Earlier in the year, I didn't think I wanted The Hooch Motorcycle Rally out of Two Wheels of Suches on my rally calendar. However, as I got closer to the June rally, I decided that I'd probably like to go...and, include a do-over of the three-day Smokey Mountain 500 (a ride we weren't able to complete in August 2019).
Unfortunately, the rally was sold out, but after complaining on Facebook about my bad planning, a friend offered me his ticket that he was no longer able to use. He got his otherwise non-refundable money back and I got to go to the rally and take on the Smokey Mountain 500...this time successfully.
The Hooch is a nice rally through the forest roads in the Chattahoochee Forests of North Georgia. My 1985 KLR600 was the oldest motorcycle represented in the rally. The next oldest was a 1994 Honda XR. We rode together the first day.
Here's a video of the walk around before the Day-1 riders meeting.
As previously reported, I made a "failed" attempt at the Smokey Mountain 500 in August 2019. The Smokey Mountain 500 is a popular three day dual sport ride (about 50/50 dirt/pavement) with layovers in Suches, Georgia (Two Wheels of Suches), Telico Plains, Tennessee (Cherohala Mountain Trails Campgrounds) and Stechoa, North Carolina (Ironhorse Motorcycle Lodge).
We launched out of Suches in 2019, but the only section of the loop that I completed was the track from Robbinsville back to Suches.
The problems we/I encountered were:
1. One of our riders crashed off one of the gravel dirt forest roads in the Chatahoochee Forest somewhere around the Georgia-Tennessee border. Here's the first of a series of three videos on the mishap.
2. The clutch cable on my 36 year old Kawasaki KLR600 snapped no more than 10 miles out of Telico Plains causing me to leave the group to find a new cable...that I couldn't find until I got all the way over to Robbinsville.
On June 9, 2020, the week before the Hooch Motorcycle Rally hosted by Two Wheels of Suches, I took on the Smokey Mountain and, with only one close call, knocked it out without any problems...solo. We can now check that off.
The close call was a very poorly marked washout on a forest road right on the Tennessee border.
