Pre-Dragon exploratory driving event

Nomar06

Nomar06

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Not too many pics since we were all behind the wheel for about 8hrs.

Started out Friday night at Copperhead Lodge in Blairsville, GA. Made out way through GA and NC. Home base is the Burnsville, NC cabin.

We will be driving the NC roads until we end up at the dragon on Wed/Thurs.

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Ill add some early pics.....


The Drive:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Cop...f2c1ad5f0294!2m2!1d-82.198314!2d35.769636!3e0

Starting out at Copperhead Lodge in Blairsville GA:

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This guy came too:

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Bunkroom $25/night! Pretty decent spot to crash for exploring the GA roads. Its really close to a lot of great driving.
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At the top of Rt215:

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View from the house this morning:


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Parking:

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Todays drive plus we ran Rt80 a bunch and met some locals....... Them boys were fast-ish.


I have a few pics from today but I can't find my cable at the moment....

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/76+...f17d61deaf6f5!2m2!1d-82.09774!2d35.842586!3e0


In personal opinion of the roads we drove today:

80 - Rocks. Lots of fun. Tough but fun. Speed limit: 55 I think. Holy **** if you can run that speed.

The Blue Ridge Parkway - Section from 80 to Little Switzerland is awesome. Very fun. Speed limit 45 here and its pretty damn good right around that speed. Obv, you know what i mean.

The Diamondback - Speed limit 35. 226-226A. It is not that much fun if you want to push it. This road has great pavement, maybe 1-2 years old and very very smooth. However the road is seriously narrow. There is almost no shoulder on either side and you only have a few inches on either side of your car between the yellow and white lines. Oh right if you go off the outside on the way down its all trees and cliff side drop off. A mess up here = death. I did not enjoy it that much but if you like a very technical road with sharp hard turns this is for you.

The Diamondback is a split decision so far. Some like it some don't. Its personal preference depending on the type of road you like. Its in great shape so don't miss it if you have the chance to drive it. We had a clean run up and down. I would call it an unbanked Dragon but I think rt80 is more fun overall. Hopefully Ill get a couple pics up tomorrow AM.
 
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The route:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/35....6/@35.9927611,-82.21028,13z/data=!4m2!4m1!3e0

So we drove some roads north of Burnsville today. We took 197 from 19 to 226 and we were trying to reach Roan Mountain. However at the end of Hughes Gap Road there is a 1/2 mile unpaved dirt road that connects to Cove Creek road that we needed to take to get to Roan on the planned route. This was on the maps we have but the unpaved section is so small you could not really see it on the map and we missed it and promptly bounced off the pavement into the dirt with a "holyshitwhatwasthatohcrapitsdirt!"

So it is definiltey not recommended that anyone run Hughes Gap Road or try to connect to Cove Creek Road. It is also a heavily populated area with a lot of houses.



The change of plans:

We back tracked to Fork Mountain Road and cut up to Roan and then over to Boon. We ate at Mellow Mushroom in Boon right by Appalachian State University and headed back the easiest way on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Beech Mountain Road was worth driving. The rest, eh not so much but again this is an exploratory trip to check out a new area and a lot of new roads.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/76+...f2c1ad5f0294!2m2!1d-82.198314!2d35.769636!3e0
 
Gassing up this morning in Burnsville.

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Top of Roan Mountain after we finally got there.... holy hell that dirt road was not fun to find....

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There used to be a hotel on top of the mountain but we met a local and despite the information sign saying it was "taken down", it was explained to us that over the winter when the hotel was vacant, locals raided the place for wood to build/heat their homes. Just about 100 years ago. This is also a place where the appalachian trail crosses over the mountain. All thats left is this field and small pieces of foundation.....

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Quick loop today.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/76+...f2c1ad5f0294!2m2!1d-82.198314!2d35.769636!3e0


Rt74 was very nice but kind of slow due to several tourist areas and the speed limit dropping to 20. Once outside of them with the limit back to 45 there were some good sections. The best part is Rt9 North from BatCave to Black Mountain. Excellent road with a 55mph limit. Definitely worth doing. A couple long straights that you can really open it up on.
 
More pictures please;). Can't wait to see a video of Jefferey drinking moonshine.:hatsoff:
 
Yea, I know I haven't taken many. Im just snapping stuff with my iPod. We've got lots of GoPro footage but uploads take too long here.
 
Hard to take pics behind the wheel....
 
Looks like a good time guys! Really jealous I couldn't ride up. Tomorrows my last day off and don't think I could make it :/ Rip it hard and safe fellas!
 
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