lankeeyankee
Banned
I must say this trip was awesome! IMO it is much better then Tail Of The Dragon and The Cherohala Parkway and should be highly considered when planning the next Spring Bash.
I left from Pleasantview, TN Thursday morning headed for Little Switzerland located in North Cove N.C. It was a little over 350 miles from my door to the Skyline Village INN.
I arrived to the top of Little Switzerland Mid Afternoon and stopped at the first place I came to, Skyline Village Inn. Spoke with a guy named Joe who told me a little about the place and quoted me 40 bucks a night!! I said I just arrived and wasnt sure where I would stay so I headed down the road to the next place Lynns Lodge, which looked nicer from the outside so I parked and went in and they quoted me 120 bucks a night! I was like I am just looking for a place to crash after a long day of riding and not really interested in a heart shaped jacuzzi and a mint on my pillow type of a room. So I thought well this is Little Switzerland and it attracts the newlyweds so I turned back for the Skyline INN. Met the owner Joe. This guy is a straight up guy from Charolette NC and showed me around the place. They have a bar resturant inside with a full selection of micro brews and he also says he makes all the food breakfast lunch and dinner! Thats all I needed hear FOOD! Showed me my room it was a 3 bedroom with 2 window units nothing fancy with 3 twin beds. Nothing fancy ceiling fans in every room, remote TV and it was clean!
Out back they had a big area covered area for motorcycle parking which was really nice since we had afternoon showers and rain Friday evening. The downside I am an early bird when it comes to riding and they start breakfast at 7:30AM. No biggy I normally get up at 5AM and the first thing I am looking for is COFFEE!! No problem throw the helmet on and head 1 mile down the road to the Burger King which opens at 6AM, problem solved for morning coffee. 7:30 I head down the resturant and Joe asks Breakfast? I say sure expecting cereal and cheap orange juice. He says Orange Juice, coffee, lemon water on the counter..
First he serves me a belgan waffle, then a few minutes later comes out with a huge egg ommelt, bacon and a bowl of grits!! Food was awesome and he says 6 bucks! Damn thats cheap!
Get geared up Friday morning chilly up in the mountains low 60's with cloudy skies. Headed down 226A which is the Diamond Back. This road is really nice!! Smooth pavement no debri in the road and had no traffic friday morning. This road is twisty, climbs up drops down but there are NO gaurdrails along the ride with many drop offs of 200+ feet heading down the mountain. This does add some thrill to the ride!! The road was damp so I decided not to ride it hard figured I would wait till it dries up.
Headed over to Murder Mountain which is known as Rone Mountain. This was an awesome ride once again nice smooth roads with no debri clean!! Once again no gaurdrails! This was a very challenging road sharp switchbacks and a few surprises around a few of turns. This climbs up to 6267' up! Trust me you can feel the decrease in power when you climb above a mile high! Friday was a day of pop up showers depending on the alitutde you were at. After cleaning the bike for the 3rd time I decided to head back to the Skyline INN to try some new brews! Went back for some beer which was great one beer which was interesting was called Bananna Nut Bread! I walked over to a resturant that had an awesome overlook of the vistas and had some of there local trout which was great!
Saturday morning cool 44 degrees and sunny warmed up to 67 degrees perfect riding weather in full leathers!! I met up with Butch (Packmule and his son Brandon) "Good People" Butch asked me what do you wanna see? I said I trust you and just look forward to the ride! We took off and headed for the Snake 421 which has 489 challenging turns in 33 miles of beautful sceanry! On the way we stopped off at the oldest operating general store in the USA since 1883! What an awesome place and had some very interesting items in the store collected over the years! Remember as a kid when you could buy individual pieces of candy, they still had this for the kids which was neat!
We headed out for the Snake! Some great sharp turns grinding our knee pucks down! Once again this road was super smooth with great qaulity pavement! We did hit a few patched of gravel on the local roads from the rain and wind from Friday night which was no biggy just some added excitement of getting a little loose once in awhile!
Road the Blue Ridge Parkway which had some breath taking views. Road the day with Butch and his son Brandon who road a Suzuki SV650 this young man is new to riding and I must say to ride some of the roads that Butch led us on he is a very good rider with the little expierence he has so far and in time is going to be a great rider!! We rode all day and he had head home for dinner. Thanks again Butch (packmule) for the great tour of the N.C. and TN. roads
Anyone who heads out to the area send him a message he knows the roads to hit and is just a great guy!
I headed back to Little Switzerland near the end of the day and had a few hours of daylight left so I headed for Mount Mitchelle which is the highest point on this side of the Missisppi climbing to a stunning 6684' in elevation! The ride up the Blueridge was great! Speed limit 45 but you could run this road 70-75 constant. Nice sweeping curves and did I mention how the roads are great in this area? LOL! Once again SMOOTH clean roads!! Started to climb from 3200' and you could tell you were climbing by the tempature drop and decrease in the Busa Mega Power feeling. The ride to the top was worth it!! It was now a little after 6PM and I was hungry decided to eat at the resturant at the top over looking more breath taking Vistas. Food was great! I decided I better head down the mountain to end the 13HR day of riding. Got back to the hotel and ended the day with some different kinds of beers staying up a little late (2AM chatting and drinking with a nice blonde woman on her balcony styled room)
Sunday morning was time to end the trip and head back home to TN.
