Once again, I've completed the Smokey Mountain 500, a track over the Chatahoochee and Smoky Mountains in GA, TN and NC that was designed by members on Adventure Rider.
Also, this year I did the ride to coincide with the Hooch Dual Sport Rally out of Two Wheels of Suches in Suches, GA. Overall, five days of riding in the mountains.
I set up base camp at Two Wheels and headed out during the morning of June 9, a Wednesday. Choosing the clockwise route. The Green Track, it was about 180 miles over to Telico Plains.
Thursday morning I rolled out of CMTC on the shortest of the three day trek, the Yellow Track, over to Stecoah, NC; only about 130 miles, and I was in Robbinsville by 3PM.
As discussed in my last post, Super Sherpa on the Dragon, I bypassed the last 10 or so miles to the recommended lodging location, Iron Horse Motorcycle Lodge, and added 17 miles up to the Deals Gap Resort to spend some time playing around on the Tail of the Dragon. As further discussed in that post, I also have opted out of the recommended lodging and now stay at the Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort in Robbinsville.
Friday, back to Suches on the Red Track was the longest day at 200 miles, which actually includes about 20 or so miles off the Track to get to food and fuel.
Overall, the Smokey Mountain 500 is fairly tame dual sport/adventure ride, generally suitable to all sizes of adventure class motorcycles. While there are a couple challenges on the track, it's mostly up and down the mountains on decent gravel surfaces; lots of switchback action, some water crossings and a little of that awful red clay.
One of the challenging sections of the track is the Witt Road Water Crossings on the yellow track (Tellico Plains to Stecoah). The track in this area goes back and forth across a river four times. Two of those crossings can be challenging, the other two are not.
Below is the map location and some video of the four crossings that I took last week.
Yeah, that fourth crossing almost got me. Essentially there was a fall off slope to the right that caused me to slip into those logs and literally come to a complete stop in the river. Fortunately I didn't tumble over and also fortunately the Sherpa kept running so I could recover.
The other challenging section is an extremely rough and rocky section of the Red Track known as Charlies Creek Road and HighTower Road. This section just gets worse and worse every time I ride the section. Last week the washouts had turned extreme and the "tread-clogging" red clay was wet and deep. On a bright note I ran into a rod crew near the end starting what looked to be a long process of dumping grave.
This particularly challenging section of the red track starts on a long, but clear and shallow river crossing through the Tallulah River. Here's a look at the map location and my ride through the track last week.
The total track of the SM500 was about 510 and then, once back in Suches, I added another 225 on the two day Hooch Dual Sport Rally.
This trip is becoming a tradition. Until next year!
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