SOUTHEAST RIDE – DAY 3  (CHEROKEE – BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY – DRAGON)

Day 3 with VFR – Sunday.

Good morning:

Morning, we divided into groups.

There were three of us (Ed, Sy and me) in the Cabin and ready for the ride to Blue Ridge Parkway:

Tracklog for the Sunday:

A bit chilly in the morning, but then it was sunny day around Robbinsville:

I don’t remember exactly if we turned right for this exit?!

However, this was the exit we took:

Morning fuel:

He seemed still sleepy. LoL…

We headed to the Smoky Mountain, to the Blue Ridge Parkway:

Stopped at a small village (Cherokee, I think) for some photos:

Right, that was Cherokee. I was missing some chances to visit and take photos of the Cherokee/Indian museum, which is quite near to the street:

We were passing Cherookee:

I heard about Blue Ridge Parkway many times, all the nice words, except about the Po Po…

The road to BRP started to be wonderful. It was quite chilly and a bit wet.

I was thinking of taking lots of photos that day, as I went riding with Sy and Ed, who may not too aggressive with speed.
At an overlook:

Awesome fall color:

@4160ft high:
You will never see this signboard in real, as we already threw them away – or may be it has been rebuilt, I don’t know:

We kept continue riding up the mountain. The roads seemed weter and weter as long as the higher elevation, it was more and more foggy as well. We could not go fast and have to be very careful with the wet road. We stopped at another overlook area:

We were discussing of wearing raincoat and also heading back with incompleted BRP:

Whatever it is, It was nice experience to me though:

Left the Overlook area, we kept continue for some miles then come back. Too bad that the weather did not permit us to enjoy the Blue Ridge Parkway on that day. We took exit to US19 (Soco Road) and back to Cherokee.
Some more nice view on the way back:

Arriving Cherokee:

Stopped for a rest at a gas station:

The big building at the background of the two above photos is a big Casino in Cherokee. People say that Gambling is kind of biggest income for this area.

I was hopping that we could see some sunlight from the sky. If so, we could come back to Blue Ridge Parkway and do the rest of exploration. Especially myself and Ed never been there. However, the cloudy and dark sky made us to come back Robbinsville.

Sy helped to save the riding day by making a round trip. We did other route back to the Cabin.

Another stop, beside the Nantahala Outdoor Center.

I don’t really understand the first three lines on the board:

Is that the Export gate #3 of the Commercial Silvermine?

Cold water but it is more enjoyable than the mist on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I was played canoeing for a while  :

Three of us back to the Cabin, that time was till quite early.

Some nice shots around the Cabin:

Then I myself headed to the Dragon. It was almost no traffic on the Dragon. This time, I done the Dragon for two times without any issue.
I put my team’s logo (ACE MTSG) here:

And I even have time to stop at some places to take photos and chit chat with Killboy and US129photos cameramen.

Very few motorcycles at Deals gap:

This bike is really sweet, he passed me sometimes on the Dragon:

Back to the Cabin after two rounds of Dragon, I stopped at the bridge which lead to the Deals Gap resort:

Well, that’s it for the Day 3 at the Smoky mountain:

Most of the friends have left the Cabin that evening for their work on the next day (Monday).
It was two of us, Ed and me in the cabin that night. We did not cook, we went to Robbinsville to have dinner.
Chit chat entire evening while we all packing up for the day after.