Today was my day to meet Bill.  We had agreed to meet at the Deal’s Gap store around noon.  Since I had not gotten much riding in yesterday, I thought I would get an early start today and put in as many miles as possible on the way to the rendezvous.  I had laid out a detailed course yesterday, and was planning on being on the road about 7:30.

I got up and got a shower, then hit the lodge for a cup of coffee.  As I drank, Phil came in and asked where I was headed today.  A few minutes later, a campground regular named Chuck appeared, and we were all talking roads and routes.  Then the maps came out.  Phil had an impressive array of local maps, and I soon became convinced that I needed to ditch the plans that I had made yesterday and listen to these guys.

 Charley's Creek Road, running east-west.

Charley’s Creek ends at 218, also marked as Canada Road.  I took it south.  Where Charley’s Creek is loaded with hairpin turns, 281 if full of long sweepers.  Coming into a downhill, 20MPH right, I spotted movement on the left shoulder.  A dog was vectoring in for the kill.  Now, the common wisdom to avoid a motorcycle-eating dog is to gas it and outrun him.  But I was already coming into this corner fairly hot, and I didn’t want to add any speed.  I didn’t have any traffic behind me, so I decided to see what this dog would do if he actually CAUGHT a motorcycle!  I slowed to a crawl, and the dog trotted along beside me, barking furiously and nipping at my front tire.  Then I stopped altogether.  He looked at me like I was crazy!  “You can’t just stop!  How am I supposed to chase you if you stop!” he seemed to say.  Finally I revved up, popped the clutch, and jetted away from him.

281 turned to dirt for a few miles in an area of tight switchbacks.  There was a lot of roadwork going on in the area, and it looked like they might be getting ready to pave that section.

Somewhere I made a wrong turn, got off of 281, on to Slick Fisher Road, and then back to 281.  I am not sure how I did it, but all of the riding in this area was exceptional.  281 dumped me on to the traffic-choked US64, still covered with sand from the recent snows.

 281 between 107 (top left) to US64 (bottom right).

In Cashiers I plugged “Deals Gap” into the GPS and had it calculate how long it would take me to get there, going the direct route.  It told me that I would get there about noon, so I called Bill and left him a Vmail saying that I would probably be there about 12:30, since there were some other twisty roads I wanted to ride.  He would understand.

Out of Cashiers I turned north on 107, looking for another road that Chuck and Phil had recommended.  It was not marked the way they had said, but I finally found the roads they were talking about, North Norton Road and Cullowhee Mountain Road.  These roads roughly parallel 107, running north-south, but are way more fun.  On this stretch of road, I found the tightest hairpin turns and switchbacks that I have ever seen.

Cullowhee Mountain Road running north-south. 

Cullowhee Mountain Road ended on 107 just south of Silva, and from there I headed directly to Deal’s Gap, arriving about 12:15.  There were several rallies going on in the area, and the parking lot was choked with motorcycles of all types.  As I was dismounting, Bill walked up, having been there about 15 minutes.  We hit the food line, which was amazingly short, considering the number of bikes outside.  I was starved, having skipped breakfast, and the grilled chicken sandwich that I ordered was excellent.  As we ate, Marc and Jamie walked up, having left TWO about an hour behind Bill.  We all had lunch together and discussed today's ride.

Bill’s whole purpose for coming up to Deals Gap had not been to ride the Gap itself, but to ride 28 south from where it left the Gap.  The Gap was choked with traffic, which is precisely why Bill did not want to ride it.  However, Marc and Jamie did, and Bill and I decided to follow suit.  The Gap is a great road, but the traffic was thick, and we ended up getting stuck behind pickup trucks and slow herds of loud-piped cruisers.  At some point, a guy on a sportbike rounded a corner coming our way, zoned, and crossed the yellow line into our lane, coming straight at Bill (I was behind him).  Bill started evasive action as the sportbiker corrected his line, and catastrophe was averted, but it served to show why this road can be so dangerous.

Fontana Dam overlook at Deals Gap.

The four of us then headed south on 28 and rode all the way to Franklin, where Marc and Jamie headed back for TWO, and I took Bill off to one of my favorite roads, NC 1001.  From there we headed back to Blue Ridge Cycle Camp, picking up the Blue Ridge Parkway at Balsam.  We climbed quite a bit and it was getting cold…I had forgotten that we were at Mt. Pisgah, the highest spot on the BRP.  We stopped to make pictures in the soft afternoon light.  It was a glorious day, sunny with a few puffy clouds.

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