Well my good buddy Scott and I had yet another awesome weekend (as we do pretty much every weekend, lol). The weather was absolutely incredible, today especially, yesterday was a little cloudy and rainy in parts but not bad. We ended up getting a late start saturday as Scott is working a really weird shift at work right now (double shifting... 6-9:30 pm then again 4-8am), so his sleeping schedule is all screwed up right now and he sleeps a good part of the day saturday. So we didn't do a whole lot saturday, went to the local all you can eat buffet for dinner, lol.... then left there to go ride, thinking we might get a little wet



We had to run back to Scotts house to let his dog out before we headed out, so we go back there and decide where we want to go ride. It was still a little cloudy but we both wanted to find a good spot to watch the meteor shower, and oddly enough we both thought of the exact same spot... at the top of White Oak Mountain, about an hour or so away. I don't have any pics or vids of the road as it was pitch black, but this road is STEEP as it's a good climb to the top of this mountain in a pretty short distance. Lots of 1st gear switchbacks. Awesome view at the top though overlooking the town of Columbus, NC. This is the road going up...



Crappy pic cuz it was night time, but you get the idea..... looks down over all the city lights and whatnot. You can see lights waaaaayyyyyyy into the distance.... whole curvature of the earth and everything... great view



Ended up still fighting the clouds that would come and go, and really didn't see a whole lot of meteors... Scott saw 2, I saw 0.... my freakin luck, lol. We hung out there for awhile then a little after midnight decided to call it a night and head home

Sunday we headed out around noon or so and made our way north. We wanted to do some more exploring around Roan Mountain, right at the NC/TN border. So we made our way up there.... Scott found a little twisty side road he wanted to check out that was almost right on the way up there. Pic didn't come out very good though, looks a lot better in person. LOTS of traffic here though, as you can see



Little better picture without the bikes.... still kinda hard to see, but it just zig zags the whole way down



We then made our way up Roan Mountain on the NC side, to Carvers Gap, which is right at the NC/TN state line. This is also where the famous Appalachian Trail crosses, so we decided to go and check it out for a little ways... we headed north



Some beautiful views to be had up here for sure!





Tried a couple panorama pics (prob have to open them up full size to see)





Continued our way up to the next little ridge



Good view of the road down below.... this is TN 143 heading down the other side of the mountain on the TN side. AWESOME road



This video isn't from this ride, it was from a couple months ago... but this is the road in the above pic


More panorama pics.... this was prob a little over 180 deg view





Had to start making our way back.... wanted to check out the Cloudland Trail, old Cloudland Hotel site (was dismantled in 1913), and Cloudland Gardens



After we finished there we headed out and made our way around on some more backroads. Huge power line trail here.... bust out the dirt bikes! LOL



Yet another awesome road.... and the curve in the front is not distorted at all from the pano pic, this is exactly how it looks



It was starting to get late and Scott had to get home to let his dog out, so we wandered our way back home. Coming down NC 80 (another awesome road) stopped for a little break at the Blue Ridge Parkway... I had to zip up my vents on my jacket, and Scott had to put on a long sleeve shirt cuz it was starting to get chilly and we were both shivering. Earlier the air up at Roan Mtn was so cold it made my nose run.... felt crazy good though, lol



Got to the bottom of 80 and caught the sun setting over Lake Tahoma



Also never realized there was a dam here as well.... and I believe that is a driveway going over it



All in all only did 366 miles for the weekend, so it was a fairly short ride for us but still had a blast and enjoyed the cooler weather (it's been so HOT lately). Good times were certainly had though... until next weekend

 

Awesome thread!!!

 

Looks like you guys had an awesome time! Nice pictures!

 

Bra, some of the best shots I seen of the East Coast, I am not to far from the TN border, bout 6 hrs, these pics make me wanna get some fellow riders together and head that way! Great pics, sick twists, and good sites. Thanks for sharing man!

 

Great pix. Not to bad narration either. Looked to be an awesome ride.

 

Nice, it looks like a awesome ride.

 

Jared, I never get tired of reading your ride reports & seeing the pics. Thanks again!

 

Hey those pics look familiar............good to see a friendly face on this site

 

Wow, great views.