Yesterday (tues) we got up fairly early, went to some local hole in the wall breakfast place for some pancakes. Heard a great story from a very loud local who started his story off with "Every time I see one of you biker types..." aw geeze... 'ere we go. He continued to tell us how three years ago he was watching an armored car at a local bank load money into the truck, they were loading for almost three quarters of an hour, when some biker guys came up from South Ca Ro Line Uh, and (cause of the bad gas they've got up here and the thinner oxygen bikes run sorta shitty) one of them there bikes bike fired. The officer in turn, thinking it was a gunshot pulled his gun on the man telling the story. There had to be a lot of money there for the officer to be that jumpy.
True Story.
We finished breakfast and headed southwest to Robbinsville, then North on 129 to Deals Gap, and the Tail of the Dragon. Nice windy roads there, but the closer you get to Deals Gap the steeper, and twistier, and narrower the road got. We come around one corner to find a Dam that looked ancient, almost other worldly, as if you lived in Riven or Myst. With huge aquaduct piping water up and over mountain tops. I've got a photo of one of these dams I'll upload later.
We get to Deals Gap, the start of the hairiest 11 miles of roadway in the US. 318? Turns in 11 miles. Unfourtuneately, 9.5 miles up there was a landslide and the road is gone. So you can't continue through to the Foothills Parkway. After the hair raising ride to Deals Gap, I decided I had no desire to do the tail and turn around to come back down. Something else was bothering me, and my intuition told me to say down. It almost demanded it, something didn't feel right, and Kathy got the same feeling, so the two of us waited as the boys went up.
While waiting we people watched, a chic on a ricer came back down with two guys, she was full of piss n vinagar... Bad attitude, miserable, and BITCHY. Kathy pointed her out to me while the chic was getting gas in front of where we sat. Something about the girl struct me enough to say "riding with an attiude like that is going to get herself killed, she is in no shape to take on that road (meaning the tail), something's going to happen." She went on in side, a few moments later I went in to use the bathroom. I went in the bathroom, passed by her at the sink, and just had a strange feeling about her. I did my thing, came on out, few minutes later the boys arrived back. Kathy and I pointed the chic out to Alex, as she suited up and headed back up the tail with the two guys. Kathy and Al take off, alex and I sat around to people watch. About 10 min later a bike that had just gone up, came back down and stated "that was a waste, accident had the road blocked off about a mile up" he went up about 10 min later to come right back down. The road was still blocked, then another bike came down, they ran inside the store to report the accident. When I had asked the couple about it the lady said it was really serious, a chic on a sports bike hit a full dresser head on, both riders were strewn across the road and it didn't look good.
With lack of internet service, I haven't been able to find any info about the accident. But I'm sure you know what my gut is saying...
Here is a pic of a tree decorated with bike parts that didn't do well on the tail of the dragon:
Alex returning the Tail:
We left the Tail down 28, passing another dam/hydro electric building, to fit the Riven theme. Then wi pit stopped at the newer looking Fontana Dam. Took pictures at the bottom, then the top. Just massive. We shot on back to camp, hurting and exhausted.
There goes the hound again, and time for me to get some sleep.
~ Another Day, Another Adventure ;-)
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