Day Tripping to Helen

Beautiful weather, if a tad too hot, and we all jump on our bikes and head to the hills.  Personally I would prefer to avoid Helen during the summertime.  It traditionally has miles of traffic leading into town from either direction.  People walking willy-nilly across the streets.  They generally stay in the sidewalks, but it doesn't help when there are no traffic lights.  They just step off the curb and let the cars stop for them.  Which makes progress slow when they stop every single car. 

But our friends hadn't been yet and really wanted to go.  The benefit of riding a bike is that we have easier access to parking.  The biker shops have free parking while all the cars have to pay $5. 

The crowds...

Even traffic on the water...

And some interesting things to look at...

One of Five Corners

During the summer our riding group had the bright idea of planning a four corners trip of Georgia.  Not a bad idea until you consider the shape of the state and realize there could potentially be 5 corners.  But that is just me fussing over semantics.

The group never did get around to taking that trip.  It was either something about the weather or lack of interest or availability or something.  As interesting as it sounded I probably would not have attended because they wanted to accomplish it in 4 days.  It would have been doable, but not conducive to having fun, sightseeing and photography.  It would have been looking at the slab and dashed line all the way.

When it came time to figure out a new ride for us, you know, someplace we haven't been before, we thought the NE corner of Georgia might be a good destination. One of five corners.

Our route took us into some new territory across Tugaloo River defining the border between Georgia and South Carolina and into Westminster for a break.  We were disappointed at the lack of view or anything interesting at Tugaloo River.  It was a short-lived encounter with the river and lots of fishing boats.  Westminster was only interesting because of the people that loved to chat about the bikes and riding at the gas station.

So you ask why are we in South Carolina when we are heading for the NE corner of Georgia?  Fair question.  The Georgia town nearest the NE corner is Satolah.  And the easiest way to get there, on new roads, was to approach it from South Carolina.  Not to mention it looked like the road had some pretty good twisties to offer.

Heading north out of Westminster were lovely roads.  We did encounter some obnoxious riders that wanted to fly the road.  The first passed us unexpectedly in a no passing area running about 90 mph with the passenger in jeans and a tank top.  Par for the course here.  After that I was prepared for the second.  He did hang back for awhile and we passed him on when the coast was clear.  Last thing I want is to hold someone up that is itching to go faster than I am.  They get antsy and dangerous.

Once we turned onto Hwy 28 traffic disappeared and the twisties started in.  The roads were perfect with few cars and some tight roads. They were free of debris and the scenery was bright and green.  We were enjoying the ride so much we almost missed Satolah.  This was a town.  We were expecting at least a small convenience store or something.  Nothing.  There was nothing.  We pass the last mountain and spied a beautiful valley with a couple of farm houses and some nicely growing fields.  There were wire fences with growing vines and border trees.  There were a couple of dirt roads and not much time to take them.  So before we knew it we had passed Satolah and were well on our way to Highland, North Carolina.

We debated about turning around, but there wasn't much area to turn around in.  Our one chance was a gravel turnout where we stopped for a break.  Nah.  We could do it again, but enjoyed the thought of going forward and encountering more twisties on the way home.

Wow.  Looking back on it, it seems like a trip of "should have's".  Should have turned back to Satolah.  Should have stopped in Highlands (cool town, like Big Bear used to be).  Should have gone to Bridal Veil Falls right outside of Highlands.  At least we did turn around for our photo op with the Eastern Continental Divide.

We did hit previously ridden roads on the way home.  That means we rode through Dillard, again.  But we did not stop to partake of the buffet.  We wanted something a little more cozy and a lot cheaper.  So we stopped in Tallulah Gorge.  At a place we have been telling ourselves we will go to for years.  And now we finally have.  The food was great, the atmosphere was great.  We sat out on the wonderful screened in patio and listened to all the chatter.  The day ended nicely.

