Darrenk Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 Wife and I decided spur of the moment to head up to Maggie Valley for two nights. Found a place to board the dog, set extra food and water out for the cats, and we left Tuesday morning. First, a quick stop for gas revealed a battery on its last legs, so we headed to Carolina Powerhouse Honda for a new one. 20 minutes later, we were on our way. As far as slab miles go, one could do a lot worse than Interstate 26 West from Columbia to Asheville, and we made decent time and most importantly arrived at the Quality Inn in Maggie Valley safe and dry. The hotel has been recently refurbished and the room was clean and exceptionally quiet with fast, free wifi.. We walked around the small downtown area, had a decent burger and calzone for dinner, and then ice cream. I'd like to say we got up at the crack of dawn to hit the road to the Tail, but that doesn't happen. The route to the Tail from our hotel was quite spectacular. We had to stop and don the rain gear for 20 minutes or so while on Moonshiner 28, but what a beautiful, well maintained road! We even cheered on a maintenance worker sweeping wood chips off the blacktop. When we arrived at the south end of US 129, we stopped at the Deal's Gap Motorcycle Resort for a quick break and to get the lay of the land, so to speak. Wife wanted to go in and get a T-shirt, but I told that it's bad juju to get the T-shirt before we did the ride. It was probably 2:30 before we actually started up the Tail of the Dragon. After just a mile or so, I could tell this was going to be an epic ride! The big Viffer was in it's happy place, even with someone as inexperienced as me. Hell, a rather obese guy on what looked like (and smelled like) a 70's two stroke 500cc passed us. After a few more miles, other vehicles coming back down were giving us the slow down signal, so we knew something was up. Turns out somebody on a 2020 Harley trike went over the edge. When we passed, she was up near the edge of the road, laying on her back, but moving. We found out later that she died on the scene. https://myfox8.com/news/the-dragon-woman-dies-in-motorcycle-accident-on-popular-scenic-mountain-drive/ We finished the rest of the Tail without incident, but certainly had a great time. On the way back down, we had to stop for quite a while while the accident scene investigators did their job. It was quite a somber atmosphere among all of the riders. We did get out T-shirts, and then started the long journey (felt that way after the riding we had already done up to this point) back to Maggie Valley. We followed a pair of Harley riders along Moonshiner 28, and they both did an admirable job through all of the curves. The roadway was still wet from the earlier rain, and they had just cut the grass, so there was a lot of wet clippings on the road, so nobody really pushed it too hard. As we were descending the mountain back into Maggie Valley, it started to rain again. Rather than don the gear again, we opted to stop for dinner (another calzone and a cheese steak this time) and of course, more ice cream. All said and done, we had a great time. We're already planning to go back, probably in early September. I think we'll definitely look for a hotel closer to Deal's Gap, because that seems like the starting point for so many great rides. We totaled about 600 mile of HARD riding in three days. One day of riding the great roads in the Smokies just isn't enough to do it all... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer VifferJ Posted August 22, 2020 Member Contributer Share Posted August 22, 2020 Sounds like a great trip, thx for sharing! And now I'm craving calzones... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparkie Posted August 22, 2020 Share Posted August 22, 2020 You have to go to Dale's wheels thru time if you are in Maggie valley! Just trust me on this one and stop in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimC Posted August 24, 2020 Share Posted August 24, 2020 Nice write-up and photo! Very sorry to hear about the death of that rider. This is a risky endeavor. It's a shame anyone ever has to pay with their life. As for where to stay, I recommend Franklin, NC. The nice thing is you can ride NC 28 all the way to the Dragon to warm up. And if you're anything like me, if you go back the same way, 28 is much more enjoyable after the pressure of US 129. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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