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11 Aug

Posted at 07:49h in Adventures, Groms, Ride Reports, TAT2018

We can thoroughly recommend the Ocoee River Inn behind the gas station. Rooms were large and very very  quiet. Also the gas station stocks fresh fruit and has a car wash next to it. After arranging with a fellow grom rider to ship a shock to ADVrider klaviator in Huntsville, we spent the rest of the morning sampling the TAT. Mostly fast moving gravel with a bit of rocky stuff. The rocky stuff convinced us that we probably shouldn't be riding...

10 Aug

Posted at 07:45h in Adventures, Groms, Ride Reports, TAT2018

Whooowee what a day!  We squeezed in a quick run up and down the tail of the dragon before buying the obligatory tee shirt. Just as we were about to leave it started pissing it down. We let it ease up a bit then headed off. The rain did not stop. We skipped the bits of dirt road and opted for riding the Cherohala Skyline. It was on our to do list. The views are supposed to be wonderful, unfortunately it...

09 Aug

Posted at 07:41h in Adventures, Groms, Ride Reports, TAT2018

Oh boy am I in the dog box. More about that later. Good start to the day, unfortunately too early for the motorcycle museum. We pootled up the road taking tourist photos at the indian tiki and the " most photographed view in the world". A brief foray onto the Blue Ridge Parkway, (where we saw a huge elk? And his missus round the corner) then onto a one way dirt road for 60km that spits you out about 10km from...

08 Aug

Posted at 07:39h in Adventures, Groms, Ride Reports, TAT2018

Bigfoot 0,  Back on the road again after a bit of a sleep in and a southern breakfast of eggs and grits. A stop at Walmart for some supplies and we only really got going just before 12. Fun little memory. While we were in the Walmart parking lot a  couple pulled up in a car next to us. The husband was joking with his wife about how she was wanting to flirt with the bikers. When she realized it wasn't two...

07 Aug

Posted at 07:37h in Adventures, Groms, Ride Reports, TAT2018

Critter nest +1, missing screw -1 Well no snakes, bears or spiders last night. It also didn't rain. Unfortunately camp sites in the woods don't seem to have great cell coverage hence the odd timing of these posts on ADVrider.  The first section of gravel was very twisty turny, so it took us a while, the rest went pretty quickly. We rocked up at the regional hospital in Spruce Pines to get a doctor to have a look at Sims knee. Turns out...

06 Aug

Posted at 07:35h in Adventures, Groms, Ride Reports, TAT2018

Deer +6, TAT riders +3 A good nights sleep does wonders. Sims knee still looks swolen, but there is no pain unless he tries to kneel on it. The plan for today was to stick to the tarmac for the rest of the MABDR and get to Damascus to start the TAT. Although Sam keeps updating the TAT, and the start keeps moving, we chose Damascus as our starting point as it conveniently ties up with the MABDR. We met a group...

05 Aug

Posted at 07:31h in Adventures, Groms, Ride Reports, TAT2018

Deer +2, Bear -1, fender bag -1, off +1 Today was a good test. It started off with us congratulating ourselves on how quickly we were able to have breakfast and broke camp and deteriorated from there. A few km outside of Warm Springs, we saw a bear. Unfortunately it was dead and lying in the middle of the road :( More back roads and then some gravel, where Sim had his first little off somewhere on the trail near Potts jeep track....

04 Aug

Posted at 15:54h in Adventures, Groms, Ride Reports, TAT2018

Deer +9, TAT riders +2, river crossings +3 We got off to a reasonably early start this morning at about 6:30 ish. We had a short bit of gravel,then mostly sealed roads for the rest of the morning, with a little more gravel in the afternoon. Just outside Hancock we came across our first and only traffic jam. Some sort of biker rally, but we didn't see many bikes, it was mostly cars and trucks trying to get in. We found the...

03 Aug

Posted at 15:49h in Adventures, Groms, Ride Reports, TAT2018

Deer +6, big black snake +1, charging cable -1 After being well fed and looked after by Paebr332 and totaly not murdered, we headed out to get some fuel and do some Amish spotting. Sadly no Amish, so it was back onto the MABDR. A mix of forest roads, backcountry roads and some quite busy main roads. About an hour or two in, we came to an intersection where the gps track said go straight, but the only road ahead of us...

02 Aug

Posted at 15:46h in Adventures, Groms, Ride Reports, TAT2018

Deer +4, tank bag cover -1, bear dog +1 We got off to a more respectable start this morning from our motel in Nazareth. I swear my helmet smelt like cigarette smoke but Sim says its probably just my imagination. Lots of lovely little back roads and our first taste of dirt relatively early on in the ride. As we were pootling along this little dirt road in some forest, Sim spotted a seemingly random parking lot and then a big...