The Cherohala Mountain Trails is a simple and nice campground.  It does have breakfast and dinners available on Fri/Sat/Sunday, and it is a 10 minute ride to Tellico for the food nearby.  There is a wonderful bakery/deli in town - and good food and ice cream at the little burger stand along the creek going up to the Skyway.
https://cmtrails.com/

Tellico Plains is a couple hours closer to me (and MM) than it is to go over to Robbinsville/Deals Gap - however it seems most of the good riding requires that we ride the Cherohala Skyway to get to the areas we like to ride over by Deals Gap.  This adds a couple of hours of commuting on the Skyway each morning and then back at night.  My neighbor Bruce and I stayed there last summer for a couple of days - riding the Skyway home at night can get pretty cold and windy.   There are a few good rides around Tellico Plains - the loop over the Skyway to Deals Gap, then the Dragon and then 72 over to 411 and then south on 360 is a nice ride for a day.  Tellico Plains is on the west side of the mountains - so you need to ride east for an hour or more to get into the fun roads.

I believe the most reasonable and comfortable thing to do is camp at the Iron Horse and just ride up to Deals Gap for the races.

Staying at Deals Gap is no longer attractive to me.  It was good 12 years ago when I first went - it has gradually gotten too popular and hectic....and expensive.  I used to be able to park my car/trailer in their lot and sleep in the trailer and pay the camping price - now it is $40 a night to park.  The rooms are still somewhat reasonable - but you are always at the risk of foul weather and you have to cancel 48 hours in advance.  They don't list the tent camping rate on their website - it is pretty reasonable if you ride in on a motorcycle.  Car/trailer parking is free if you stay in a room.

Last year Stewmills and I camped at the Iron Horse and just rode up to Deals Gap and back to the Iron Horse after the races were over around 10PM.  The ride back is on Route 28 and takes about 20 minutes....it wasn't too scary in the dark.  The restaurant was closed and we bought a drink and some snacks before the store closed at 8PM - for better snacking we might want to pack food/drink before we get to the races.

My neighbor Bruce can come - so at this point it looks like it will be Stewmills, MMRanch, Bruce and Dave.

We can use one campsite and tent - but it is likely Bruce and I will sleep in the enclosed trailer out in the parking lot if it is not too hot.  They do have a few tent sites with electric that you could plug in a fan - but unfortunately those spots are out in the sun and not shaded by trees (once the sun goes down I guess the fan would work to keep the tent cooler).

MMRanch wrote on 07/05/24 at 21:53:43:


Iron Horse charges $35.99 for a tent with 1 person and $8 additional for every additional person in the tent.

I have a 10'x10' tent that attaches to the bottom of my pop up canopy.  I can bring that if Stew doesn't have anything bigger.

We had a good - but overly wet visit to the Tail of the Dragon area.

Bruce and I arrived on Wednesday evening, and we had enough time to get the tent set up, the bikes unloaded and go for a 70 mile ride.

Thursday morning Bruce and I rode from Stecoah up to the Dragon, and as we passed Fontana Village we saw a lot of Mazda Miatas on the roads and at the village.  We found out that there was a Miata gathering there and were told there would likely be 1,500 of them!  We rode down toward the Natahala and got into some rain......we waited it out under an awning at a closed gas station and then headed back toward Robbinsville so we could ride the Cherohala Skyway and meet MM in Tellico.  We rode north on 360 and then onto 72 so we could go to the Dragon riding south.  The Dragon is freshly paved and it now has reflective markers along the centerline - those could cause you some problems if you drift over the centerline and your tires run over them as they stick up out of the pavement a bit.  The Dragon was too crowded and the Miata folks were driving very aggressively (we knew it would get worse as the weekend came).

On Friday Bruce, MM and I rode to do the Rattler and the Shriners Loop.  Just after we got to the area we stopped for gas and noticed the sky was dark in front of us and clear behind us - as we were deciding on either going forward or back - the rain hit us hard!  We hid under the canopy for a long time, and finally the rain stopped.  There were wet roads ahead and behind - so we chose to go ahead.  We had planned to stop at Dave's 209 for lunch, as it was closed last year when Stewmills and I rode past.  As bad luck would have it there was some special event and Blood Drive going on in the parking lot and Dave's 209 was again closed!  We got to dry roads eventually and went up to Hot Springs for lunch - while we were there the rain started again - but it was gone by the time we were done eating.  We rode for a while on the Shriners Loop, and then got caught in another rain storm that kept us wet for the next hour or more.  We finally decided that it was 8PM and we were 73 miles from home - it was time to go home on the fastest route possible.  Eventually we got to dry roads and made it home after dark.  Not long after that Stewmills and his friend Caleb arrived at the Iron Horse.

On Saturday we had a nice ride up to the Dragon on 28 - but it was already too crazy to go riding on the Dragon.  We went south on 129 to Andrews so we could all try the big Chopper on for size - then we went to the Haywood Smokehouse for lunch.  We then rode the section of 28 north of Franklin that is so much fun, and then went up 129 to the Joyce Kilmer area and rode up to the overlook.

On Saturday night we rode up to Deals Gap to watch the "Fiddy" races in the parking lot.  The practice looked great and they were going really fast - then one rider slide out as the rain started falling on the parking lot.....it rained for about 40 minutes and the races were cancelled - we unfortunately had to ride home in the dark on wet roads.

We packed up and headed home Sunday morning.

The Iron Horse was amazingly low on occupancy - there was just a handful of riders staying there.  Some blame it on Sturgis being the event that made the campground low on occupancy  - I am not sure that tells the whole story.

We found out there were about 1,800 Miatas at the event.  We saw quite a number of cars that had run off the road and were damaged, a few damaged ones getting hauled on flatbeds or wreckers, and several still being driven with obviously fresh damage.  This group appeared to be the most aggressive and dangerous of any car group we have seen in the area.    

Well ,when it was my turn to take it for a spin my legs were to short to reach the kick-starter ... so ... I never really even got it started ...    ... maybe it was for the best , but I had a GOOD TIME anyway  ??  

springman wrote on 08/09/24 at 12:36:11:


It has been a regular sight in the area - it is at the shop in Andrews and I remember seeing it first 12 years ago.  It has a real Harley V-Twin down inside the bowels of that big mocked up engine.  It will move under it's own power - but I have never seen it run or move.

However - the shop owner is going out of business and who knows where the huge chopper will go.  He has been trying to sell the business without success.  This October - he says he is locking the door and going into retirement.

Dave , it seems like you find the Neatest Places !  

Is there enough day rides in the area for 3 or 4 days ?
If there is a camp-ground nearby then it's perfect !  

The Hwy 80 in NC was a nice twisty road too !