This place is worth the trip!!
I left from Pleasantview, TN Thursday morning headed for Little Switzerland located in North Cove N.C. It was a little over 350 miles from my door to the Skyline Village INN.
I arrived to the top of Little Switzerland Mid Afternoon and stopped at the first place I came to, Skyline Village Inn. Spoke with a guy named Joe who told me a little about the place and quoted me 40 bucks a night!! I said I just arrived and wasnt sure where I would stay so I headed down the road to the next place Lynns Lodge, which looked nicer from the outside so I parked and went in and they quoted me 120 bucks a night! I was like I am just looking for a place to crash after a long day of riding and not really interested in a heart shaped jacuzzi and a mint on my pillow type of a room. So I thought well this is Little Switzerland and it attracts the newlyweds so I turned back for the Skyline INN. Met the owner Joe. This guy is a straight up guy from Charolette NC and showed me around the place. They have a bar resturant inside with a full selection of micro brews and he also says he makes all the food breakfast lunch and dinner! Thats all I needed hear FOOD! Showed me my room it was a 3 bedroom with 2 window units nothing fancy with 3 twin beds. Nothing fancy ceiling fans in every room, remote TV and it was clean!
Out back they had a big area covered area for motorcycle parking which was really nice since we had afternoon showers and rain Friday evening. The downside I am an early bird when it comes to riding and they start breakfast at 7:30AM. No biggy I normally get up at 5AM and the first thing I am looking for is COFFEE!! No problem throw the helmet on and head 1 mile down the road to the Burger King which opens at 6AM, problem solved for morning coffee. 7:30 I head down the resturant and Joe asks Breakfast? I say sure expecting cereal and cheap orange juice. He says Orange Juice, coffee, lemon water on the counter..
First he serves me a belgan waffle, then a few minutes later comes out with a huge egg ommelt, bacon and a bowl of grits!! Food was awesome and he says 6 bucks! Damn thats cheap!
Get geared up Friday morning chilly up in the mountains low 60's with cloudy skies. Headed down 226A which is the Diamond Back. This road is really nice!! Smooth pavement no debri in the road and had no traffic friday morning. This road is twisty, climbs up drops down but there are NO gaurdrails along the ride with many drop offs of 200+ feet heading down the mountain. This does add some thrill to the ride!! The road was damp so I decided not to ride it hard figured I would wait till it dries up.
Headed over to Murder Mountain which is known as Rone Mountain. This was an awesome ride once again nice smooth roads with no debri clean!! Once again no gaurdrails! This was a very challenging road sharp switchbacks and a few surprises around a few of turns. This climbs up to 6267' up! Trust me you can feel the decrease in power when you climb above a mile high! Friday was a day of pop up showers depending on the alitutde you were at. After cleaning the bike for the 3rd time I decided to head back to the Skyline INN to try some new brews! Went back for some beer which was great one beer which was interesting was called Bananna Nut Bread! I walked over to a resturant that had an awesome overlook of the vistas and had some of there local trout which was great!
Saturday morning cool 44 degrees and sunny warmed up to 67 degrees perfect riding weather in full leathers!! I met up with Butch (Packmule and his son Brandon) "Good People" Butch asked me what do you wanna see? I said I trust you and just look forward to the ride! We took off and headed for the Snake 421 which has 489 challenging turns in 33 miles of beautful sceanry! On the way we stopped off at the oldest operating general store in the USA since 1883! What an awesome place and had some very interesting items in the store collected over the years! Remember as a kid when you could buy individual pieces of candy, they still had this for the kids which was neat!
We headed out for the Snake! Some great sharp turns grinding our knee pucks down! Once again this road was super smooth with great qaulity pavement! We did hit a few patched of gravel on the local roads from the rain and wind from Friday night which was no biggy just some added excitement of getting a little loose once in awhile!
Road the Blue Ridge Parkway which had some breath taking views. Road the day with Butch and his son Brandon who road a Suzuki SV650 this young man is new to riding and I must say to ride some of the roads that Butch led us on he is a very good rider with the little expierence he has so far and in time is going to be a great rider!! We rode all day and he had head home for dinner. Thanks again Butch (packmule) for the great tour of the N.C. and TN. roads
Anyone who heads out to the area send him a message he knows the roads to hit and is just a great guy!I headed back to Little Switzerland near the end of the day and had a few hours of daylight left so I headed for Mount Mitchelle which is the highest point on this side of the Missisppi climbing to a stunning 6684' in elevation! The ride up the Blueridge was great! Speed limit 45 but you could run this road 70-75 constant. Nice sweeping curves and did I mention how the roads are great in this area? LOL! Once again SMOOTH clean roads!! Started to climb from 3200' and you could tell you were climbing by the tempature drop and decrease in the Busa Mega Power feeling. The ride to the top was worth it!! It was now a little after 6PM and I was hungry decided to eat at the resturant at the top over looking more breath taking Vistas. Food was great! I decided I better head down the mountain to end the 13HR day of riding. Got back to the hotel and ended the day with some different kinds of beers staying up a little late (2AM chatting and drinking with a nice blonde woman on her balcony styled room)
Sunday morning was time to end the trip and head back home to TN.
This place is worth the trip!!
