2012 Summer Ride - Blood Mountain, Cherohala Skyway, Tail of the Dragon

[GTPAddict]

Bummer man! Well, I'm sure this won't be the last time we go. We'll definitely have to make sure you can go next time.

 

[AthensGA37]

Sounds good. How about we meet at the Quik Trip on 897 West Ridge Road Gainesville, GA 30501. This is 129/hwy 11 and I-985. Of if you can think of a bettre place lemme know. I'll be riding up 20 form the Mall of Ga to 985, then North to Gainsville. How far are you from the Mall of Ga?

If we leave Turners at 9, then you can look back at post 15 in this thread and see how I rode it a couple months ago. There are times marked for every stop. I got back home about 7pm in Lawrenceville. Even if we ride the tail of the dragon twice you should still be home by dark.

Can't wait, this is gonna be fun!

Oh, one other thing. There was a BBQ place that I was going to stop at for lunch but I ended up eating breakfast at 10:30 so I wasn't hungry when I got to Tellico. I'm gonna plan on eating before I leave the house this time (about 7am) so hopefully we can stop this time Everyone likes BBQ, right?

I'm about 45 min- 1 hr from Mall of GA. If its the QT on the right of 129 next to Cargill then I'm about 25-30mins from there. I'm fine with stopping where ever you guys want! I def want to stop and get a sticker after slaying the dragon, and I'm a photographer so that waterfall looked cool, and bbq is food so ofcourse I wanna stop ( i'm a big guy). I'm sure they'll be several good photo-ops along the way on cherohala and top of the tail.

Hey Eddie, that GA F.A.ST group I'm in has some guys that im sure would love to tag along as well. As long as your ok with it since you've organized it all I'll send out a invite. In reality it might only be 2 a guy on a 1125r and a z1000

Oh great, more guys to make me look slow! I need to invite somebody with a scooter or 250 to hang back with me.

I'll be heading back from Myrtle Beach on the 25th...the 26th is the earliest I can do it....

ckrockets, i was going to plan a more casual ride for september on "the gauntlet." it's basically a group of common roads for bikers, but a good marketing scheme for them haha. But includes blood mtn (129) and alot of more scenic hwy's. If you wanted to make the trip down for that it'd be about a 120mile loop if we stayed right on track, but there's plenty of places to pull off or different little twisties. I'll talk to GTP about it next weekend and maybe we can get another thread going on planning that towards later half of sept.

 

[ChevyFazer]

Oh great, more guys to make me look slow! I need to invite somebody with a scooter or 250 to hang back with me.



QUOTE]

there are some fast riders in the group but GA F.A.ST stands for georgia Fighters And STandards, so no worries. I might get on it a little but i mainly just plan on enjoying the day, its been a LOOOONG time since ive just went out for a nice leisurly ride and take in the sights.

 

[GTPAddict]

LOL, not to worry man, no ones gonna leave you behind Just be sure to ride your own ride and not try to keep up with anyone, if you fall behind we'll wait and we won't mind doing so. :thumbup:

 

[GTPAddict]

Hey guys, ready for Saturday? :thumbup:

I am open to any changes here, but I'd like to kinda have a route planned out so we know where were going.. Here's what I did and it worked pretty well...

We'll want to leave Turners Corner General Store by about 9.

Stop at Skyway Convenience and Cafe for gas before hitting the Skyway (138 miles from Turners) (If we need to stop before we get here for a rest that's cool too.) We'll stop at pretty scenic overlooks and the waterfall if ya'll want to. Lots of places on the Skyway to get some good pictures.

After that, we'll stop at KramBones in Tellico Plains for some lunch (about 60 miles from Skyway Convenience but probably about 2 hours) then head to the Tail of the Dragon (should be about an hour from KramBones). There are a couple places to stop at the top of the Dragon as well as a nice overlook, then we can stop at Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort at the bottom for stickers and stuff

From there we can see what time it is and ride the dragon again, or head home, or something else if anyone has any suggestions. Sound good?

Oh, also, let me know by Friday if you're going, I sure don't want to leave anyone. So far I know ChevyFazer, BlueMoon, AthensGA37 are going. Still waiting to hear from a couple more.

 

[Norbert]

Awesome! Have fun.
Don't forget Bridal Veil Falls. Cool photo op.
I'm going later in the year.

