I slept in on Wednesday...well, as much as you can sleep in when there are Harley's starting up just outside your door, and decided that my last day in the Smokey Mountains would be at a leisurely pace riding some roads that I haven't in the past. But first things first. I set out for breakfast at this cool little spot just off Wayah Road.
This is the view that I enjoyed at breakfast.
Wayah is a nice road that runs beside a beautiful creek but there is some gravel in the corners so it's not a road that you can take quickly. This one's more about enjoying the scenery. Wayah eventually runs into the town of Franklin where I hopped onto 28 to do the Moonshiner's Run.
Finally got to see Bridal Veil Falls in person which was pretty cool as you can ride/walk underneath it.
About a mile up the road from there I came across this lake that looked like it would make a nice backdrop.
At Walhalla I headed up north again catching 130 to 281.
Enjoyed lunch at this little diner near Lake Toxaway which happens to be the largest privately owned lake in North Carolina.
Back at the Two Wheel Inn it was another great night having drinks with some of the other visitors. Today arrived a group of guys on Harley's from Iowa. A great group of guys that were generous and plain fun to be around.
While looking over the weather forecast for the trek home they were calling for more rain through my planned route. In fact, they were calling for 2 inches of rain in Buffalo, the day that I was supposed to pass through, and thunderstorm warnings through the Allegheny mountains again. So once again, I wasn't going to be able to ride the route that I had planned and was looking forward to. In fact, the safe bet was to hop on the interstate and beeline it home which is what I did.
Made it up to Toledo, Ohio and managed to miss the thunderstorms that they were calling for all over Ohio that day. The clouds were threatening but apparently I arrived just after it had finished raining. It was a long and hard 500+ miles dodging semi's, enduring boring freeway scenery, and riding around road closures. I literally did not take any photos the last two days as it was just monotonous riding. The only excitement was the possibility of getting caught in thunderstorms. Oh, my hoodie came in handy again on the final day (Friday) as I needed it the whole ride home from Toledo to Toronto. So I managed to pretty much avoid rain on this trip but I had to hop on the interstate to do so.
Riding the Dragon one last time to get to the interstate and head home.
Hope you all enjoyed the pics I took and thanks for reading.
Thanks for the post. Very much enjoyed your accounts of the trip and the pictures. I had fun reading about it, imagining I was there, good job and looks likes it was fun even if it didn't come out as planned.
Any tips or must see places around Robbinsville? We'll be there Sunday at Iron Horse RV for 6 days. My plan is to just ride in all directions and see what we find. I do want to ride the Cherohala again, and the last section of the BRP we had to pass up last year.
Compared to Florida, ANY road up there is great with amazing scenery.
07-03-2015, 08:25 AM