Stats: 247 miles, 6 hrs 46 minutes (including dinner), wonderful weather and good roads.  Yes.  I do need to ride WarWoman Rd.  And Yes, the watermelon was as good as it looks.

DIY Valve Adjustments

One thing about BMW's...the cost.  Not the initial cost.  Ok, not just the initial cost.  Maintenance is also expensive.  So many people laugh and equate BMW with "Bring Me Wallet".  Fair enough.  When you have to dismantle the bike from the engine back to replace a seal and a clutch you are talking some money here.  So when you can learn more about your bike and save some money you are doing well.

A gentlemen on one of my forums offered to teach people how to perform the valve adjustments on the beautiful little boxer engine.  So I jumped on the opportunity.  My bike did not need the adjustment yet, but there were plenty of other volunteers.  A couple gentlemen even rode from Virginia and DC for the session and easily volunteered up their bikes.

We rolled up our sleeves, opened our eyes and ears and got our fingers dirty.  We learned about removing the spark plug wires, plugs, valve covers, et. al.  We learned a few tips and tricks on adjustments.  We had  educational discussions on too tight wiring harnesses, filing the air box cover so you don't have to remove the tank to reach the filter and packing for long distance trips.

Here are a couple pictures of the innards of a boxer:

 

So some may call them expensive or difficult to work on.  But to me BMW just means Beautiful Mechanical Wonder.

Dillard in Dillard

Talk about some easy riding.  What better way to break up the long, vista viewing rides then with an easy jaunt to some good food.  The Dillard House in Dillard, Ga offers a chance for a great ride.  You can either take the country roads, little traveled, dodging the cows and combines or zip quickly up the straight-as-an-arrow highway.

Dillard, GA is about 2 miles from the North Carolina border. The Dillard House is steeped in traditions of honor, ethics and good food.  In the older days travelers on the road were generally expected to stop at houses for dinner, a bed and society.  And Carrie Dillard excelled at this.  A tradition in hospitality that Carrie Dillard instilled into her children and grandchildren. The house has grown over the years, of course.

I can't say much for the hotel and cottage accommodations, except that I would expect them to be nice.  Heck, I would just love to spend some time in the pool in the summer.  But the food is what we went for...  They offer wholesome Southern cooking in a family style buffet.  This means that you just sit down and they bring all the food out to you.  No menu's, just whatever is on the menu that day is brought out you.  This is generally some grilled or country fried chicken, country steak, fish, fried okra, creamed corn, summer squash with coconut and on and on and on.  The menu changes daily and they bring everything out to you.  And the plates just keep coming....if you have the room for it.

After eating requisite is sitting on the rockers on the patio.  Have to let the food settle a little before gearing back up. After rocking and snoozing a little you can take a walk through the flower garden and go visit the animals in the petting farm.

 

 

 

It's a simply ride with some good scenery.  Just be warned that it will be difficult to get back on the bike with a full belly.  And that the jiggle on the bike will settle the food and make you very sleepy!  Nap time afterward would be a very good idea.

Another Cherohala

Another day, another attempt to get to Cherohala. Guess what? This time we made it! We continued thinking about going but never committed ourselves. So we got up one day figuring we might try again, but weren't going to force ourselves and just go to wherever the bikes took us.

We loaded the bikes up, at the unreasonable hour of 10 AM, and hit the road. Our first stop was a little unorthodox. Our vet had left our practice and was opening her own hospital in Gainesville. We wanted to be supportive and see the new facilities. WOW!! She did a great job designing the new hospital. We oogled and toured and chatted for about an hour, then suited back up.

This little side trip wasn't too far out of the way but gave us the opportunity to ride the roads directly north of Lake Lanier. These roads have always been a little out of the way for us while traveling north. We discovered they were some beautiful, sweeping, country lanes fairly devoid of development. Guess it is too far out of the way for other people too. Yet another area we would be more then happy to purchase 40 acres in and create our retreat.

