Friday morning I set out on a two-day moto adventure with my old high school friend, Aaron Smith. We had planned this trip about a month prior, with Aaron wanting to ride some of the famous roads up in western North Carolina and east Tennessee that he had never ridden before. We would also tent camp up there, something I always enjoy. I was looking forward to the trip with him.
We met up at I-985 above the Mall of Ga at 9am Friday, and blasted all the way up to 441, and rode this beautiful road up into the mountains. We stopped off at Tallulah Gorge, a place he'd never been before. Deep canyon, looks to be a half-mile to the river below. We continued on into North Carolina, fueling the bikes and ourselves as needed. We decided to ride a route known as the "Smoking Dragon", which entails riding 441 through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park up to Gatlinburg, then west over to Cades Cove and Townsend. We then picked up the Foothills Scenic Parkway, and rode it south to 129 and the famous "Tail of the Dragon" section. None of which he had ever ridden before. The roads were not highly crowded, and we enjoyed beautiful views and exciting, curvy roads. In all, the "Smoking Dragon" loop was about 145+ miles, on top of what we had ridden to get there. We rode Hwy 28 over to Stecoah, to the Ironhorse Motorcycle Campground, and honestly, I've ridden the Dragon so many times, I enjoyed the ride on 28 over to Stecoah more than the Dragon, not nearly as twisty.
We arrived at Ironhorse around 5:30pm, checked in, made camp, and ate burgers with sweet potato fries they were serving. After a relaxing evening of a game of pool, time by a big campfire they started, and some good conversation, we turned in to our tents. I slept good, with the night sounds of crickets chirping, and the stream gurgling that we had camped by.
By morning, we were up, ate, showered, packed, and on the road by about 9:30am. We rode south to Robbinsville, gassed up, then rode over to the Cherohala Skyway, which he had never ridden either. I love this road, with its sky-high turns that skirt the tops of the mountains. The view of the Smokies is breathtaking, from nearly every overlook. We came upon a sport biker around a corner near the high point on the parkway, who had just slid out in a corner, and was picking up his bike. We quickly pulled over to help, when suddenly he hopped back on, fired it up, and took off. We looked at each other and I said, "I guess he was more embarrassed than hurt!" We followed the Cherohala into Tennessee, to Tellico Plains, and enjoyed a late lunch at the Tellicafe, popular with riders coming off the skyway. We then turned south on 68, turned onto 294 and rode through the Fields of the Wood, home to the world's largest display of the Ten Commandments. Again, Aaron had never seen this before. It evokes a definite "Wow" every time I'm there. We continued on back into NC, to 19/129 South, back into Georgia. Riding through Blairsville, we detoured over to Helen, which was ridiculously crowded with holiday weekend tourists. Couldn't get out of there fast enough. Riding on down to Cleveland, we parted company, he over to Ga 400, me south to Gainesville and on to home. I pulled in about 6pm, tired, sore, stiff, sunburned, but satisfied. It was a good two-day ride.
Aaron has only been a Christian now about 2-3 years, and spending the time riding, eating, hanging out, and camping together gave us plenty of time to talk, reflect, pray, and encourage each other. I hope it was as enjoyable and encouraging for him as it was for me. Motorcycling, mountains, a good friend, a still somewhat new brother in the Lord. Time well-spent.