MotoCamping IL to East TN & West NC 08/13

[jallen4717]

Just finished a moto-camping trip from Peoria IL down into Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina.
I am going to do 5 separate posts for this thread (1 for each day).
My intention when leaving was to primitive camp all 4 nights mainly because I wanted to camp for free.

Day 1. Peoria IL to Frozen Head State Park, Wartburg, TN
Planned Miles: 588
Actual Miles: 620

I Left Peoria a little before 5:30 am. Just before I left I noticed that one of my head lights were out. But only when the low beams are on.:BLAA:
The ride from IL to TN is all interstate so it's quite boring. I did get to try out my frame sliders as highway pegs by laying my legs on them. This was helpful but the sliders could be a little longer. You still have to hold your legs on them so you cannot completely relax your legs. (I have the shorter OES sliders). I think the longer ones would do the trick.

Once I got into TN and off the interstate the road got interesting real quick. I rode the TN116 portion of the Devils Triangle. The road has some treacherous spots with gravel and dirt washout coming across the road from driveways. The big switch back curves on this road are true 1st gear corners. This is the only road I have felt I needed to be in 1st gear to be able to properly accelerate out of the corner. The road also has many unprotected drop-offs on both sides that really make you want to concentrate on what you're doing. Overall though, the road is quite fun. I didn't get many pictures here because there just wasn't many safe places to pull off.

After finishing the devils triangle I made my way to Frozen Head State Park and had about a .5 mile hike to my primitive camp site. I had to leave the bike in a parking lot under the cover with some of my gear in the tail bag. This did make me quite nervous but there is no way I could pack it all in. I brought along a military issue camelback and rigged up a way to attach my cortech sport saddle bags to the back of it so it was a back packing setup. I strapped my tent and sleeping bag to the top of that and threw my riding jack over the top and away I went into the woods. I am glad it was a short hike because that was not the best system for backpacking and it was heavy.

I made camp and had trouble getting a fire going so I got stuck eating cold hot dogs for dinner. It was getting dark and I still needed to find a spot to hang my food bag (bear country) so I found a spot downstream and got it hung just before dark. After that I came back and finally got a fire started and started to sip on the jar of Ole Smokey Moonshine that I picked up on my way there... (Only seemed fitting since I was in the region). Well that stuff was pretty good and I ended up downing the entire jar and woke up with a terrible headache. That was the first and last night I drank any alcohol.
Overall it was a good day of riding.

Day 2 coming soon...

 

[jallen4717]

Day2
Frozen Head State Park, Wartburg, TN to Pisgah National Forest, NC (Near Brevard)

Planned Distance: 350
Actual Distance: 340

Day 2 started with me packing up camp and hiking the 1/2 mile back to the bike. All said, it took me about three hours by the time I was actually able to get on the bike and go. This left me feeling a little behind the rest of the day.

After leaving Frozen head it was mainly just four lane highway and interstate until I got to Tellico Plains TN to start the Cherohala Skyway. This road is primarily a 3rd gear road with long sweeping corners. There are also numerous pull-offs with very good views along the entire 43 mile stretch as well. It finishes in Robbinsville, NC.

From Robbinsville I headed north on 129 to hit up the tail of the dragon. I think most have heard about this road so I won't go into much detail about the road itself. But I basically did a run from the store to the overlook and back. I surprised myself with how much I could still pitch the bike over with all the extra weight from my gear on it though. I nearly ground off the balls on my peg feelers and even added a little extra clearance to my center stand on this trip (most of it coming from the dragon). There is risk on the dragon and that usually comes from other riders doing stupid stuff. I mention this because someone on an '05 FZ6 decided that turning around while hidden behind a blind corner was somehow a good idea. And of course as he was doing this guess who comes blowing around that corner at a high lean angle? No worries, I was able to get the bike slowed down and he got in his own stinking lane in time for me to safely pass though.

After leaving the dragon I headed down the Moonshiner 28 all the way until the Highlands. This is a good road with some very tight sections. I find this ride a little more enjoyable than the dragon because it is more remote and has much less traffic. The road surface is not that great in some places but the pavement between Franklin and the Highlands is freshly paved so it's a good road. One important landmark on the road is bridal veil falls. It's right on the side of the road and you can ride right under the falls for a photo.

From the Highlands it was 64 east on into Brevard. I originally planned on taking 215 north and connecting to 276 down into Brevard but was running out of daylight so I decided to avoid the twisty detour. 64 is a good twisty road as well until you come to 215. Once you passed 215, it straightens out a bit and becomes four lane at some point.

