Cherohala Skyway & The Smokies

A good night's rest can make a big difference in your travels, as can a comfortable place to 'explode' when you get in for the night. This is some of my 'exploding' that I do when I land.

We quickly packed up and bolted out of Anderson, headed north. First part of the trip thru the mountains was the 28, which was a lot more technical than I thought it'd be.

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Pretty tight curves, and the loaded up bike wasn't the best machine for that bit of tarmac. But it was amazingly fun and totally beautiful. I had a close call when a loaded up dump truck crossed into my lane in a downhill chicane with both sets of rear tires locked up smoking. That gets the blood moving.

We stopped at a visitors center to grab a map or two. Jason noticed that he had a warning light on, indicating his brake light was out. He quickly located a local auto store, headed over there and got a new bulb. Despite the dummy behind the desk telling us it wasn't in stock (while we stared at it on the shelf). Jason quickly replaced it in the parking lot.

We headed out from there and did the rest of the 28 to get to Robbinsville, SC. That town is connected to Telico Plains, TN by the Cherohala Skyway, our destination for the day and an absolutely amazing bit of road.

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That road was completed in 1996, it took 35 years and cost 100 million to complete. I checked it out at the opening, it's more grown up and the road isn't a perfect blacktop anymore, but it's still a really awesome road. This was near the first portions of the road.


We stopped at the highest point off the Cherohala Skyway, at 5300 feet. There was a path into the woods up to the top so we parked the bikes for a bit to take a walk up.

This area is so alive, creatures everywhere.

I think this picture sums up the ride on the Cherohala Skyway pretty well.

I had donned the helmet cam, here are a few neat action shots from the road. Make sure to click on them and zoom in.



Check the other bikers waving. Florida motorcyclists, take note how you're *supposed* to act. ;-)

Look at the view off the road to the right.

And look at this off to the left.



After we made it off the skyway and down into Telico Plains, Jason had to split for Nashville to travel home to his family. My path was heading to Knoxville to see my brother. Jason spent his entire 2 week vacation this year on this trip and 10 days of it with me. I was sad to see him go, it was nice to have someone to ride with.


It was getting dark on the way into Knoxivllle. I took all the backroads I could, through Lenore City and a few other small towns. The sunset was so awesome, I had to stop and take a pic.

I made it to my little brother's house about 9:30PM or so.