Day 4 – Asheville Loop was a hoot!

After breakfast this morning, which is one of the things that we are going to miss after tomorrow, we prep the bike, gear up, and hit the road. The GPS  and the operator had a minor miscue this morning, but it didn’t take me long to force the GPS back on route. Never seen that error message before, not enough memory to follow the route. I purged the tracks to maximize the unit, but nothing. Finally I just forced it to go to my first fix only and after I was clear of any crossing path/routes re-loaded my primary route to follow and off she went.

First stop this morning was Chimney Rock. The elevation is only 2280, but the views were spectacular. Once in the parking lot, you just take a elevator up to the base, then just 44 steps to reach the top. Now that’s not all, there are a few trails that are a must and all total there are, a lot of steps. I was sweating pretty heavy by time I reached the top, but it was worth the hike. Fee to enter the park is $14 a person, but I didn’t think it was over kill considering the facilities and elevator and the people running the place. Not a government thing, private.

Then it was time to ride. Highway 9 north and it didn’t take much more than a mile and I was grinding pegs in the asphalt. To my surprise, no pop in the back of the head from my quiet passenger. We blasted along, only sometimes being slowed by Sunday Church traffic and finally ended up in Marion, NC where we stopped for lunch.

Leaving Marion via 221 to join 226, I made a wrong turn onto 226-ALT and what a bonus pack that turned out to be. Tight twists with no traffic and add in a nice elevation change and that was a thrill. The only thing that I did overlook was to top off fuel at lunch time. I had only burned a half tank and knew I was going to be crossing I-40, but when I got there, no gas. Not good. I started scanning the GPS for fuel along my route but closest was 49 miles out. Bike range, comfortable 170-190, pushing it, 180-200, worried 200-220. Doing the math the total range is 241. That 49 mile run for gas would have put me in the 190-210 range. As luck would have it, ran into fuel station at the 177 mark and still had 2 gallons left. So technically another 60 miles left, no sweat. Right!

The last 2 hours of the ride we finally ran into rain. I finally got to test my new rain gear I bought last summer. I do not ride in the rain, no fun. We stopped, geared up, ran into the rain 3 miles down the road and stayed in the rain the last 80 miles of our day. We bumped into a nice lake, no name found, bumped into a waterfall, no name found, then we visited a planned waterfall, Silver Run Falls. Drove right up to it, with no hiking required. All in all, we had a good day. The Driver of the motorcycle had a fantastic day.

For dinner and our anniversary, I took Lori out to Texas Steak House  Saloon so she could have a steak. Bellies stuffed, butts tired, we made our way back to base camp and called it a night. Tomorrow we leave our cute Bed & Breakfast for a cabin near Pigeon Forge, TN.