Just Spent 4 days in Maggie Valley!

[TNTriker]

Ron and I went up to spend a few days with some friends from Texas. Everyone on two wheels except me. There were 4 Harley's and three Kawasaki's. The weather was very iffy, cool, foggy, some rain and a wee bit of sunshine. We had a great time and we didn't let the weather influence our rides. The Texas crew rode about 1000 miles to get there and said they wanted to ride, ride we did. I lead them on the Blue Ridge Parkway to Cherokee. Over the Smokey Mtns to River Road. Had a meal in Townsend, rode over Foothills Parkway, some back country roads to Tellico Plains. On to Bald River Falls and then over Cherohala Skyway, then back to MV. That was Wednsdays' ride.Tues it was really foggy, so had a little later start, but on the road to Cherokee down Hwy 19, then to 441, down 74 and on to Hellbender (Hwy 28) up to Deals Gap. One of the ladies panicked on Hwy 28 and couldn't do the Dragon, so on the back of my trike she went. A person can't come all the way from Texas and not ride the Dragon...right? We rode through and down to the HD store, and then back through the Dragon to pick up her bike. By that time she had calmed down a little so was able to ride back down the mtn via 129, a little easier I must say. We came on back to MV, didn't know if Denise would be able to ride on any more twisty roads that day. Ron and I came home on Thursday. Ron and I logged 752 miles including our miles there and back. I'm not one to usually check the grade on our hills out here, but took notice this time. I was curious as to a comment from another poster on another thread. It seems that our gopher holes will go up to 6254 ft, with several boasting a 12% grade. The smallest grade is 7%, with 9% coming in at various places. I might also add that these hills don't have any straight road's on them, so the best speed will probably be around 45 to 50 mph. The wet roads became a factor a few times during those two days, but all in all the roads were pretty dry. The trike ran beautifully and even with the extra weight going through the Dragon, she came through like a champ. It would had rode a little better if we could have put some air in the shocks, but Denise didn't complain. She was a trooper and as you can see I am not set up for a passenger. LOL MV is such a beautiful area to ride and for those of you that might be reading this and planning on attending TTR 5, you will not be dissappointed. The Texans said this was the prettiest rides they have been on and a couple of them have been to Sturgis. Sorry for the long post, but just had too much to talk about! Ride safe all.

[Nana]

Great report, Annette! You are whetting our appetites for next month

[Razorback Trike Rider]

I just spent 5 days in Maggie Valley also. There were 8 bikes in our group, mine being the only trike. We did most of the same rides, also a trip up the Blue Ridge Parkway to Mt. Mitchell, a great ride that I highly recommend. We rented a house in town and tried several of the local restaurants, all were excellent and seemed to love having a large group of out of state bikers there. We will be returning to that area again next summer to take in more of the awesome roads and scenery.