Again, we traveled through Helen and promptly were stuck in summertime traffic. This proved more then we could handle and we stopped for lunch at Wendy's. Not the best option around but it was quick, easy to get to and out of traffic!! This was our make or break time to decide if we would try for Cherohala or just have some fun on the local roads. As stated we had gotten a late start and it was almost 2 PM by this time. To attempt Cherohala was committing another 8+ hours to the road.

Why not!

We hit all the same roads as last time, but made it to Robbinsville with clear skies and without rain. We pit stopped at a gas station to fuel us and the bikes. We sat on the walkway, ate our candy bars, chatted with some locals about the roads and watched all the bikes pushing towards the Dragon. As always, any stop seems to eat up 30 minutes and this one was true to form. We were back on the road by 4 PM and hit our first Cherohala turnout and photo-op at 4:15.

Finally!  Temperatures were nice, sky was a beautiful blue, fluffy clouds skidded across the sky.  And stopped everywhere we could and enjoyed the sights. 

We started thinking of getting a move on when the gray clouds started rolling overhead.  Those and the knats that kept flitting around, even with the helmets on.

We hit the Tennessee line and the southern facing portion of the mountains and the sun shone down.

With the weather clearing up we determined we had the time to take a short side trip to Bald River Falls, off of the skyway.

Interestingly, the road for the falls crosses a bridge allowing those lazy flippin' cagers to drive by the falls, lean out the window, stretch out the arm with the attached camera take a picture and not ever bother to get out, stretch and enjoy some quiet and clean air.  It also allows for cycles to park against the siderail and take some pretty backdrop pictures.  Which we didn't do...  ;-)  Again, just means that we get to make arrangements to go back.

It was a short jaunt to Tellico Plains and coming up on 7 PM.  We needed dinner but didn't want to take the time of a sit down place with a 3 1/2 hour drive still ahead of us.  We decided to continue on with our crappy junk food options and stop at the gas station that had a little kitchen. Darn!  The kitchen was closed.  We scoured the shelves and settled on the canned and microwaveable Dinty Moore Stew type meals.  The ladies were nice enough to heat them for us and we took them outside to enjoy.  At least we did supplement it with some healthy bananas.  While eating one of the locals engaged us.  He had ridden up on a dusty and dented old Harley Dyna.  He was great to talk with, was building a house nearby, loved the region and chided me on not riding my bike to its full potential as evidenced by the chicken stripes still evident on my tires.  :-)  Can't win them all...

We broke away, deigned to take the highways home to hit higher speeds and make better time home.  We were doing well until C's helmet mike battery died.  About half way home we stopped in a parking lot and allowed him to charge it a little and take our stretch break.  After a while it was just time to get home.  So we booked it.

Statistics: 358 miles, 12 hours 50 minutes, 1 new waterfall, many interesting bikes to chat with.

WE had a wonderful day.  Now go take your own ride.

Sunrise on Cherohala?

We had the bright idea of taking a ride to Cherohala and catching a sunrise, hoping it would make some great shots to have the sun in the background of the bikes. We were also happy to finally be riding the skyway together since we had both ridden it solo previously. However, we failed to comprehend the date of June 21 as the solstice. We went so far as to research civil twilight and sunrise times. But failed to remember that this was the absolute longest day of the year and the earliest the sun could possibly come up. Ouch.

Our research revealed that civil twilight would be around 5:53 AM, with actual sunrise at 6:23. So we made our provisions to rise early and get out the door before 3 AM. We calculated that it would take us about 3 1/2 hours to reach a suitable location and prepare to worship the rising sun. I won't mention that we took an extra half our to get suited up and out the door. Nor will I say much about riding freeways and twisty country roads in the dark. Our speed suffered a little with the darker roads since I was worried about poor woodland creatures jumping out and derailing the entire trip. And I won't mention how the temperatures continued to drop unexpectedly on some of the warmest days in the year. Of course, we weren't adequately prepared for those. And we were going to higher elevations?