 

[GTPAddict]

LOL, kind of a loooong ride from North Carolina / Tennessee area Looks nice though :thumbup:


Edit - Whoops, I Googled Bridal Veil Falls and is came up with California and Colorado. Now I see one in NC. Thanks for the heads up, we'll have to check it out!!

 

[AthensGA37]

So I was looking around..apparently this weekend is also "outSMARTing the dragon" haha. looks like a "smart" car rally is this weekend so we will be surrounded by a bunch of tinker toys!

 

[GTPAddict]

LOL, that should be interesting...

Here are some pics I took at the shop. We have a customer with a smart car. The wheel base is almost the same as our bike

 

[ChevyFazer]

So I was looking around..apparently this weekend is also "outSMARTing the dragon" haha. looks like a "smart" car rally is this weekend so we will be surrounded by a bunch of tinker toys!

I hope we see a "el diablo" smart! I love those little things!

It's a friggin smart car that they shove a dang turbo busa engine in!!!!

 

[GTPAddict]

Those are pretty cool.

smart car

Here a vid, unfortunately the audio is all music...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV4HdsDZX6c]Smart with hayabusa engine - YouTube[/ame]

But you can here the car in this one...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdJ84nho3_k]smart turbo with hayabusa engine - YouTube[/ame]

 

[ChevyFazer]

So no one else is going? Just us 4? All those people who said yes where are y'all? Y'all know it will be a blast, if the shear mileage is intimidating just know that you can leave at anytime, it's not like we are going to force you to ride. So come on guys where y'all at!

 

[GTPAddict]

As of now, the only people I know that are going are AthensGA37, Blakester122, ChevyFazer, BlueMoON, and I. I'm meeting AthensGA37 and Blakester122 in Gainseville about 8am, then we're meeting ChevyFazer and BlueMoON at Turner's Store. We'll try to leave there about 9am.

Sound good? Anyone else wanna go?

 

[ChevyFazer]

I just washed my bike!!! 1st time all year lol

 

[ChevyFazer]

Man for those of y'all who didn't go y'all missed out on one hell of a ride!!!View attachment 44467View attachment 44468View attachment 44469View attachment 44470View attachment 44471View attachment 44472View attachment 44473View attachment 44474View attachment 44475

 

[GTPAddict]

That was a lot of fun! How was the dragon? See and of those bad ass smart cars?

BTW - Here's one more pic you missed

Edit - granda080, thanks for the heads up on KramBones - that place is AWESOME! Even the burps 4 hours later tasted good :thumbup:

 

[Blakester122]

Here is a link to the pictures I took. Had a great time. I'm trying to plan a trip with a few of my friends to take my Miata and a couple of other cars. Also some of them will be bringing bikes to ride. As will I.

We will stay for a couple of days do some riding around maybe some hiking and will camping. So if anyone wants to join let me know and I'll keep you in the loop.:thumbup:

Link: 12 08 05Tail of the Dragon pictures by blakester512 - Photobucket

 

[ChevyFazer]

That was a lot of fun! How was the dragon? See and of those bad ass smart cars?

BTW - Here's one more pic you missed

Edit - granda080, thanks for the heads up on KramBones - that place is AWESOME! Even the burps 4 hours later tasted good :thumbup:

It was great, not too terribly crowded but I did almost hit a semi head on! I was coming up on mile marker 5 where a lot of accidents happen because of the rock wall hiding the blind turn and before I got there I kept getting signaled to slow down so I did thinking there might be a downed rider but right as I was coming up on the turn a biker was pretty much screaming at me to slow down even more I was only going 15-20mph and then I saw why... A big rig turned the corner completely in my lane and we were on a collision course but luckily that was a turn that had a pull off for slower traffic so I turned in there and all was good. And no "el diablos" but as we were leaving there was a small group (no pun intended lol) of smarts pulling in
View attachment 44494View attachment 44495

 

[Blakester122]

So where are the GoPro videos?

 

[GTPAddict]

I didn't get any good vids, y'all were too damn fast, I couldn't keep up! LOL I didn't get my GoPro charged the night before like I thought I did, so I only have about 10 minutes after we leaft the Chevron. I was hoping I had you (Blake) dragging your fingers on the ground as you went around a curve (that was pretty cool BTW), but I guess the battery went dead before that. The other vid I have is after we left KramBones.

Here is one where we passes a state patrol giving a fast driving award to AthensGA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2Yrdp7m30g&feature=youtu.be