Land Of The Noonday Sun

Tad once again wins the title for hardcore biker. In spite of his missing both of our later-than-planned starts, he somehow caught up to us, on his Silver Wing, before we reached Blue Ridge. Not saying how (he took the 5th) but to our delight he joined us.

Nine of us, on eight bikes, made our way through Murphy and Andrews, North Carolina, to the cool gorge of the Nantahala River, arriving a little after 11 a.m. We worked our way to a parking spot near the Lesser Wesser Class 3 drop to see the action. But there was little action. The "man' had spoiled our plans. It seems that even though the TVA releases water early in the day, the raft concessions are not allowed to move to the put-ins until 10 a.m., meaning the river folks wouldn't make it down to our lookout until well after noon. We took it in stride though, and headed up river a ways to have a barbecue lunch, riverside. Very nice.

After lunch we headed toward Franklin on the famous Wayah Road, a narrow two-lainer up and down Wayah Bald, that in spots, closely follows the curvy shoreline of Nantahala Lake. Very scenic, but eyes were on the road, as some of the peg-sparkler curves came on quickly.

Our itinerary brought us through Hiawassee, down to Helen, where we thought we'd gas up. What a mistake. Helen was a zoo. The traffic, in the broiling sun, crept along at a snails pace for as far as you could see. We bailed and u-turned back to a No-Name gas station we had passed, then took the by-pass (75A) and some  secret back roads to Dahlonega, Dawsonville then home.

A great day, about 270 miles, and no rain for once.