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Tail of the Dragon - Survival USA

Chad (see member "Chad" from DeWitt, Iowa) and I just returned from a four day trip to the Robbinsville, NC - Deal Gap, TN area. Much to share but most will have to wait until I have more time.

Summary: We trailered bikes from Iowa to our motel in Robbinsville, NC in order to limit travel time to a single (16 hour) day on the road. Trip started at 6:00AM Saturday, April 25, 2009, and we arrived near 10:00PM.

Sunday, April 26: Rode the multiple loops including the Cherohala Skyway. Altogether the day included over 200 miles of glorious highway miles including the Skyway through Indian country (the Cherokee National Forest and the Nantahala National Forest ... name is taken from the first four letters of "Cherokee" and the last four letters of "Nantahala", two adjoining native American reservations.

Monday, April 27: Most of the day spent riding the "Tail of the Dragon" - multiple times. The Dragon's Tail is a stretch of road consisting of 11 miles that includes 318 turns (that's right, 318 turns, most of which are the "hairpin" variety). There is much more to riding the Dragon's Tail than just hopping on your bike and making a bunch of sharp turns, and I'll try to cover more detail later ... but picture the following: You are on a cruiser, or worse, a lumber wagon like a Road King or Gold Wing, traveling a very narrow road that goes from one sharp turn into the next - with no "straightaway" in between turns.

Now add the fact that on one side of you is mountain - straight up - and on the other side, a drop-off into a gorge that is so deep you can't see the bottom. Sound like a thrill? Wait! Now imagine that this is a federal highway that allows any vehicle to drive it, so, as you come out of any of the 318 hairpin turns, you may see the entire road - ditch to ditch - filled with a commercial vehicle, even 18 wheelers on occasion. They all drive it, the RVs, motor homes, sports cars trying to set a record, straight-trucks, semi-trucks with trailers, you name it, and some have no clue going in that they might fall off the mountain in the next eleven miles.

But the scariest part is the "crotch rockets", which are definitely built to travel 50 mph on roads with curves that only allow my V-Star to get to 10 or 15 mph. All of them want to go as fast as possible of course, and when they come up behind a cruiser, tourer, sportster, car or truck, they pass it - period. They ignore double-yellow (no-passing) lines, and speed limits (30 is the highest I saw in the 11 miles but these bikes hit 80mph in some places on the Tail); so your only defense - and protection for them - is to constantly watch your rear view mirrors so you can get to the far right of the narrow road to give them as much room as possible. It's a wild ride, and not at all safe ... but it sure is memorable, and we traveled it four times - twice South-to-North, and twice back!!

More when I have time, including video and pics that I'll share when I have a chance to edit and post them. For now, however, I got home last night and now have to repack to leave immediately for a business trip to top off the week. I think I'll drive the car to Chicago. LOL!
Bye for now!!

Comment by Dion Liphart on April 29, 2009 at 3:21pm: Glad you had a good time Larry yes wasnt it fun to ride to Dragon Oh yes we did it 2 up and on a Kawasaki Voyager XII and had on one pass us. Monday a bad day to ride like you said crotch rockets lay claim to the Dragon on Mondays middle part of the week you would have the Dragon more to yourselfs.

Comment by Larry Walther on April 29, 2009 at 6:24pm: Enjoyed myself immensely, Dion! The Tail of the Dragon is special because of its degree of difficulty, but there are many other great roads in that area, and we rode every major one we could squeeze in, in the two days available to us. We actually passed on of those sports bikes (aka crotch rocket). But it wasn't fair because it appeared to be a young lady who might have been taking her first ride ... or her first ride on that bike, anyway. we followed her for a mile or so, and she apparently knew the "rules", because when she safely could, she got over and waved Chad and myself around her. We passed her but ...

... we never saw her "come out the other end" (at Deal's Gap), so I suspect she turned the bike around and maybe took it back to the dealer; or perhaps she took it back to the boyfriend who dared her to ride the "Tail", and beat him bloody with the kickstand. LOL!

Comment by Dion Liphart on April 30, 2009 at 7:55am: The Dragon was a nice ride yes in deed but I think I enjoyed the Cherohala Skyway more very nice road in good conduction breath taking view,s nice and twisty you have your straight drop off,s rock & stone retaining walls and alot longer than the 11 miles. All the roads in that area are nice motorcycle riding roads The Blue Ridge Parkway another fine exampel of a great road not just for motorcycles but for the person that wants a scenic drive it is most definitely a beautiful part of this great country of ours. I hope to one day get back out to the westren states and do more riding since it has been years a ride threw the Rockies would be nice.

Comment by Rdcnslr on May 1, 2009 at 11:20am: Larry, glad to know you are back and that the bike got fixed. I assume it performed perfectly through all those curves. It sounds a like about 50 miles on ID-55 from Banks to where it emerges in Round Valley. It is part of the trip along the Payette River from McCall to Boise. I think there are a few more straight stretches but when the road sign says 30 or 35, even the crotch rockets have to slow down to at least 50 to make it safely through. You do find a few crosses on a couple of them. Glad to have you back!