We took our first rest stop about 90 minutes into the ride near Helen, GA. We needed to eat a little something for breakfast and warm up. Our break was a little longer then desired, but we had fueled and warmed ourselves well and had a little chance for a photo-op. Once we mounted the bikes again it would be to go through Helen and up the curvy pass of Hwy 76. I was in the lead to set the pace I desired. Still didn't want to hit any creatures, and my first time on this road, but we fared well and proved our theory correct of it being warmer on the other side of the mountain. It was a hop, skip and jump to get to Hiawassee where we gased the bikes up and picked up some drinks and snacks for later in the day. Rode through town and took a right, rode a couple miles and then turned left. Wow. We were in North Carolina already.

Made a few lefts and rights and we were soon able to see the road a little better beyond the scope of the headlights.  We were cheered to see the road was rain wet and that we weren't in any of the rain.  Yea!  But a few more miles took us to Hwy 19 and larger puddles on the road.  It had rained recently, and rained pretty hard.  Hmmm....  We continued on and we rode into the rain, then out of the rain, then back into the rain.  When the drops started making heavier sounds on the helmets we turned around and headed for breakfast at a Huddle House.  Not our ideal, but the only thing around.

We were a little curious about the rain as the forecasts we had seen showed clear skies and smooth sailing.  And our waitress, who lives in the area, couldn't help us at all.  We again heard the standard adage "Wait 15 minutes".  We waited 60 to be on the safe side.  We knew we weren't going to make any Cherohala sunrise this time and we were cool with that.  The continuing rain was a little daunting, but not a deal breaker. 

The clouds shrouding the mountain gave us pause.  But we continued on hoping the skyway would be above them.  The deal breaker was the lightning bolt that struck the valley floor about 10 miles in front of me when we were about 5 miles from Robbinsville, NC, near the beginning of the skyway.  I hit the very next turnout and did a 180.

Hmmm...where to go now?  We back tracked down 19 and hit the gas station in Murphy.  And unbelieveably the weather was fabulous.  The skies were nice in this direction. We just decided to hit the backroads and see where they took us.  C remembered some interesting side roads that he had taken, so we set out in search of them.




These side roads brought us to the great Hiawassee Dam in TN. One of the multitude of the TVA projects.

Continuing down the roads and C remembered someone in the office talking about "Fields of the Wood."  And it just happened to be on our so-called route.  Fields of the Wood is an interesting biblical attraction in a beautiful setting in the mountains.  Fields of the Wood has the Ten Commandments Mountain:

The Psalms of Praise:

Jesus' Garden Tomb:

Golgotha:

We didn't spend much time walking around.  We were in our full riding gear and riding boots...and they don't lead well to hiking up mountains.  We'll have to go back someday.  There were some interesting and attractions and I'll bet some great views from the tops of the ridges.

We then turned our attentions towards home.  Following the spirit of adventure that had brought us this far, I bit the bullet and agreed to take Hwy 60 through the mountains.  In case you didn't know, some people have the belief that some of the best twisty riding in North Georgia can be had on Hwy 19 and Hwy 60.  These roads weave up, down and around the mountains, offering many hairpin turns, sharp inclination changes through curves and steep road banking...all facilitating the serious twisty adventurur.  I won't dwell on the fact that these roads are also frequented by sports cars, crotch rockets and bicyclists for all of the same reasons.  So these roads can get very crowded and dangerous during the summertime.  Some people don't care, but I prefer to ride in calmer conditions and away from the crowds.  In this case we wanted to get home and C didn't want to take the ugly, boring freeway. 

In all, the remainder of the day was completely uneventful.  I had great fun on Hwy 60, practicing my approach on left hand curves (I invariably approached them too close to the center line, making myself uncomfortable if a car approached in the other direction, possibly on my side of the line.)  Lots of practice and I picked up my tricks.  Stopped for drinks and chocolate, chatted with a few other riders and just enjoyed the absolutely beautiful and warm sunny day that it turned into.  The biggest compliment came when C started scraping his pipes on the curves.  He informed that he was confident enough in my abilities and that I was taking the turns at speeds near his desired speed that he wasn't worrying about me as much anymore.  Yea!  Just having fun and enjoying the roads.

