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O.r. Expatriate Ride Report - Mind The Gap


Hailwood

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Since I haven't around much lately, I thought I'd give a little update on how things are going down in Tennessee.

 

Between house hunting, the move, and getting settled in down here, I haven't gotten to ride nearly as much as I've wanted to this year, and most of the rides I have taken were short jaunts around the local backroads.  Even with our longer riding season down here, I was getting worried that if I didn't make some time for a good long ride, the days would be too short to do the kind of ride I was really craving.  With that in mind, when I saw that the forecast for this weekend looked good for Saturday, I decided that this was the weekend to try to make what I will now affectionately refer to as 'The Ultimate Loop'.  

 

As you can probably guess from the state I'm living in and the title for the route, there's only really one destination fitting of that name: The Gap.  I initially thought that I would probably still be too far away to comfortably do a there-and-back to the Gap from Nashville, but once I started looking at the numbers, it really wasn't any worse than some of the rides I had done with OR/Core down to WV and back.  After checking out the map and talking to some folks that were more familiar with the local roads, I came up with this route:

 

http://tinyurl.com/pt9cq5e

 

i-5jGzWxw-X2.png

 

Embarrassingly, this was my first time on both the Cherohala and my first time going through the Gap on a bike.  I'd heard enough stories and see enough ride reports to have some idea of what to expect, but I was still a little intimidated about putting these in the middle of a ~450 miler.  Fortunately I didn't need to be worried.  

 

Both the Cherohala and the Gap were an absolute joy to ride.  I just kept my own (fairly slow) pace on both roads and had an absolute blast.  The Skyway is one of the most spectacular roads I've ever been on, and it just seems to never end.  By the time I got to Robbinsville I was sweating and wound up taking a break to catch my breath and checking out all the bikes and cars pulling through the gas station at the bottom of the hill.   After my short break I got my GoPro set up and headed up to the Gap.

 

I wasn't actually sure that I'd like the Gap since I generally enjoy more open, flowing roads to ones that are tight and technical, but I had an absolute blast.  There was something about the way the road flows that really appealed to me, and I felt very comfortable with my moderate pace.  I wish I'd had time to do a couple of runs and get more comfortable and pick the pace up a little, but in the interest of getting home before dark, I soldiered on towards some other nice roads for the ride home.

 

Overall it was a fantastic ride, the only thing missing was some folks to share it with.  Hopefully next year I can get in on the OR Gap weekend since a weekend stay sounds like the best way to make the most of all the roads in the area (I still want to try NC-28 on a motorcycle).  I hope everything's going well for everybody and hopefully I'll see some of you guys next year!

 

Here's a quick video of my run through the Gap.  I wanted to try and get a good bit of the bike in the shot as well, but the angle wound up being too low so it looks a little weird.  Next time will be better :)

[

 

Tires got nice and toasty during my run:

1381671_10202314365364891_551225824_n.jp

 

Cherohala:

388877-X2.jpg

 

Deals Gap:

388876-X2.jpg

 

388875-X2.jpg

 

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Good riding, I remember your post saying you were moving down. Give me a shout sometime, there's a lot of good riding in the area. I do a lot of my riding within a 2-3 hour radius of Nashville proper. We don't have to go to the gap for good riding, there's some awesome roads right in the backyard.

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Good riding, I remember your post saying you were moving down. Give me a shout sometime, there's a lot of good riding in the area. I do a lot of my riding within a 2-3 hour radius of Nashville proper. We don't have to go to the gap for good riding, there's some awesome roads right in the backyard.

 

Sounds great!  I'll definitely shoot you a PM to go ride sometime as I'm very interested in some good local roads that won't require a full day's commitment.  

 

That being said, if you ever want to head to the Gap, I'd make that trip again in a heartbeat.

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