At Brevard I ate dinner because I wasn't interested in anymore cold hot dogs if I couldn't get a fire going that night. I also filled up my camelback with water and headed up 276 until I came to forest service road 475B. 276 is a good twisty road that is in decent shape. 475B is a gravel road with steep sections and numerous switchbacks. I took it nice and easy and after running up and back down the road I found a primitive camp spot just before it turned dark. I had to use my headlights and headlamp to set up my tent. It sure does get dark in the forest with a heavy canopy. No light from the moon even makes it through. I will attach a picture of my tent looking with only my head lamp turned on.

Overall it was quite a long day. By this point I was starting to see my planned mileage each day was going to be a problem...

Day 3 coming soon

 

[jallen4717]

Day 3 - Pisgah National Forest off 276 to Rocky Bluff Campground off NC209.

Planned Miles: 330
Actual Miles: 455

The day started at the primitive campsite I had selected at dusk the night before. It turns out it is more of just a parking area that someone had set up a fire pit in at some point. Due to the fact that I was out in the wilderness and no shower facilities were near by, I was bird bathing it out of my camelback that morning. So as I'm standing there in my gym shorts, no shirt, washing my hair with my camelback, a couple pulls up wanting to head down the trail from that location. They obviously seemed a little hesitant to get out of their car due to the weirdo standing half naked in the middle of the forest washing his hair. But eventually the guy got out and explained he likes to park in the area that was right next to the bike (where the tent was but I already had it packed up at that point). I told him to go ahead, it wasn't going to bother me any. So they did and headed up the trail. Sure glad I didn't do what I was going to do and go bathe in the creek that was down the same trail they headed down. That would have been real awkward.

Before leaving I had to do a little bike maintenance due to some rough idle issues I had toward the end of day 2. I believe I am in need of some new plug caps and/or wires. I pulled the plug caps and made sure they were tight on the wires and applied dialectric inside. That helped for the day, but was back by day 4.

After leaving, I headed down the gravel forest road back to 276 and continued north until I hit the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Wow, I thought the views from the Cherohala Skyway were good. My opinion is that they really didn't compare with what can be seen from the BRP. One of my bigger regrets is that I did not stop for too many pictures on the BRP. I followed the BRP until I came to NC151 (Devils Drop).

Devils Drop is as it sounds, a steep section of highway descending from the mountains down into the Asheville area. The road conditions were pretty smooth and I would recommend this road to anyone in the area. After you get down the mountain the road does straighten out and gets a little boring, but if someone was on the BRP, it would be a good road to go down and back up. Kind of wish that I would have done that instead of the route I took.

I took 151 north until I hit I-40 and ended up riding that until I hit 221 north in the Marion area. I had planned on getting back on the BRP right after getting through Asheville but there was a detour that took me all the way to 221. Used 221 to get me to 226A The Diamondback.

226A is another twisty mountain road. The path the road follows is quite awesome. There plenty of switchbacks and some sweepers. The only problem is that the entire road is loaded with crack sealer. The crack sealer definitely slowed me down on this road. I still rode quick, but had to plan my path around the corners to avoid the crack sealer instead of hitting the best line for the corner. There was a cool little hotel in a town called Little Switzerland that would be cool to check out if I wanted a place with a view.

After passing through Little Switzerland it was back to the BRP for some good sweepers and more scenery. Then onto 221 for some higher speed riding and some good twisties northeast of Linville. Then it was 321. I remember not enjoying much of 321 mainly due to traffic and the fact I got turned around once and went about 20 miles out of the way.Once I got close to the TN border, it got better. More sweepers than anything though. Nothing real technical. Then I got turned around again in the Hampton, TN area. Lost another 15-20 miles there as well.

Once I got to TN173, TN107, NC226, & NC197 I was happy again. Those roads all were primarily open roads with back to back sweepers. There were also some tight sections as well. It did seem that in this area, the roads had more gravel in the corners than alot of other roads did for some reason. It didn't really seem that this was coming from someone cutting the corner but more from a dump truck maybe. Not totally sure....

Then it was on to 19W. I would recommend this road as a good right. It started out with mainly sweepers but tightened up around the state border. T352 and NC212 were primarily made up of sweeping corners with good road conditions.

