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The
Tail
of the Dragon advertises 318 curves in 11 miles,
supposedly the curviest stretch of the road in the country. There is quite a lot
of folklore that has developed around the Dragon, including the number of
fatalities each year (at least several) and the number of cops (as many as 11)
that patrol the road trying to keep riders under the speed limit. The Dragon is
a major destination for sport bike riders, some of whom have reportedly run the
course in under 11 minutes - an average 60 mph! Paul and I were too busy trying
to keep our eyes on the corners up ahead to take pictures, plus there were few
places you could safely pull off the road.
Xtreme Sports
Photography staffers take photos of riders and post them
on the web for purchase. That is how I got the following photos...
| This was my
one shot at fame - to look like I know what I'm doing. Cornering on a bike
takes a lot of skill - and practice. You need to turn the bike in the
opposite direction of where you want to go (called "counter-steering"),
and then make sure you keep looking through the turn all the way through
it. With concentration and lots of practice on these roads these skills
became a little more habitual for me. |
| Paul and I were happy to
ride the course without any mishaps. We thought we
didn't do too bad for ourselves - some of the guys rode much faster, and
some rode slower. We saw only one cop on the 11 miles, although we were
relatively early - 10:30 in the morning. It's busiest on Saturdays. |
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This is me exiting
one of the turns. You can see my pegs aren't close to
scraping, and my knee is nowhere close to dragging. Still, it was enough
excitement to get my adrenalin pumping. If you want to see how the pros
do it click on the link to
Xtreme
Sports Photograpy and you'll see what I mean! |
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The day after
we rode the Dragon Paul and I rode through Great Smokey Mountains
National Park. We saw ridge after ridge of blue mountains as
far we could see.
Quite beautiful. |
| Here is another
sign that caught my attention. This one indicated a spiral ahead where
the road made a 360 turn - with the help of a tunnel. |
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After Paul
split off to head back home I searched out some interesting roads as I
worked my way back toward Cleveland. Tennessee SR197 from I-26 northeast
to Burnsville started out paved, but soon became gravel. I thought about
turning around, but decided to stay with it. When I got off the bike to
snap this picture Robert Frost's words from The Road Not Taken came to
mind:
"Two roads
diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both and be one
traveler long I stood..." |
| Once I made it
over the pass the road was paved again. There were plenty of hairpin
curves on the way down... |
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There is
another section of road popular with bikers - it's US 421 in the very
northeast corner of Tennessee, about 8 miles either way from Shady
Valley. They call this road the "Snake" and it
gets a lot of use also. It's not policed as heavily as the Dragon, which
attracts some riders. I found it very lightly traveled, and didn't see a
single cop. |
| Hairpin
curves like this one were the most difficult for me to make. Because the
turn is so sharp I think I looked at the pavement directly in front of
me to be sure I made the turn, which is exactly the wrong thing to do!
(The bike goes where you are looking.) Once I got myself to look through
these turns things went better again. When you go into a corner a little
"hot" you tend to forget the cornering skills you learned and slip back
into old habits, which can be dangerous if you didn't leave yourself
enough margin for error. |
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After riding the Snake I
stopped to see how much of the tire tread I had used. I got most of the way up
the side of the tire on the front (left) and likewise on the rear (right). The
miles you do riding on the sides of the tires are basically free, as far
as your tires are concerned, since in normal riding you wear out the
middle of the tread long before the sides. |
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When I rounded the last turn on the "Snake"
southbound to Shady Valley this cross caught my attention. An Internet search
turned up a newspaper article that said a 39
year old man named Jeff Garland crashed here on June 6, 2007. In all likelihood he
failed to make the turn as he picked up speed into the straight away. This was a
sobering sight to see. There were additional crosses on either side
of this one, apparently marking two more fatalities at this site. |
| Virginia SR 16 was another
beautiful road - curvy and well maintained with
very little traffic. |
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I stopped on
this ridge to take a picture of the farmer raking hay in the hollow
below. He saw me and when he got to the near end of the field he turned
off his tractor and we had a brief chat - with me standing up on the
road. He has lived here all of his 61 years, except for a short stint in
Ohio. He was genuinely friendly and outgoing. This was one of the
memorable parts of my trip! |
| Later that same
day as I was riding US 219 in the southeast corner of West Virginia I
found myself getting tired. It was one of the warmer days of the trip,
and I suppose I was just getting tired of riding day after day. So I
found a shady spot in a little rest area and pulled over for a snack and
a short nap. Just what the doctor ordered... |
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I made it home the
following day. The GPS recorded 2200 miles for the trip, not a lot of
miles, but a lot of curves, mountains, and spectacular scenery, not to
mention the time with my friend Paul, living out once more the dream we
had as doctoral students - to each get a bike and ride around the
country. This had been a good trip... |
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