Alright guys! On April 22nd there is a cruise going through the Tail Of The Dragon run in the North Carolina mountains. Anyone and everyone is invited!
We will be meeting up in Asheville, then cruise through some routes. Maybe hit up the Blue Ridge Parkway. Sometime in the middle of the day we are stopping to have a cookout and look at each other's cars. The main thing though is we will be going through the Tail Of The Dragon. Here is some info I put together from their site:
Over 300 turns in 11 miles!
Truck drivers are warned to stay away from this road!
"Brad Bush remembers the strange looks he got from other drivers as he turned his rig onto the road — and he remembers the close call with an oncoming Winnebago."
" Brian True remembers the motorcyclists waving to get him to turn back. And he remembers the less polite hand signals when they realized he wasn’t going to."
" Philip Guzzetta remembers being so close to roadside rock cliffs that he thought his trailer was shaving mountainsides."
“Most of the drivers get on the Dragon not knowing how twisty the road is, and they wished they had taken a different route,†said Ron Johnson, a motorcycle enthusiast and retired firefighter who lives nearby. “Probably 95 percent of the truckers that end up on this road wish they hadn’t.â€
A brief history of the highway, found on the Web site operated by motorcyclists Ron and Nancy Johnson, describes how Native Americans once used the road before it became a path for settlers going to Cades Cove from the Parsons Branch Road. The path for the road was likely chosen because it followed Deal’s Gap, a natural break in the mountains between North Carolina and Tennessee.
In 1934, the road was paved the first time and was designated as U.S. 129. Like many early highways, U.S. 129 curves to and fro, following the natural contours of the land like the foot and horse paths that preceded it. It still maintains that character, with more than 300 curves in just over 11 miles.
Bits of yellow police tape mark spots where vehicles have gone over the side.
Long before you enter the section of U.S. 129 known as the Tail of the Dragon, it’s fairly obvious to any driver that you’ve made a mistake coming this way.
Shortly before you reach the mountainous portion of the road, a sign along a straight stretch warns you to reduce your speed. That is shortly followed, just before Abrams Creek, by a larger sign that says “Warning to Trucks: Switchback Curves Ahead Consider Alt. Route.†After trucks reach that sign, only one turnoff remains.
This road is very dangerous and extreme caution should be taken when we go on this. It should be a lot of fun though.
Waterproof