Comment by Larry Walther on May 3, 2009 at 5:23am: Hi Rdcnslr,
Yep, the V Star was great through the entire trip. And I felt much more comfortable knowing that the rebuilt electrical system easily supported me running with my headlight bar turned on all the time (the old system didn't put out enough watts to light the light bar and still keep the battery charged).

On GoogleEarth, that road you mention, especially the stretch that appears to run alongside the river from Boise to a point about 65 miles north - through Horseshoe Bend - looks like it would be an really great ride. It looks, from the air, more like the kind of road on the Cherohala Skyway than the one called the "Tail of the Dragon". The Skyway is a stretch of about 60 miles, like the one you mention. I'd love to travel Idaho someday! You are blessed with beautiful country, Mike!

Good to be back home. Oh, did I mention that those mountains took their toll on me - the transmission in my Dakota couldn't handle the work, and now has to be rebuilt (about a $2,000 job)!! I''m lucky to have access to a shop that is owned by a transmission genius, and I'm having him (at his suggestion) go the whole nine-yards, putting in a cooling system for it while rebuilding the transmission. It should be able to handle a trailer carrying a couple of bikes over "little" mountain roads when done, so that's the good news ... and to those Easterners who are offended when I call the eastern ranges "little", trust me; I've traveled both the Appalachians and the Rockys and I can call the Smokey mountain ranges "little" from personal experience - grin). Thanks for the comments, Mike.

Comment by Robin Willey on May 5, 2009 at 12:08pm: You look like you had a great time, can't wait until I can go. My little Lucky Star is itching to "ride the dragon"

Comment by Donna/BlueEyedDragonfly on May 8, 2009 at 8:19am: You're a very good writer...I got a very good mental picture of what it's like there!!! Glad u made it back safely!

Comment by Larry Walther on May 14, 2009 at 9:34pm: Thanks for the compliments BlueEyedDragonfly/Donna! Nice to hear that I'm successful as a story-teller. I have my hands full right now, but my plans include adding to the story - as I've barely scratched the surface.

Robin, Lucky Star will love the Dragon, but practice your hard U-turns in a vacant parking lot before you go - a lot is better than a little. I'd make that recommendation to anyone regardless of present or prior skill level, because the turns found on the Tail of the Dragon are NOT something you get practice on during your normal commute, and the more comfortable you are with U-turns at speed, the more fun you'll have on the Tail. Just a thought...

Comment by Larry Walther on May 18, 2009 at 3:18pm: MORE ABOUT THE CROTCH ROCKETS

To add to the tale (not "tail" - grin) of the Dragon, I'd like to tell a story about the crotch rockets mentioned earlier, and I'd also like to correct any impression I might have inadvertently created that my respect for the riders of this motorcycle breed is anything less than completely respectful.

On a sunny Monday while riding North to South on the Tail of the Dragon, Chad and I came hard around another of those 318 U-turns when we met, face-to-face so to speak, a young man on a sport-bike coming from the other direction. He was "riding high" for that breed, indicating he was coasting, and was frantically waving (in a pointing fashion) toward the "outside" of the turn we were then negotiating. I was the lead bike going the other way, but knew that Chad would follow my lead - and my intuition plus the working part of my brain - the part that wasn't actively engaged in the effort to avoid driving off the side of the mountain - both told me to get the hell over to the far-right side of the road - the side closest to the drop-off into an endless chasm in the Smokey Mountains.

So I did. Get over, that is. Just in time to get out of the way of a very large straight-truck coming at me in more than just his own lane. So I was and will remain always grateful to the crotch-rocket rider who took the trouble to warn on-coming traffic. But there is a point to be made, and a lesson to be noted:

The point is that the sport-bike rider automatically warned on-coming motorcycle traffic to "get to the right", to avoid the truck. Any rider of any other motorcycle type such as a cruiser or a tourer, would have warned on-coming traffic to "stop", or "slow-down", but to a crotch-rocket rider, slowing down is just not something they would think of - for any occasion whatsoever! They might move over for you, but they would never think to slow down. LOL!

The lesson I mentioned has to do with the courage and skills of that sport-bike rider. I ask you a question: How did that crotch-rocket get in front of the truck, in order to warn on-coming traffic?? No truck on earth is able to pass one of these 160-200mph machines, so the only possible answer is, "at great personal risk" - THAT is how the sport bike got in front of the truck. The truck was large enough to occupy much ~ or most ~ of both lanes, so in order to get in front to warn others, the sport bike had to have come upon the truck from behind, then passed that truck with little room for the slightest error in judgment, or failure of his skills.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I am a huge supporter of the skills and courage of our crotch-rocket brethren, and the scary machines they have chosen as their own. More power to them, and for God's sake, Ride Safe!!
~ more later ~
Larry

Comment by Rdcnslr on May 20, 2009 at 8:52am: Great story, Larry. I know what you mean about the 'at great personal risk' of some of the crotch-rocket riders. It is amazing to me that some of those folks think the highways are racetracks and usually have little regard for others using the roadways. But, they are making choices, just not the choices that I would make. I rode a friend's BMW (model unknown) and it scarred the ....... out of me at the amount of power for such a light weight machine. I found myself at 70+ and I still had two or three more gears to go! I think I will stay with my new V-Star 1300.

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