Excursions pour la Journee avec Gaston

[Gaston Gagne]

McDowell County traffic signal.


















Smoke em if you got em.

[advtenn]

Originally Posted by Gaston Gagne

McDowell County traffic signal.


















Smoke em if you got em.

Nice!

You got your moneys worth.

[Gaston Gagne]

Originally Posted by advtenn

Nice!

You got your moneys worth.

I didn't from that set of tires.

[Gaston Gagne]

It's not all burned out trash out there.




You look like something the cat dragged home.




No. Wait a minute. You look like something the cat dragged home.

[av_mech]

Originally Posted by Gaston Gagne

Seriously, I don't speak French, but feel free to post comments in whatever language you like.

Was ist das?

[Gaston Gagne]

Yesterday's April Fool was provided by NOAA, who predicted mostly sunny and 73. I'm glad they did; otherwise, I might not have made my move. April 1 is the end of the moto season for a sweet section of trail.

Lots of motorcycles heading up 181. I hope they're not all going where I'm going.



Whew! They all turned into the waterslide park.




As I'm driving up old 421, I notice that Cove Creek is pretty high. So is Roan Creek on the other side of the hill. All of the little side creeks on the way into Damascus were really high. At least I can see up through the fog to cirrus clouds above. While changing and unloading, the sun started poking through. OK, it will dry out as the goes on.

Some of the low spots were squishy, but overall, not bad. I am also noticing spots were the greenery is stripped from the trees and lying on the deck.




Ha! That would explain that.




That's frozen precipitation accumulation Oct 1-Apr 1.



I did find a pile of snow down in the bottom of FR 615.





Note to self: make time to get out here more often AFTER the leaves have fallen.




Another gratuitous Lum Trail Shelter photo.




The downhill bikers have found Feathercamp Ridge. That is to say, there are all kinds of new outlaw trails. That will make the forest service happy. Ride while you can.



Lunch time! More later.

[advtenn]

[Gaston Gagne]

It's Monday and no turkey pie on the tray.

I cruised over FR 84 to VA 16. New chipseal on the road out to 16.





Ahhhhhhh, the horse trail. Much drier over this way.




Motos have to do a short race on pavement. At least it's quality pavement.








I'm not sure that this part actually counts as singletrack.




The bad part about the scenery is that you need to keep your attention focus much more macro.




I did have one nagging concern. There was a really big bit of deadfall that almost stopped me last time. Someone cut that out.

There are two new ones, however.







Speedwell! Gas and chili dogs. Acutally, they call them slaw dogs.





I had an urge to leave out the first section of trail to hit up Comer's Rock. I can go there any time. Get back on the trail, loser.













End to end goodness. Until next season.




Back across 84 to Skull's Gap. I'm flagging a bit, and I want to try to find the outlet of FR 615, so I took a right down 600 instead of the IMT.





That's the last of the sunshine. In short order, I was being rained upon. I took 615 up to Feathercamp and jumped on the IMT. Then I took the left down Beech Grove to US 58 and on into town.





Beech Grove was always fun on the bicycles.




"Mr. Gagne, why are your eyes red?"

[Gaston Gagne]

I headed out to Trust this morning to meet Anatic and B Curvin. B had his clean, new to him KLR.











Steep!













































Nice way to spend a Sunday! Thanks to those guys for showing me around.

[Cuttle]

and I missed out again...
great pics!

[_anatic]

Originally Posted by Gaston Gagne

I headed out to Trust this morning to meet Anatic and B Curvin.

Nice way to spend a Sunday! Thanks to those guys for showing me around.

Had a BLAST!!!

I really like this one:

Especially the little wheelie at the end.

More of Gaston in action here. Start with post #89.

[Laconic]

[Gaston Gagne]

Bland County. Cold. Cold. Cold.








Information you can use. Round Mountain is a really cool place to ride a bike. Get a load of the singletrack description.




The high point of the ride. Even colder.





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We saw 5 souls out there: four boyscouts on the AT at the top of Flat Top (We thought we were cold) and a wood truck driver on Byrne's Chapel. Tons of birds.

[Gaston Gagne]

Three days off and a new set of Pilot Powers. Maybe it's time to see if Deal's Gap is really all it's cracked up to be.

I rode 40 to Asheville, where I joined Layla for some shoe shopping and lunch. She is driving out to paddle the Cheoah River.

The Parkway was closed. Then the smartass government employee told me the next place to get on was in Cherokee.



I tried getting on the Parkway at 276.













The Parkway was closed again at Soco Gap, so I had to ride 19 down into Cherokee. Perhaps against my better judgement, I decided to ride 441 over Newfound Gap. The NC side was fine, and I was actually getting the move faster message from the two cars behind me. The ride from the top down to Sugarlands was crowded. At Sugarlands, the rangers were having a preweekend meeting. I pulled right up to it to ask if Parson's Branch was open.


321 down through the Sinks was sweet.



Remind me why people go to Cades Cove again. Let's spend our vacation breathing exhaust. To its credit, I did get to see a mother bear with three cubs.








I got my first taste of Deal's Gap on the way in to meet Layla. Delicious. Can't wait for morning.


I rolled past the Motorcycle Resort at 6:52. Not a soul around. On the way back, Layla was already headed out for breakfast.








I was a bit cheesed about sending in my check for the balance on my taxes, but now that I see this, I don't feel so bad. Esse quam videri.




While eating breakfast, traffic seemed pretty light, so I did another run of Deal's Gap and then headed back to camp to clean up and get on it. I had minty fresh breath for my run over the Cherohala.












Tellico Plains, Ducktown, Copper Hill, Suches




The section of 60 from McCaysville to Suches is pretty good. Wolf Pen Gap is really nice.


I did an out and back on the Richard B Russell Scenic Highway.










This road is represented on DeLorme's as going through, but it is tanktrapped.




Popcorn




I hung out in Clayton for a while. Then I headed out to the campground. Tugaloo Park has a nice $5 per night campground, but you need to bring water. Those guys turned up and cheffed up a staggering amount of food. I closed my eyes and opened them and it was light out. I haven't done that in months.

[Gaston Gagne]

Sunday



















I took 281 to Charlies Creek to 215 to the Parkway. The Parkway was still closed at 151. I had never done that road before, and it's pretty neat. I used 40 to get over to the other side of the Parkway for a quick trip up Mount Mitchell.







Cheers, thanks for looking.