Ride report! Highlands NC is a beautiful place. We stayed at my gracious neighbor Greg's mothers home. The community is a resort community, so if you are planning on riding the Area, maybe look for places to stay in nearby Dillard GA.
Some pics:
You can't see it here, but Greg has a flat front tire. F.L.A.T. He had a little battery operated pump that we used to re-inflate it. We're pretty sure the cause was an Amazon "tire pressure indicator" valve cap that is green when good (whatever that means - 500 psi?) red when bad. It was red. I think they are designed to cause flats so you buy battery powered pumps. I suggested he discard the stupid little valve caps and use his brain, which told him his tire was flat, especially since he can't see the stupid little valve cap while riding.
Lake Jocassee:
2018 500 exc (Alan) 2017 690 Enduro (me) 2013 F700 (Greg). Interesting part - 500 weighs 230lbs, 690 weighs 330lbs, F700 weighs 480lbs. 500 was on full knobbies, 690 on 80/20 tires, F700 on Dunlop Trailmax Mission tires.
Two nice guys on brandy-new CRF300L Honda's from Flo-Rida. The rally model on the left was 100% stock. I wasn't a fan of the metal gas tank, or the fact that it costs $750 more than the regular model, which is $5,400 new. The guy with the "regular" 300L had a pipe, ECU, Ohlins shock, and different fork springs. $3,000 of mods to a $5,400 bike. The stock one got 75 mpg. The modded one gets 50 mpg. Surprisingly these little puppies weigh 300+ lbs. Why do they have to be so heavy?
Some of the roads were mostly dirt surface, with great traction. Some were hard packed with loose gravel on them - felt like riding on marbles. This is a mostly dirt segment. One thing I wished there were more of were water crossings - only one, and it was about 4" deep.
A bit closer to the "ball bearings on a concrete floor" section, but still ok.
Big tough dual sport guys. And a subaru. Later a family pulled up in a Ford Explorer. This was near a hiking trail. Tons and tons of camping and hiking trails in the Nantahala Forest. After that we saw someone in a C5 Corvette (admittedly the Corvette was on a smoother section of the dirt road, but still about 20 minutes from pavement.)
Glenn Falls - you can walk behind them. Nice and cool back there!
Yes, we brought the gravel bikes. Suffice to say I did a fair bit of climbing to reach this spot.
And.....cleaned up and ready to switch to Supermoto mode for some NC mountain rides!
We all got pretty competent at using Osmand to follow GPX tracks. Alan had his everyday Android phone, I had an old Kyocera Duraforce, Greg had an iPhone. I let Greg borrow my backup Kyocera for a while to practice, and it flew off his handlebars. He picked it up unscathed! Pretty impressive. Or just lucky. The phone flew off while Alan and I were getting in some "spirited" riding. We noticed no Greg behind us, so we turned around and back tracked. Very, very scary 5 minutes, as we rode for a mile with no sign of him. Turns out he had to go back quite a ways to pick up the phone!
Fun ride! Enjoyed the paved roads in the area too, lots of great twisties.
scadventureroute.wixsite.com
Take pictures, we do want to see them!