Maggie Valley, NC to Kimball, TN — 240 miles of amazing riding

 When lists are drawn up on the “top 10” motorcycle rides in the US, most of them include: Blue Ridge Parkway, Tunnel of Trees (route 119, Harbor Springs to Cross Village), South Dakota 87, Skyline Drive, Going-to-the-Sun Road, Beartooth Highway. I have ridden these routes. Today, I added another jewel to the list - Tail of the Dragon. 

As stated previously, the Smokies Mountains area is beautiful. One could explore the area for weeks without seeing everything. Today, I didn’t explore, I rode. The Tail of the Dragon is one of many routes in the area that offer great riding. The route I followed was US 19 to US 129 to hwy 411. This route goes through both North Carolina and Tennessee.

The entire route is amazing. At the beginning, the road is curvy and has many old and dilapidated tourist cabins, motels from the 1950s, gift shops, etc. There is the Tomahawk Motel, complete with a 30-foot tall statue representing an Indiana Warrior (after all, one is passing through the Cherokee Indian Reservation). The whole area reminds me of pictures of Route 66 with the old “theme motels”, diners, and places to extract tourist dollars. Prolly would have been a kid’s ultimate road trip in the 50s and 60s. Now most everything is decaying, except Cherokee, NC which is a hub of new construction and features a casino.  Not a real outdoors / nature kind of place. Very sad. I’m sure that there are many families who go to Gatlinburg, Pigeon River or Cherokee and never set foot in the National Park other than driving through it. Cherokee also has lots of traffic which makes the roads congested (and downright scary when a cement truck comes barreling at you on a twisted, narrow mountain road).

After Cherokee, it is pure challenging fun all the way to route 411. You begin the climb into the mountains and the views are spectacular. Unfortunately, there are limited turn-offs for photo opportunities. You also enter a fairy tale area. In the southern states, especially Tennessee, some sort of vine or ivy grows everywhere. In the fairy tale area, everything is covered with the plants: trees, telephone poles, buildings, etc. It is a magical place to ride through. The curves and narrow roads keep getting better and better until you arrive at the unofficial start of the Tail of the Dragon. Then the real fun (and sometimes terror) starts. There are 318 curves in 11 miles. The speed limit is no more than 35mph, though the are numerous  crazy people in sports cars and on motorcycles that exceed the speed limit. 5-10 mph curves, limited side protection barriers, sheer drop offs; the Dragon has it all. 

Riding Lucinda on the Dragon was very difficult. She is top heavy, not designed to carve up tight turns, weighted down with a months worth of gear / tools, and hybrid tires not suited for heavy leaning. Still, the ride was fun and it ranks right up there with the best of the top 10. I would like to return to The Dragon with a different type of bike and have some real fun. You know you are getting into something curvy when a lot of the riders have crotch rocket bikes or racing bikes and are wearing full body suits complete with knee pads.

There is an old Sammy Hagar song called “I can’t drive 55”. Sammy sings “ When I drive that slow, you know it's hard to steer. And I can't get get my car out of second gear. That was Lucinda and I for those 11 miles.