After a quick stop at the Modshack (thanks again Susan and Steve!) I was finally headed back west with a detour planned at the Tail of the Dragon. North Carolina is a large state when driven east to west, it's about 400 miles from the Shack to the Dragon. It's a nice state for cruising though, beautiful scenery, wildflowers, decent speeds and not too much traffic. I did hook up with a silver 180 FWD coupe for a bit but he was traveling at speeds too rich for my blood so I dropped back to a conservative 7 over. Thanks for the entertainment though! The landscape changes pretty dramatically as you get further west and start climbing into the Smoky Mountains. Not a really serious climb but it's nice to do some mountain passes again.
Early in the afternoon I headed off of I-40 and headed for US 129 where the Tail of the Dragon is. I got a bit sidetracked off of US19 and was on US23/74 but it was headed in the right direction and was scenic enough. Once I turned onto 129 the traffic thinned out and things started getting more interesting. I rolled over 98,000 miles just at the beginning of 129.
The Dragon itself is absolutely bizarre, insane and intense. I still don't understand how it exists, I guess it's the closest thing to the Ring that we have. I was in local traffic with sport bikes darting in and out trying to get free, go around a corner and there's the Killboy crew taking pictures, go around the next bend and there's emergency equipment a wrecked bike and a guy strapped to a stretcher. In fact as I came up to the start of the Dragon traffic was stopped for a wreck and I saw 3 people on stretchers, lots of wrecked bikes and tons of ambulances and police along the 11 mile stretch. I thought they'd shut it down for wrecks but it's just like a local caution. I did get a couple of spots without any traffic and was able to really run hard and it was intense. It's very tight, lots of 2nd and 3rd gear stuff, lots of camber. The TT is really good in these conditions, WOT acceleration out of the tight corners, quattro doing its thing and rocketing into the next bend. The Stoptechs got a workout too :) I thought about doing a couple runs but the steady stream of ambulances and police cars headed southbound made me think twice so I continued on to I-40. It was fun and I'm glad I made the stop but I don't think I'll head back. Way too much traffic and bikes, people running beyond their limits. It is the most intense 11 miles (318 turns) I've driven but some of the twisties out in Oregon aren't too far behind and are alot safer.
After the Dragon I continued west on 40 and eventually made it west of Nashville, taking advantage of the time zone change west of Knoxville. I should be in good shape for tomorrow, another 700 miles and I'll be in Oklahoma.
Trip Stats:
700 miles
11hrs of driving
65mph average speed
30mpg
27k ft climbed
three gas stops
3 comments:
"I thought they'd shut it down for wrecks but it's just like a local caution." That's awesome, and I believe, true on the Dragon.
We're taking a roadtrip to drive Mosquito Ridge Road. If we survive, you're going to love it.
E
"I thought they'd shut it down for wrecks but it's just like a local caution." That's awesome, and I believe, true on the Dragon.
We're taking a roadtrip to drive Mosquito Ridge Road. If we survive, you're going to love it.
E
Thanks for the mention, and sorry you ended up making your virgin run during such a hectic time. Give it another shot sometime at different hours, or different days. During the week is much calmer, and late day, early morning, or night time is down right eerie it's so dead.
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