August 9, 2005

 

On the Tail of the Dragon

This morning got up and headed back to the Parkway. After riding for a while someone told us about a stretch of road farther south off the Parkway called the TAIL OF THE DRAGON. This stretch of road has over 300 turns in 11 miles. People come all over the world to ride or drive this section of highway. It was absolutely one incredible experience. As you go through it’s as though the road just moves under you as you just sail through.  If I make it out to be easy it’s not, I just took it easy and moved with road feeling every curve as we went. On our way up to The Dragon we met a kid named Alex who had just come down from there. When we told him we were going up he said he would show us how to get there. While we were riding up Alex stood up on his seat turned around and took a picture of the four of us riding behind him. It was unreal. Then he turned around sat back down.

-Jim, August 9, 2005

Today we went back to the parkway; I did not know that this is about 525 miles long.

We stayed on this for about 150 to 200 miles then we went on highway 129, headed to the Tail of the Dragon. This is 11.5 miles with over 325 turns in it; they say 1 in 5 on bikes do not make it.

-Ken, August 9, 2005

We rode the Blue Ridge Parkway most of the day.  We got bad directions, so we asked someone else and found the Dragon. It is a stretch of US Hwy 129 it has 318 curves in 11 miles. Alex, a rider that we met, took us up to the Dragon. On the way up, he stood up on his seat turned around and took our photo going about 40 mph. We asked if he would send it to us, and he said he would.  We are now in Maryville, TN, for the night.

-Dan, August 9, 2005