Day 10: 300 Miles from home
We know the heat is coming. We know the heat is here so I have to get as many miles in during the morning's cooler hours as humanly possible. Was on the bicycle by 6:00 AM today. We hit a snag with the RV today. An old wooden bridge prevented the RV from following me into the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. I rode ten miles next to the Little River in the denses Smoky Mountain forest. There were almost no sound this morning except for my tires, the wind and the little river as it worked its way north and west.
In another day and time I would never have left the Little River today. I would have slid into waders and walked the smooth rocks of the Little River until heat or exhaustion forced me back to where I started. This is one thing I like about wading and fishing rivers like the Little River. You return to where you start. You create one of the few closed loops in life.
Riding a bicycle in Tennessee today created anything but a closed loop. After a serene and beautiful ride through the Smoky Mountain National Park I was worried. My bicycle GPS made the Little River Road Cullens Cove Road. Accurate road names is one of the casualties of GPS travel. There aren't many exits out of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Exits come about every ten miles. I ignored my route list and GPS and bailed the first chance presneted on 321 near Townsend, Tennessee. I needed to head toward the Foothills Parkway.
These kinds of rough transitions are becoming common on Martin's Ride. Morning quiet gave way to mid-morning's traffic and chaos over four lanes with enough hairpin turns and climbing to make life interesting. Imagine the transition. Breakfast was a granola bar and some water by a smooth flowing clear river in the woods. Less than a mile from the park I'm riding on a four lane highway climbing up to the Foothills Parkway. Climbing with this much traffic stinks, but so do four lane highways generally. In the mountains again four lanes became two twisty, tight lanes with about a four percent incline (not as bad as yesterday but not fun while playing bumper cars).
Feeling GPS lost I stopped to ask an older shirtless man sitting in a truck manufactured before I was born (1958) directions to the Foothills Parkway. "Stay on 321 for another five miles or so, all them boys ride it and they ride the dragon tail thing too," the man in the old truck told me. "Ridomg the dragon," I had to ask. "Up there on route 129 its full of turns," the man said slowly as clearly I was a foreigner. Here is what I found for riding the Dragon's Tail:
The 11 mile stretch of road on US Highway 129, which crosses the Tennessee and North Carolina state lines, is a popular site for motorcyclists. It is known as The Dragon because of its 318 curves. Motorcycle riders comerom around the world to try their hand at taming The Dragon. Riding The Dragon is unlike any other experience. Traffic is minimal because it has become known as the motorcyclist’s domain. Those that aren’t on bikes are people in cars looking for a rush of adrenaline. As the popularity of The Dragon grows, so will the traffic. Be aware at all times. Generally, the route is fairly unpopulated, as it is surrounded by land owned by the Great Smoky Mountain Park Service, Alcoa Aluminum Company, or the US Forest Service. The Dragon starts at Deals Gap, North Carolina. This is the highest point of the ride at 1962 feet above sea level. 318 curves later you are at Tabcat Creek Bridge in Tennessee. You can expect the ride of your life.
I didn't ride the Dragon's Tail today, but I felt his breath riding the Foothills Parkway's black top from ten o'clock to as long as I could take it (about 11:15). Jeremy knew about the Foothills Parkway, a beautiful state road. The Foothills Parkway could be as nice as the Blue Ridge Parkway. Our ten mile ride today, I was joined by Jeremy midway through, was quiet, hot and peppered with views and vistas as magnificent as the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Foothills Parkway as tourist destination never got off the ground. Tennessee built the Foothills Parkway when there was money. Not that there is no money the parkway is a beautiful but little used road. Jeremy believes state governance is a problem best solved by the National Park Service taking the road over similar to the Blue Ridge Parkway arrangement.
I couldn't think about such complicated things while trying to get right foot to follow left foot up another endless mountain pass. Cresting our second peak with heat now fully on us at 11:15 we called it a day and drove to Sweetwater, Tennesse where we had a great free lunch for cancer at
Hunter's Bakery and Cafe. Hunter's Bakery's Owner, Maria, served us and told us about starting her family owned restaurant right in the middle of Sweetwater eight years ago. Meeting generous, kind and courageous peole like Maria is why we've ridden 300 miles from home on a bicycle. Oh yeah, there is that curing cancer thing too.
We will upload pictures and get ready for our ride tomorrow to Possum Creek later tonight.