Neil takes his used to be red Vee through the mud on a Forest Service road below Hurricane Gap. The Distanzias rock! It looked like some of the locals had been on the road, playing with their Big Wheels - lots of deep gullies and mud pits left behind.

Jon putting his green Vee though its paces - stock tires were pretty tricky in the slick stuff, but still went good enough to slip and slide through the deep stuff.

The Beemer takes its turn, followed by the Suzuki DR 650 - that's a killer bike! It was the first time that I had ridden with somebody that was pushing the DR and I'm really impressed. Suzuki has a real winner in that one. It handled the roughest stuff with ease, despite having road tires. It's a bike built for fun.

After the bog, we take a break in the sun (hot day) amid swarms of gnats - I'll be glad when the trees fully leaf out and the bugs die down a bit.

Scope out the black fender on Neil's Vee - that's sharp! I wish that I'd gotten a good shot of his seat mods though - he now has a Versys with a comfortable seat - and he did it himself.

Hurricane Gap on Rich Mountain near Hot Springs. We rode across the mountain from Hwy. 25 - the Hurricane Gap road starts at the turnoff near the top of the hill above Hot Springs where the Appalachian Trail crosses over 25. It's a good smooth Forest Service road that crosses over Rich Mtn. to Paint Creek. From Paint Creek, you can turn downstream on a narrow paved lane to the French Broad River near Paint Rock, or continue on out to Hwy. 107, just west of the TN/NC state line. It's a good ride, but watch for horse trailers and horseback riders - this area gets a lot of equestrian use and the larger trailers tend to take up about 80% of the road when they round a bend.
Check out Jenny's Beemer - that's the first BMW that I've seen that I'd love to own. Reasonably priced (really!) with all the goodies and it looks good too.

Neil joins the group on the Hurricane Gap road on the north side of Rich Mountain.

Paint Creek, just off of the Hurricane Gap road. This small paved road runs back down to the French Broad River at Paint Rock.


Sign at the Paint Creek parking area. I'm more worried about the tweakers and their meth labs - especially in that neck of the woods.

Triple your fun! 3 shades of Veedom. Neil's bike sort of has that 'tie dyed' look. The trick is to allow plenty of room between you and the bike in front when you start plowing through the bogs.

OK - enough riding for the time being - let's call up some wimmen! Jon works hard to keep his priorities in order...

Note the group up the hill in the curve...

Ouch! Like I say, it's not uncommon to meet the locals cruising up the wrong side of the road. Jenny must have some seriously good reflexes - nary a scratch or bruise, but unfortunately, the Beemer took a pretty good hit. The truck had been moved back by the time this photo was taken. Bummer!!!

This is one tough bike! Other than the forks and some reflectors, the Beemer took it on the chin and came through in surprisingly good shape. The impact was great enough to pull one side of the forks out of the yoke though. Tough break, but it's great to know that Jenny came through the ordeal OK. She's a hell of a rider, but sometimes, your number just comes up.

A fellow near the crash site was kind enough to let Neil leave the Beemer at his place while he went to get a truck. This was shot on the narrow country road that links Paint Creek to Hwy. 107. That's Neil and Jon behind me as we head out.

On Hwy. 107 as we head back towards North Carolina.

Leaving Tennessee on Hwy. 107, we cross the Carolina line. Man, what a beautiful day!

Turning back towards Marshall off of Hwy. 107 - we got in behind a long line of Harleys at this point and followed them - slowly - all the way back to the Hwy. 25 intersection. There was a weekend rally in Cherokee and the hills were alive with Harleys. Nice folks having a good time - can't knock that!

This was one of those rare perfectly clear weekends in the western mountains of North Carolina along the borderlands with Tennessee. Despite that, Al and I still managed to find the one cloud in the south that was dumping rain on our ride the day before (more to come on that one), over near Del Rio, Tennessee. If rain is out there, I will find it!

Neil got the banged up Beemer back home without any further incidents. I hope that all goes well with the repairs.