Where I Trace My Bloodline - Spruce Pine, North Carolina

 Wow!! What an amazing day of riding. After leaving the KOA in Newberry this morning, I ran up I26 to Spartanburg and then jumped off the highway for a quick fuel top off and and some back road riding to cross over to North Carolina at Lake Lure, and then picking up the Blue Ridge Parkway south of Asheville. 

Lake Lure, NC. 

Welcome to the Blue Ridge Parkway

I don't know if there is a way to describe riding the Parkway. The views are expansive and so majestic and the constant twist, turns and elevation changes make for a motorcyclists Valhalla. Halfway up the Parkway I came to Mt. Mitchell, the tallest peak east of the Mississippi. It's a 300 yard hike up a steep trail to the summit, but it was worth the work out.

Mt. Mitchell

 The top of the world.

Riding the Blue Ridge Parkway

My destination for the day would be an Air BNB in Spruce Pine, NC and to get there I would get the chance to get off the Parkway and ride one of the named roads famous to motorcycle riders in these mountains, The Devils Whip! What a thrill that was. It's a short run but it' rides like an express elevator out of the heights of the Blue Ridge.

 After a full day of mountain switchbacks and great riding it was time to take a break and get some dinner and relax a little bit. I had read about a little area known as Little Switzerland that bikers stop at to take a break from carving up the themed roads like the Devil's Whip and the Diamondback.  Arriving at the Switzerland Inn at 4:30 I would find that I would have to wait an hour before the restaurant would open; but when you have an hour to kill, there can't be or more pleasant place to get a beer and take in the magnificent vistas.

It's like regular Switzerland, but little.

 It just don't get any better than this.

So tonight I'm staying at an Air BnB in Spruce Pine, NC, and tomorrow will be a day of two lane mountain roads as I ride up to Breaks Interstate Park. With what I know from my pre-planning, tomorrow is likely to be the most enlightening day of this journey.

Air BnB in Spruce Pines, NC