I ate dinner in Hot Springs and at that point had been looking for a gas station for a little while. After dinner I decided I needed to find gas before securing a campsite. This turned out to be much easier said then done. I looked on my GPS for the nearest gas station and it was 10 miles up the road. Well, I got there and it was more like 20 miles and the station was already closed for the day. I then looked at the GPS again and the next station was up the road about 22 miles. At this point, I already had around 30 miles on the F-trip. I began to get real nervous. Not to mention that dark was closing in pretty quick. I decided at that point I would be coasting the bike as much as possible to conserve fuel. I think this had to be what saved my butt. I ended up finding a little general store with gas pumps out front with 232 miles on the tank. It was one of those places where you aren't totally sure they sell gas until you ask. After getting gas it was completely dark out and I decided that trying to scout out a roadside camp site in the pitch black would be a bad idea so I started toward a campground I had passed on my way down 209. On my to 209 I had to head up over a mountain on NC63.

On 63 I ended up laying the bike down. No serious damage to me or the bike. A small scrape on the knee, broken turn signal, big scratch on right headlight mole, scratched up lower cover, and a chewed up frame slider. I fixed the turn signal that night and figured everything else could wait. My excuse for what happened is probably that the corner has a decreasing radius to it and I just couldn't see around it enough on my approach. Once I realized it was going to tighten up I got all over the brakes and believe I put the front wheel into a slide and went down. I really didn't want to be on a mountain road at night but did not feel like I had much of a choice at that point.

Finally made my way to the campground, damaged pride in all. Set up camp hoping that day 4 may be a little better.

Day 4 Coming soon...

 

[oaks]

Thanks for taking the time to write up the ride report. Had to look up the towns and roads in your most recent post. You really were in the middle of nowhere, it seems. Glad your fall wasn't too serious out there.

 

[Cloggy]

Thanks for sharing, great ride report and stunning pics :rockon: looking forward to the next installment :thumbup:

 

[Water Bear]

Great report to read.

Sounds like some fantastic experiences. The BRP is really amazing!

 

[jallen4717]

Thanks for taking the time to write up the ride report. Had to look up the towns and roads in your most recent post. You really were in the middle of nowhere, it seems. Glad your fall wasn't too serious out there.

I thought I included a link to the map in my original post but I guess I didn't; So here it is:
https://www.google.com/maps/ms?msid=203727309195583063718.0004e3c1a3f42508f0eab&msa=0

Yeah, that was definitely not the place to be getting stranded or seriously injured. Also, it appears the bike does have a tip over sensor that requires the key to be turned off and back on before it will start back up. I figured this out after a couple tense moments of just hearing the starter crank the engine over...

Hope to get day 4 put in later tonight...

 

[oaks]

I thought I included a link to the map in my original post but I guess I didn't; So here it is:
https://www.google.com/maps/ms?msid=203727309195583063718.0004e3c1a3f42508f0eab&msa=0

Yeah, that was definitely not the place to be getting stranded or seriously injured. Also, it appears the bike does have a tip over sensor that requires the key to be turned off and back on before it will start back up. I figured this out after a couple tense moments of just hearing the starter crank the engine over...

Hope to get day 4 put in later tonight...

:thumbup: Map was over in your invitation thread:

http://www.600riders.com/forum/im-going-ride-you-comin/50337-8-24-8-28-eastern-tn-western-nc.html

Keep the report coming! Write-ups like yours are my favorite part of the forum. You have my envy and regret.

 

[jallen4717]

Day 4 - Rocky Bluff Campground to Frozen Head State Park

Planned Miles - 321
Actual Miles - 355

Day 4 started at Rocky Bluff Campground off of NC209 just south of Hot Springs. I did not take any pictures here mainly because I was still mad that I had to break off my plan of staying in a free primitive site each night. But, the campground is decent and quiet. It has flush toilets and running water but no shower facilities. I did break 3 tent stakes trying to get them in the ground on the terrible hard tent pad that was there. I eventually decided it was not all that necessary to stake the tent out anyway...

After leaving the campground, I headed south on NC209 (I believe they call it "The Rattler") until I came to US23 just north of Waynesville. 209 is a good road with plenty of twisties and also a good deal of sweepers. The road condition is pretty good in most places as well. 23 is just a four lane highway I used to quickly get me down to the Franklin area.

