Tail of the Dragon

There's a stretch of road in North Carolina that is 11 miles long and has 318 curves in it. It's called the Tail of the Dragon. I heard about it from my boss Jim who went down last year with some of his friends who ride. From what he told me, it sounded like it would be worth the trip to check it out myself, so with fewer and fewer days left before Darcie and I moved back to BC, I set off to North Carolina on my first motorcycle road trip. I packed the bare necessities in a back pack and set off. When I was about three quarters of the way there, I started asking myself if the trip was going to be worth it because my body was starting to ache and I felt a long way away from Toronto. However, I rode the Tail of the Dragon stretch of road on my way into the motel I was staying at and the one ride alone made the whole trip worth it. I started it when the sun had set but it was still a little light out. There was no one in front or behind me and I was able to go nice and slow through the twists and turns. I knew I had to be cautious since it was my first time through and if you're not concentrating on what you're doing, you can get into a lot of trouble. There's countless blind corners and many corners with no gaurdrails that have large drop offs. Its a challenging stretch of road for sure but it can be fun if you stay within your limits. It took a while to get through it since it's about 16km's long. The turns just wouldn't end. It felt like it went on forever. It was extremely fun. It's not like any road I've ever been on. Infact, I can't believe they made the road like they did. You have to drive it to believe it. It's very unique. Being from BC, I've been on my fair share of curvy roads, but nothing like this. I guess that's why people from all over North America drive to this location just to ride it. The road is so popular in fact, there's professional photographers set up at different locations along the road taking your picture which you can purchase off of their website later. The majority of traffic on the road is motorcycles but you do see cars on it as well. Anyway, as I was making my way through the first time, it started getting darker, and I started seeing what I thought were moths and bugs being lit up by the bikes lights but what I soon realized was they were actually lightning bugs. And there weren't a couple of them either. I've only ever seen two of these bugs at once and it was pretty cool. On the Tail of the Dragon, I was driving through them for about 8 kilometers. It was unbelievable. That's when I knew the whole trip was worth it, for that one moment. It couldn't have been any more perfect. Riding a motorcycle by myself on such a fun road, at dusk, with lightning bugs lighting up all around me and ahead of me. It was pretty surreal. The motel I stayed at was called Deals Gap and is literally right at the end of the tail, so naturally its always booked by motorcycle riders. It was nice getting up the next morning and being right at the tail so I could ride it back and forth until I had to head back home. The tail passes through the North Carolina and Tennesse border. Most of the road is in Tenessee but Deals Gap is in North Carolina. I left Toronto Thursday, June 30th after work around 6pm and got to Pittsburgh by 12am. I made it to Deals Gap by about 9:30pm Friday. The next morning I rode the tail back and forth 2 times, then checked out some other scenic roads in the area. The roads down there are a motorcycles playground and very scenic. There were a couple of dams you can ride past and one you can ride over. One of them was in the movie with Harrison Ford, The Fugitive. I started riding that morning at 7 and after 4 hours of riding, I had to head back to the motel to check out at 11. I rode the tail one more time before heading back home. On my way back, I took a different route so in total I passed through 9 different states: In order, starting from the start of the trip, I passed through New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, and finally Michigan. The ride back was a little tough because I knew how far I had to go and my butt and back/shoulders were getting pretty soar. When it was all said and done though, I’m definitely glad I went – it was worth it. I'm definitely planning on going back sometime soon.