thirdgenlxi Posted August 13, 2012 Report Share Posted August 13, 2012 Well my good buddy Scott and I had yet another awesome weekend (as we do pretty much every weekend, lol). The weather was absolutely incredible, today especially, yesterday was a little cloudy and rainy in parts but not bad. We ended up getting a late start saturday as Scott is working a really weird shift at work right now (double shifting... 6-9:30 pm then again 4-8am), so his sleeping schedule is all screwed up right now and he sleeps a good part of the day saturday. So we didn't do a whole lot saturday, went to the local all you can eat buffet for dinner, lol.... then left there to go ride, thinking we might get a little wetWe had to run back to Scotts house to let his dog out before we headed out, so we go back there and decide where we want to go ride. It was still a little cloudy but we both wanted to find a good spot to watch the meteor shower, and oddly enough we both thought of the exact same spot... at the top of White Oak Mountain, about an hour or so away. I don't have any pics or vids of the road as it was pitch black, but this road is STEEP as it's a good climb to the top of this mountain in a pretty short distance. Lots of 1st gear switchbacks. Awesome view at the top though overlooking the town of Columbus, NC. This is the road going up...Crappy pic cuz it was night time, but you get the idea..... looks down over all the city lights and whatnot. You can see lights waaaaayyyyyyy into the distance.... whole curvature of the earth and everything... great viewEnded up still fighting the clouds that would come and go, and really didn't see a whole lot of meteors... Scott saw 2, I saw 0.... my freakin luck, lol. We hung out there for awhile then a little after midnight decided to call it a night and head homeSunday we headed out around noon or so and made our way north. We wanted to do some more exploring around Roan Mountain, right at the NC/TN border. So we made our way up there.... Scott found a little twisty side road he wanted to check out that was almost right on the way up there. Pic didn't come out very good though, looks a lot better in person. LOTS of traffic here though, as you can seeLittle better picture without the bikes.... still kinda hard to see, but it just zig zags the whole way downWe then made our way up Roan Mountain on the NC side, to Carvers Gap, which is right at the NC/TN state line. This is also where the famous Appalachian Trail crosses, so we decided to go and check it out for a little ways... we headed northSome beautiful views to be had up here for sure!Tried a couple panorama pics (prob have to open them up full size to see)Continued our way up to the next little ridgeGood view of the road down below.... this is TN 143 heading down the other side of the mountain on the TN side. AWESOME roadThis video isn't from this ride, it was from a couple months ago... but this is the road in the above pichttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUdHLf6h_N8More panorama pics.... this was prob a little over 180 deg viewHad to start making our way back.... wanted to check out the Cloudland Trail, old Cloudland Hotel site (was dismantled in 1913), and Cloudland GardensAfter we finished there we headed out and made our way around on some more backroads. Huge power line trail here.... bust out the dirt bikes! LOLYet another awesome road.... and the curve in the front is not distorted at all from the pano pic, this is exactly how it looksIt was starting to get late and Scott had to get home to let his dog out, so we wandered our way back home. Coming down NC 80 (another awesome road) stopped for a little break at the Blue Ridge Parkway... I had to zip up my vents on my jacket, and Scott had to put on a long sleeve shirt cuz it was starting to get chilly and we were both shivering. Earlier the air up at Roan Mtn was so cold it made my nose run.... felt crazy good though, lolGot to the bottom of 80 and caught the sun setting over Lake TahomaAlso never realized there was a dam here as well.... and I believe that is a driveway going over itAll in all only did 366 miles for the weekend, so it was a fairly short ride for us but still had a blast and enjoyed the cooler weather (it's been so HOT lately). Good times were certainly had though... until next weekend Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NinjaDoc Posted August 13, 2012 Report Share Posted August 13, 2012 Beautiful, wish I could do a ride like this someday Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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