From Franklin, I rode Wayah Rd. Wayah Rd. is a good twisty mountain road that connects from Franklin to very close to US129. Wayah Rd. is not in the best shape for high speed riding. The pavement has numerous grooves in places and there seemed to be plenty of gravel in the corners to go around. It was certainly enough to spook the two guys I blew by on GSXR's at one point. On Wayah Rd. I also took a 20 minute detour up a gravel road to see Wayah Bald. It is a gravel forest road with plenty of switchbacks and rough spots to keep you under 20 most of the time. The view from Wayah Bald is pretty good and there is also an observation tower that you can go up (I didn't take the time for the observation tower).

After finishing Wayah Rd., I headed up 129 to connect back onto 143 for another run on the Cherohala Skyway. While on my way up the mountain, I met an ambulance heading down with sirens and lights going so I knew it would be a matter of time before I came to a wreck. Sure enough, after a couple miles I came to a downed Gold Wing with at least 5 guys standing around it just looking at it... I am not sure why it wasn't picked up already, but I didn't stick around to get the whole scoop on what happened since it appeared everything was under control. I did look to see if I could find any news coverage on the crash after returning home and didn't find anything. To me that's probably a good thing...

After finishing the skyway, I took TN360, TN72 to get back to US129 for a final run on the Dragon for the trip. 360 is a good road with some good high speed riding and a couple tighter sections. There was a place that the road comes to a "T" intersection that had a missing arrow for a left hand turn that messed me up. I was supposed to go left but of course went right... It was a couple miles before I figured that one out...

TN72 and US129 are both somewhat boring until you hit the dragon. Once on the dragon, I took a spirited run down to the store and back without spending much time to stand around and talk. Did have a brief conversation with a guy on a Triumph about this little old lady that wouldn't pull off for anyone. We figured she was just kind of in her own little world enjoying the drive...

After leaving the dragon, it was back up 129 north and past Knoxville to stay at Frozen Head State Park for my final night. This time I decided I would stay at their campground instead of trying pack in and stay at a primitive site. I was wanting to get an early start on the heavy mileage coming up the next day. I remembered how it took 3 hours to get all packed up after the first night staying there.

I found a site with no issue and tracked down a ranger to make sure it was okay for me to be there since I arrived after the visitor center closed. No issues with that so everything was all set. It was certainly a relief from the prior day to get settled at camp with plenty of time to spare...

Day 5 Coming Soon...

 

[mxgolf]

Thanks for the pictures and ride report. Looks like a great adventure. :thumbup:

 

[jallen4717]

Day 5 - Frozen Head State Park to Peoria Illinois

Planned Miles - 588
Actual Miles - 621

After breaking down my camp I was ready to go about 7:30 but had to wait around for the visitor center to open up so that I could pay for my night there. If I really wanted to, I probably could have made my way right out of the gate without paying but didn't feel that was the right thing for me to do. It was only $12 after all. This idea only crossed my mind because I didn't want to wait around the extra half hour.

Day 5 was the last day and was primarily made up of interstate riding. I did ride TN116 again, which is the best portion of The Devil's Triangle. I did find a spot to pull off and get a picture of one of the large switchbacks this time through. I really did enjoy my ride on this road and would recommend it as a detour for anyone coming into the area. It is a bit of a ride from the good NC roads so it may be best to do it on the way in or out of the area like I did.

Once I left TN116 it was all interstate for the next 580 miles or so. The only real event that occurred during this portion was the bike turned over 20k miles. I had plans of celebrating this momentous occasion at a very high speed but happened to be stuck behind a sheriff deputy on the interstate when the clock hit 20k. I did eventually pass him after 30 miles of riding behind him and it turns out he was from Georgia. Wish I would have realized that earlier...

After just under ten hours of riding, I arrived back in Peoria just in time to make my sons flag football practice and got to tell him all about my adventures that evening.

Things to note for the next trip:

A moto GPS would have been very useful for keeping me on track and helping me find campsites. Definitely on the list for a future purchase.

If I did this trip again, I would add an extra day. The first and last day weren't that bad since it was all interstate, but trying to cover around 350 miles on mountain roads then find a campsite before dark is tough. If I knew exactly where I was going, maybe it wouldn't be so bad. However, that was kind of the object of the trip is to scout out a good site on the fly. I think 250 miles in that area for camping like I was doing would be a much more comfortable number.

Avoid night riding in the mountains at all costs.
Start looking for gas stations after I hit 100 miles on the tank in remote areas.

All said, this was a very enjoyable trip. There's not much I would do differently as far as route planning. Most of the roads I was on were quite enjoyable. In this region, it is pretty tough to go wrong. Especially coming from flat, boring Illinois.