We left Elizabethton and not to much later started climbing up a Cherokee National Forest road up above the cloud ceiling and into the fog at 4800 ft at Beauty Spot overlook with no view ….but very cool and refreshing to be in the high mountain air. Note to self, have to go back there someday.
Down Beauty Spot mountain we turn onto NC 321. The mountains seem to have grown larger and farther apart. Your sense of direction is confusing on these mountain roads…. we are in Va then NC then in in TN, then NC, then TN again 15 min later on these winding roads. I have my GPS window zoomed in to not miss turn directions and I never see the “above the trees” big picture of the state lines and where we are until lunch or the end of the day.
There is a rhythm almost all the time since we left riding on the TAT and it’s almost always the same whether you are up on the forest service roads in the mountains or down on a paved valley roads… left turn… right turn…. left turn ……again….again…..again and again. You are always banking your bike to one side or another, looking ahead, judging the turn … is it getting worse or better?…..are there lose stones or wet mud in the turn?…. am I coming in hot?… should I accelerate cause I’m in good shape at the apex? It may sound tedious but it’s heaven for a bike rider …. like ski turns to a skier. A ski run without turns wouldn’t be skiing. In the thinking rational side of your mind, you know you are a slave to the physics of your speed, traction, weight, angle and more ……. it’s obvious that the consequences of not serving your Master of Physics is high but the subjective feel of the constant turns of mountain riding is one of flying or floating….. you feel ethereal and it is addictive. The talk in your head subverts to just doing and moving, the rhythm continues again……left, right, left again and again and again ….but you must always balance the rational with the ethereal (you hope).
At one of our riding breaks, locals (who also have bikes) stopped and offered us to use their shop if we had problems. The local folks have been so great. We have seen few cars and bikes this whole trip. We camped at National Forest Service Oak Bluffs camp ground just outside a cool small mountain town of Hot Springs NC.
I forgot to mention that the day before we ran into a momma Black Bear and her 3 cubs about the size of fat cats. Joe was leading just ahead of me. I saw one cub dart to the low side of the road and down the road embankment……. another cub tried to escape up the steep mountain side of road cutaway and was crying out to it’s mom as I drove by not 4 ft away as it couldn’t climb the steep embankment. I was hopping Joe wouldn’t stop in front of me because I didn’t want to face an angry momma bear …. he didn’t stop.
