'banjo's blogtastically stooopid day trippin' picture thread

Thanks! and NO, I did not....should that be taken as you know a little secret? I left a lot of reasons to go back and explore that area more!

It'd be more impressive if you tell him in kilometers what would it be...just shy of 169,000?

He did... it's the road parallel to this one (both have cemeteries).

I wanna know where the swimming hole is????

Thanks again all!

Actually I didn't ride the two track next to that cemetery...yet..


The swimming hole...maybe someday I'll accidentally find it again. I think that I remember but now that you've made next year's RDV location official it should be easy to pin down.

That's right...I was doing a little unofficial tentative rally scouting last week.

Yesterday I did some official scouting...sort of. If you count just riding around half lost in a particular area scouting or official.

Pics later when I need an a/c break....got to get a few chores done around here before it gets too hot out first.

Oof! it's hot and sticky outside...and it's not even noon yet!


Yesterday was forecast to be the same so I left before it got too hot and headed for the hills. Rolling through Morganton was warm, even in mesh gear but once atop Jonas Ridge it was actually a bit chilly! Success!

As mentioned earlier, the target was just familiarizing myself with more and more little back roads near where the 2013 RDV will be held.

































I think we'll be able to figure something out by next May.

This is actually pavement....not very shot good 'shot on the fly' pics..but I'll post 'em as an example of the local terrain if nothing else.

Plenty of one laners with blind corners.














Driveways, like this one mid switchback, are great for washing some gravel out into the apex of the turn.

Gotta stay on guard approaching farms....they're not used to motorcycles whizzing by...slooow dooown.

....more later....gotta get back to those chores....

Happy Riding probably knows where this is...




It would be a good lunch stop for anybody wanting to ride over to 'Beauty Spot'












After lunch I did just that, well almost....actually rode past Beauty Spot to the Unaka overlook.


















The beauty spot is at the far right middle of the above pic.

An orange tent was just barely visible to the naked eye......zoomed in to max optical+digital it looked like a party up there on the Appalachian Trail!














Speaking of parties....looks like somebody over did it and lost their pants..Dire Wolf?














I tried to have a closer look at what appeared to be a fancy pic-nic area at one time.

















..but bugs were flying all around my head. They can even be seen in this pic!! :eek1














There's still a couple of tables intact but kind of overgrown....

Shortly after this pic I got sprinkled upon by those clouds....not enough to get soaked, just enough to be refreshing.
(I swear I posted a pic and even edited...smuggy is being weird...there's likely to be 3 or more before I'm finished)













Google map's current update of errors than ever shows this road going through from atop the state line where 107/226 meet.














As you could see, there's a well worn by-pass of that gate on the right side....but this campsite just beforehand may be an indicator of what's been going around?














I found a shortcut....but this gravel section is only about 1/2 mile long in the middle of it, probably good for keeping through traffic low.

traffic jam.














Want!














...back on the NC side of the line...

This kind of gravel was extremely dusty yesterday....as much as nobody really wants to ride or camp in the rain....overnight showers really make this a lot more fun, especially on a group ride.














I think the rain held off long enough for this crew to get their hay baled.














Back and forth across the state line....pretty sure this is TN again now.

I should have stopped and taken a closer look at this beauty.....here's a fly-by sequence instead.

Nice!! Front yard has a natural MX track Me want too!

Along the shores of Watauga Lake.

Decided to head over to Asheville and stop in at Wedgeday to give the flats a little more time to cool off.

Be warned if you want to run the switchbacks on 197...there's some messy patch work going on up there.














No problems on the dirt side though.

Here's a few of the bikes and faces that can be seen on a Wedgeday night.














Looks like the same one that was at the Old's Cool rally in May.