Weekend ride to Maggie Valley and more
Riders : Mariano, Nivin, Rick, Laura, Saurin, Ashish, Arpit, Sanjay, Arvind, Praveen, Behram
Date : June 2nd - June 5th 2022 | Miles : 1000
The blog writeup is shared by Behram Jamaspi and Rick Ramsey (Thank you Rick!)
Praveen and BJ left a day early on Thursday to explore some glamping. Made a couple of interesting stops like Battle Tank At Liberty NC, Worlds Largest Chest Of Drawers and Love Valley Arena. We got a a lot of rain on our way to Love Valley but braved it out and continued riding until we reached our glamping site.
We glamped at Gold River Camp and cant tell you how amazing the place is. Some of the cleanest bathrooms you will ever find at a glamping site. The owners are extremely friendly and went out of their way to make sure we were comfortable. The place has everything from water, coffee machine, air conditioning, beds, firewood, mosquito repellant, fire starter etc. Its a perfect place for motorcyclist to camp since we cannot carry most of the stuff on our bikes. A little river/creek flows part the site and you can take a dip in the water. All in all loved the place
Next day Praveen and BJ heading towards the cabin while rest of the group was going ahead with a long all day ride before reaching the cabin. We relaxed at the cabin, went for a walk and Praveen started cooking while waitng on rest of the folks to arrive.
That same morning, Mariano, Arpit, Saurin, and Ashish gathered in Cary. Friday's ride would be 327.5 miles with a riding time of 9 hours and 22 minutes. Laura and Rick met up with the guys at Margaritas on the River Road (Route 150) West of Mooresville. Terrific food. After lunch, Ashish led us on pleasant backroads through farming country (and vacation homes, always more vacation homes) to Marion. There was some traffic on account of #friday, but it wasn't too bad. From Marion we took Route 80 North, and the curves never stopped till we got to Maggie Valley. Somewhere along that route we hit big downpours, and rode in the rain about 45 minutes to an hour. Hardest part, as usual, was keeping my glasses from fogging. I don't remember all the twists and turns, but I do remember gradually getting into a flow. I'd been riding at Laura's pace to help her get her riding groove back, and began to notice that she was speeding up, herself, and getting into her own groove. We were on a delightful road, just magic. After a good long ride, we stopped at a sign by the side of the road. Turns out we'd been riding the Rattler. Of course we had to take pictures.
Nivin, Mariano, Rick & Laura were staying separately and the rest of us were staying at the cabin. However everyone joined us for dinner. Praveens awesome cooking is always appreciated. Great discussions on riding and otherwise.
After non cabin folks left, the party moved on to playing ping pong. And after everyone went to sleep, Sanjay, Praveen and Behram went on with their philosophical discussions until 5am. There was no way they were leaving for the ride at 9am :-)
Next day the early risers left for their ride. Some amazing roads on a route that Ashish had preplanned. Behram tried to catchup with the folks and ended up meeting them at the restaurant
Praveen and Sanjay did their own little thing heading towards Bridal Veil falls
That evening was pretty simple. We ate food and went to sleep. Next day morning left for home in several smaller groups. While on the way back, we decided to take NC 197 which has about 2 miles of gravel and BJ's bike had slit flat tire. We patched it up and kept moving. Slime didnt work but a standard patch kit did the trick (only for a few miles)
We stopped at a gas station and then parted ways. Praveen, Arvind & BJ took an extra halt at one of the rest areas
While we three were heading back. my rear tire started loosing air pressure. We patched it atleast 4 times. When we got close to home, we even requested Deepak to get here with a better patch kit. He was sweet enough to leave his family and come down to help us. What we learnt today was that a hole in the tire can be fixed but a slit is almost impossible. We were lucky to get home with multiple tire patches
All in all, another great weekend trip. Awesome memories and great times!