Bryan has been telling us about a ride that he and some of his bud's like to go on from time to time. He told us that it was a fun ride with great scenery and good twisty roads that he thought we'd really enjoy. Not having any real particular destination in mind this past week-end, Teddy, Tim, Julie and I decided to give it a try.
The 'good part' of the ride is this; Take US 276 north off of SR 11 in South Carolina. Follow it almost to Asheville, North Carolina then take SR 215 south to US 178 south until it intersects back with SR 11 in South Carolina. As you can see from the map photo below getting to either 'end' of this loop is a fairly long ride for us, then when the loop itself and the ride home is added in it makes for a long day.
A few weeks prior to this trip Julie and I had attended a funeral for the father of a co-worker of hers near Boone, North Carolina and while in the area we did some 'scouting' of some of the mountain roads we love to ride. What we found was appalling. The area has been so hard hit by bad weather this winter that many of the roads were in horrible shape and in some cases blocked and impassable. Because of this and due to Julie and Teddy not wanting to be cold we decided on a southern route over to "Bryan's loop". This would keep us out of the mountains directly, yet allow us to ride parallel to them for a while before turning up into them. It also gave us an opportunity to get off the loop if it was in as bad a shape as the other roads we'd seen and get home on roads that should be in good shape.
The first leg of this 'southern route' was to head south on I-85 and ride it all the way to Gaffney, South Carolina. Having just recently completed the Saddle Sore 1000 IBA ride that was almost entirely done on Interstates I was less than excited about that. But the alternative back roads would have taken much longer and time would indeed be an issue if we were to complete the loop and ride as planned.
The next leg would get us off the "super slab" and back onto the back roads we enjoy. We first discovered South Carolina's SR 11 two years ago while heading to Helen, Georgia and have enjoyed it ever since. It's not a curvy and twisty mountain road, but it does wind it's way through the South Carolina back country allowing you to make decent time while enjoying sights such as The Cowpens National Battlefield, Table Rock State Park and Caesars Head State Park. In no time at all we found ourselves turning onto US 276.
We didn't get far up 276 before we stopped for fuel, something to drink and to come out of our jacket liners. But once back on the road it was easy to see why Bryan likes the road so much, it was great! We rode along enjoying the views, scenery and the road itself while having a great time. The only drawback was that in the tightest and twistiest part of the road we ran up on a bunch of bicyclists. Now normally I have no problem sharing the road with anyone. Unfortunately most of these folks were using a whole lot more road than most bicyclists do and were a real hazard. I was really glad to finally get past them.
But I also have to confess, I did it again. The original idea was to go as far as Brevard, North Carolina and pick up US 64 west for a short distance, then take US 178 south back to SR 11 in South Carolina. It didn't actually work out like that... At an intersection I saw a sign pointing to US 64 east, and one pointing to US 276 north. My feeble mind determined that US 64 west must be just up 276 a little further, so I continued on.
That's when things got interesting. And we got lost. Sorta.
As I made the left turn with the traffic light to stay on 276 several "hot rod" import cars turned onto it as well coming from the other direction. I merged in with them with Teddy and Tim right behind me, then several more of the cars turned in behind them. At first we were all running along minding the speed limit and easing along. Then the cars in front of me picked up the pace a bit, so umm naturally I did too. Tim followed me and so did the cars behind he and Teddy. Now it was on. The cars in front of me picked it up some more, so once again, I did too. Now we were really moving, the problem was that I didn't know the road and was still concerned about the conditions as we were now climbing the mountain in earnest. Things were going along OK, Tim was still right with me and the cars behind Teddy and Tim were still hanging on tight to him. Then the bunch in front of me started to pull away. At first I kept up, but became increasingly nervous and saw that we were pulling away from Teddy and Tim, so I backed it down a notch. The cars in front of me simply checked out. Gone. Adiós Amigo. Tim caught me in short order and I tried to find the pace he wanted to keep, hopefully so that we could get ahead of the group behind he and Teddy. No such luck though, they were hanging on tight. Too tight actually, which was why I was hoping to pull away. I picked up the pace a bit, so did Tim, and so did those blasted cars. Damn!
Then, as I rounded a left turn I saw an entrance to a park on the right and the car I had been following sitting at the entrance by itself. As we passed the park the waiting car went in to the park and the others that were behind Tim turned in and followed it.
It's tough for me to admit that those "tuner cars" were more than we could handle, but they were. I keep telling myself that they were locals, knew the road, had well set up cars and were crazy to boot. Hopefully I'm at least partially correct.
The rest of the way up we were by ourselves, which is a good thing. Shortly before cresting the mountain and intersecting with the Blue Ridge Parkway the road got very sketchy and continued to be so on the other side. Lots of sand, dirt and debris. Plus it got rough as heck, bouncing us around and making it tough to stay on line. I slowed waaay down and just rode it out until we got to the town of Woodrow and the intersections of 276, 215 and 110.
We stopped at a place called the "Jukebox Diner", my intentions being to look at a map and figure out where in the heck we were at. As Tim pulled up beside me I said, "I've done it again. I'm lost." Tim grinned and said, "Yeah, well it's a good lost! That was fun!"
As we studied the map, Julie and Teddy were looking for someplace to eat and go to the bathroom. Never mind we were standing at a restaurant. They saw a sign at another place down the road called the "Cold Mountain Cafe" and decided they wanted to go there, plus they didn't want to ride with us, they wanted to walk. So Tim and I put the maps up and then eased down the roughly half a mile to where they wanted to go. Then we discovered it was closed! So we all loaded up (they'd had enough walking) and go back where we had been to have some lunch.
After lunch we headed south on SR 215 and once again were treated to some less than ideal conditions in spots. More sand and debris, more chewed up road, heck there was even some snow still laying on the shoulders of the road. At one point we even ran into a work crew that was replacing some guard railing along side of the road. But overall it wasn't too bad and was a hoot to ride. I imagine that once the road surface is cleaned up and patched it will be even better! I was encouraged enough that I definitely want to go back a little later in the year.
We got onto to US 178 and were now on familiar ground. Julie and I have ridden this road several times and enjoyed it every time. It's a typical Carolina mountain road, good road surface, twists, turns and elevation changes that make you want to yell whoo-hoo! Simply put, we had a ball and Julie and I really tested out the new tires we'd put on the bike a few weeks ago. The FJR holds a line like you wouldn't believe now and just feels planted to the road. We stopped at the intersection of US 178 and SR 11 for fuel and a rest stop before continuing on.
From there we simply back tracked our way back across 11 and I-85 to the house. Our total miles for the day ended up being 476, but our smiles per mile was about double that. I'm really looking forward to riding "Bryan's loop" again!
Bruce
