Day 4 continued…
Well, the quick note needs some filling in.
We decided to go to Trust and Luck – 2 small towns north of Asheville. What better place for 2 salesmen to ride too? It was a great ride up to Trust with the road getting ever smaller, ever twistier. We stopped to get gas at what we thought was a gas station outside of Luck and found at we were in Trust! That was the whole town! Luck was just around the bend.
We decided to pull out the map and find the next point, and that is how the rest of the day went. We would look at a map, find the most twisted road (no comments about the author) and ride to the end of it. From there the process would repeat all day. We road into Tennessee and back into North Carolina, up and down, from one peg to another. It was a lot of fun and the longer it went on the more confident I got. Soon I was flying around the corners until that voice of responsibility sounded “Easy big feller”.
We decided to stay at a camp site on Route 80. We arrived very tied and looking albeit a little rough – both of us left our razors in Charlotte. We asked for a site and got the cold shoulder – “we don’t have tent sites”. Ok, back up the mountain to a campsite on the Blue Ridge – “sorry, no showers”. As tempting as it was to say we don’t care we decide that we had another 16 miles in us to get to a camp site that has showers. 25 miles later we realized we had missed the site, turned around and found this little sign – Bear Den Campground. As the road ended – always fun on a big bike – a sign pointed the way, 2,500 feet to camp site. Now, that may not seem like a lot but on gravel, tired, with a full load it was very interesting, especially the downhill parts. I tired to forget that in the morning we would have to go up the gravel.
The receptionist was a treat. The conversation went something like this;
Pierre: “Do we need to worry about bears?”
Receptionist: “I have not seen any here”
Pete: “Which camp ground can we have?”
Receptionist: “You should go and look; I have only been here 2 weeks so I am not familiar with the sites”
Pierre: “So you really don’t know about the bears?”
Receptionist: Blank look.
We found our way to a very nice, very remote site and set up the tents. Next was dinner. Now, we had not stopped during the day to resupply. We talked about it at every stop, but it was always going to happen at the next stop. So out came the emergency rations. Now, I love to cook and do enjoy a good meal but this one goes into the record books. Spam, Pasta, Chili, Beans, Tomatoes, Gallic, and a few other spices. I am sure it sounds awful, but it went down in an instant. Cleanup and time for the fire.
I was sitting on a wall when Pete suddenly said “Pierre, move!”
“What?”
“Move!”
Turns out a very large raccoon was heading straight for me. Pete started throwing rocks at it while I grabbed the camera. Looking back it is hysterical but at the time the raccoon would not stop coming at us. So much so that Pete asked “Do you have a knife?”
“A what?”
“A knife?”
“What am I going to do with a knife?”
“Well, if it comes at your tent it will be better than nothing”
OK, so picture me, tired laying in my tent and thinking about the raccoon which was about to attack. No thank you. We made sure the camp site was clear of anything that might be of interest to the raccoon and went to bed. As soon as my head hit the pillow I was gone. Never heard another sound until 6 AM the next morning.
Memories. They come in all forms.
More tomorrow…
Well, the quick note needs some filling in.
We decided to go to Trust and Luck – 2 small towns north of Asheville. What better place for 2 salesmen to ride too? It was a great ride up to Trust with the road getting ever smaller, ever twistier. We stopped to get gas at what we thought was a gas station outside of Luck and found at we were in Trust! That was the whole town! Luck was just around the bend.
We decided to pull out the map and find the next point, and that is how the rest of the day went. We would look at a map, find the most twisted road (no comments about the author) and ride to the end of it. From there the process would repeat all day. We road into Tennessee and back into North Carolina, up and down, from one peg to another. It was a lot of fun and the longer it went on the more confident I got. Soon I was flying around the corners until that voice of responsibility sounded “Easy big feller”.
We decided to stay at a camp site on Route 80. We arrived very tied and looking albeit a little rough – both of us left our razors in Charlotte. We asked for a site and got the cold shoulder – “we don’t have tent sites”. Ok, back up the mountain to a campsite on the Blue Ridge – “sorry, no showers”. As tempting as it was to say we don’t care we decide that we had another 16 miles in us to get to a camp site that has showers. 25 miles later we realized we had missed the site, turned around and found this little sign – Bear Den Campground. As the road ended – always fun on a big bike – a sign pointed the way, 2,500 feet to camp site. Now, that may not seem like a lot but on gravel, tired, with a full load it was very interesting, especially the downhill parts. I tired to forget that in the morning we would have to go up the gravel.
The receptionist was a treat. The conversation went something like this;
Pierre: “Do we need to worry about bears?”
Receptionist: “I have not seen any here”
Pete: “Which camp ground can we have?”
Receptionist: “You should go and look; I have only been here 2 weeks so I am not familiar with the sites”
Pierre: “So you really don’t know about the bears?”
Receptionist: Blank look.
We found our way to a very nice, very remote site and set up the tents. Next was dinner. Now, we had not stopped during the day to resupply. We talked about it at every stop, but it was always going to happen at the next stop. So out came the emergency rations. Now, I love to cook and do enjoy a good meal but this one goes into the record books. Spam, Pasta, Chili, Beans, Tomatoes, Gallic, and a few other spices. I am sure it sounds awful, but it went down in an instant. Cleanup and time for the fire.
I was sitting on a wall when Pete suddenly said “Pierre, move!”
“What?”
“Move!”
Turns out a very large raccoon was heading straight for me. Pete started throwing rocks at it while I grabbed the camera. Looking back it is hysterical but at the time the raccoon would not stop coming at us. So much so that Pete asked “Do you have a knife?”
“A what?”
“A knife?”
“What am I going to do with a knife?”
“Well, if it comes at your tent it will be better than nothing”
OK, so picture me, tired laying in my tent and thinking about the raccoon which was about to attack. No thank you. We made sure the camp site was clear of anything that might be of interest to the raccoon and went to bed. As soon as my head hit the pillow I was gone. Never heard another sound until 6 AM the next morning.
Memories. They come in all forms.
More tomorrow…
1 comment:
Since there are no pictures of this alleged racoon- (Big Foot fantasy!)I think you guys are deliious due to lack of proper nutritio Hugs - hop sing
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