Statistics: 327 miles, almost 11 hours, 3 states, many new sights.

Covered Bridges

It's been many weeks of little sleep and constant caretaking. We haven't been able to go out much because we haven't been able to leave Goldie alone for any length of time. She's doing better and the weather was great, so against my physical therapists' orders (damaged a disc in my lower back) I hopped on the bike on Sunday.

We headed out with Alex, Joe and Annette and tried for a Covered Bridge tour. We originally plotted the route for 5 bridges. One was questionable since it is located on private property and the owner hasn't given explicit approval for visitors. We figured we could hit the first four and determine if we wanted to try for the last one if we had the gumption.

Our list of bridges included: Elder's Mill, Howard's, Watson Mill, Cromer's and Lula. While C and I had been to two on the list, the others had never been to any of them.

First on the list: Elder's Mill. You might recognize the bridge as I have posted about it before. It was nice to return to it in the summer to see the new growth...including all of the poison ivy. ;-) We enjoyed riding through the bridge, taking pictures, turning around on gravel and stretching the legs. The light was very bright and there was virtually no traffic. In all, a very nice spot to stop. I held everyone up by walking through the bridge and photographing the other side. Then stopping to smell photograph the flowers.

Second stop: Howard's Covered Bridge. This bridge was a little trickier to get to. Never trust a GPS 100%!! Both mine and Master of the Mechanical Stuff's (MotMS) tried to take us down some interesting dirt roads again even though a paved road was just around the corner. We bypassed the proffered directions and made some changes. Good thing we did. The original route would have brought us in from the other side...that is currently blocked by the crown of a very large branch fallen from a very old tree. As you can see this bridge is no longer maintained for vehicular traffic. It is for pedestrian viewing only. Also a good thing since the underlying floor is rotting through. Just don't step in those spots.

Again, I wandered around a little longer then the others and took in the mud, gravel and some Queen Ann's Lace flowers. Everyone else huddled in the shade and watched the ticks crawling around.

Stop three: Lunch! We continued on our merry way...again misled by the GPS'. Luckily we were having fun, and the GPS can sometimes take you on some very interesting backroads that we wouldn't have seen otherwise. So we went with the flow, gased up the bikes and fueled the humans at the only place open we could find: Zaxby's. Not bad, but would have been better if we could have enjoyed the local BBQ. Given it was Sunday and small town...not many places are open. Next time we need to bring lunch and sit at one of the picnic areas near a bridge.

Stop four: Watson Mill. MotMS and I have been here many times. Once even on our bikes if you want to remember. The park has a great little campground and wonderful walking, bicycling and horse riding trails. One can also rent canoes above the damn and sit/slide down the rocks below the damn. We haven't enjoyed either of those activities. The dogs are usually with us when camping. And I hear stories of leeches in some of the pools in the rocks. No Thank You! This time I allowed the others to wander around and take the pictures while MotMS and I sat in the shade and watched the bikes. We enjoyed watching many others motorcycles out enjoying the day on the same roads. One couple stopped to enjoy the water and parked near us. While most of us have saddle bags or locks for our valuables, we learned a new way of making sure no one walks off with the expensive leather vest...just park the bike on it!

Final Stop: Cromer's Mill Covered Bridge. This is another pedestrian only bridge. It had been restored recently as evidenced by the steel beams running under and through the bridge.

Time was rapidly advancing and we decided not to attempt the last bridge and just head home. We made a beeline for the freeway and took off. We had been gone for 219 miles and 7 hours, and while my back wasn't too bad, this was the longest we had left Frankendoggie alone. I wanted to spring her from the prison penned area that we had confined her to. So MotMS went with Alex, Joe and Annette and had dinner, I came home and relaxed and played with the pups. It was a good day with good friends and I can't wait to find more bridges.