Moonlighting Tour

Buster and I moonlight as tour guides for motorcycle groups. We take the job very seriously, and test roads before we take our groups to places we have not been, or places we have been previously concerned about.

Yesterday, I tested a road we found on MapSource - Otter Creek Road. It connects Wayah Road with NC 28 and parallels the Nantahala Gorge. At mile four, it turned to what you see in the picture. Since this group is road-oriented, we won't be using Otter Creek Road. What a shame. The Nantahala Gorge road can be quite crowded during kayaking season.

On the same trip, I also tested the whole of Wayah Road. The last time we rode it, the surface had just been converted from very nice asphalt to a really bad application of chip seal at the Wayah Bald Summit going north for about five miles. The road went from an A to an F. It is now a C+/B- and I will see if I can talk Buster into using the road.

At the south end of Wayah Road, I stopped for a Gatorade and a bio break. A group of local riders showed up, one on an R1150R. He quizzed me about Graf, asking the usual horsepower question (I was asked three times about Graf's output on the trip). He asked where I was headed, too. I pointed north. He said, "Ah, Thunder Road."

I'm not sure I like the name. I'm also not sure Wayah Road needs a motorcyclists' nickname. Look what it did for the Dragon - police patrols and dead squids.

What a wonderful day. MapSource says 337 miles with about 3,000 feet of elevation change from my home. And the weather was perfect. If only I could find a decent lunch spot in Andrews, North Carolina. If you are ever there, don't bother with any restaurant with the word depot in it.