names I thought - Heavenly and thrilling) then on towards Shady Valley.
In Shady Valley I was in another part of heaven.
Then it really started.
The road underwent a complete metamorphosis.
I thought I had been thrilled to the max …………… but beyond Shady Valley the twists and turns really got tighter and seemed to come at me relentlessly.
No sooner had I negotiated one curve, the next was ready.
I was now banking non-stop.
The ST and I were in lock-step with each other!
Oh boy, what a thrill of a ride!
I stayed on it till it met up with Interstate 81 where I exited and turned north-eastward towards Marion, VA.
Again, take my word for it. - Do not, not ever ride this road!
It is worth the journey from wherever you are!
The whole time in the mountains temperatures hovered between 64 - 68’F (18 - 20’C) and rising briefly to about 75’F (24’C) in the Boone Valley.
20 miles (32 km) from Marion I got caught in a very strong downpour of rain, but stayed pretty much dry as long as I kept moving, which I did.
The ST does a great job of keeping me dry by deflecting all the rain up, over and around me due to its great ergonomic design for weather protection.
All was well.
I had excellent grip from my Michelin PR4 GT tires in this weather - the main reason I spend the bucks to ride on these tires.
So at 7:30 p.m. with the sun hanging low in the now opening sky, I checked into The Red Roof Inn with the purchase of the last available room for the day - my luck. This was the one stop I had not pre-booked a hotel/motel for.
…………. but it had been one heck of an enjoyable ride getting here.