Really hate I didnt get to go with you guys this time, ah the joys of being married to a cop LOL. I can run Highway 80 in my sleep LOL. I use to ride my bicycle down Hwy 80 and swim in the Buck Creek growing up. MM you remember Charles, my buddy with the Road King. Him and I are planning on going back up to the Dragon and camping a couple of nights around the 3rd week in Sep. I'll let you know when we set a date. You and any rest of the guys come join us if you can.

MidnightRider

Third week in September .     Sounds like a good time for a ride !

I'm itching to take the Sportster for a ride like that.   I've seen that harleys  trying to keep up with Savages in a hurry does't work.  But I still got the itch.

I'm retired so weekend or weekday doesn't matter a lot.

The key word is "relative hurry", most Hurley riders don't hurry any at all and they do get stopped 100% by anything that gets in front of them when up on mountain roads.

MM, you will know you got the bug when you start passing things that are going too too too slow in sections of road that simply aren't skeery to you any more.  You know durn well you are going pretty slow compared to what you can do and they are jest creeping along and you know it.  

Your skeery level simply has been raised somewhat Dragon runs and our other little outings.   You also know jest how quick you can get around something like that, so you do it.    Passing things on a motorcycle is a skill, jest like taking a sweeper turn -- you watch somebody do it and then you practice doing it yourself some.

Think of Phil or Southpaw -- what would stop them from passing 100% jest won't stop you any more.   You know how to pass things safely.

Toymaker the Barbarian riding on his Savage would pass things, I watched him do it.   Now that he is all used to his Kawachunkie he sometimes is content to run at or under the 55 mph speed limit and run along behind people doing less than that.

You will also know you got the bug when you cannot abide the blocked up Parkway as 15-25 mph range is creeping along too too slowly and having a pair of them spandex clad side by side bicycle riders setting the pace for a whole line of traffic becomes something you really can't take for very long.

VROOOOOMMMM !!!  (pass two)

VROOOOOMMMM !!!  (pass one)

VROOOOOMMMM !!!  (pass two)

VROOOOOMMMM !!!  (pass the two cyclists)



And be free again .....   (ah!  priceless)

Yep, even so --- jest how far will he then have to go to find a place to turn around?

I hope a LEO wouldn't try to do a road turn on them little bitty roads ..... he'd be all sideways a doing it when the semi got there !!!

Watch out Toymaker -- I smell a trip to Mount Mitchell a'coming your way.


                                             


Make SURE you gas up 100% before you get on that stretch of Parkway as it exceeds the Savage gas tank ability to get here and to go up and down the Mt. Mitchell parkway extension part w/out running completely out of gas on a Savage.    

           (it is a trip, fer shure)

And such is the reason for using the Sportster wid the bigger gas tank -- MM has him a Mt. Mitchell itch to scratch (gotta count him some xxx hundred stair steps there for the Boy Scouts) and you are going wid him for the ride ....

....  and the walk to it, and the climb up it,  and the climb back down it and then the walk back.    


       And then the long ride back out.




                     got any evil left in ya after that little climb up & down the xx hundred stairs there good buddy ??

Highway 80 isnt the only good road around Mitchell, you could spend days on great roads in the area.

I think thats a very good idea.  Campground $12.oo a night another $12 for food and another $12 for fuel .... $36.oo a day and a "GREAT" vacation.    

I'm going to have to take the wife on one of these rides "It might have to be the next one"

MMRanch wrote on 08/14/10 at 16:45:54:

Mike if you get off the Parkway at Highway 80 and take a left like you are headed towards Burnsville you go about 5 miles and there is a beautiful Forest Service Campground called Carolina Hemlock. The South Toe River runs through it and there is a nice swimming hole and little beach if your wife likes to lay out in the sun. They have showers, its one of the prettiest campgrounds you'll ever see.