More Pics Added-Went to Deal's Gap this weekend... 9/15-9/16

[Logicus]

Well, I know a couple of times, the idea of a trip to Deal's Gap was brought and this past weekend I was offered the idea of going at about 5pm on Friday night. We were already going caving down in Southern Kentucky, so, why not???? Plus, this would be a great opportunity to take a long ride on the Hawk. Here's the outcome.......

Over 700 miles round trip in two days....

First off, here's a couple of pics from within one of the branches of the caves we explored. These caves are on private property and the owner doesn't care. If anyone on here is into caving, let me know.... I can give you good directions and this system of caves BLOWS AWAY anything you'll EVER find at Mammoth Caves, Carter Cave, 7 Caves... any of them! It's pretty serious though, you need hardhats, multiple sources of light, you'll climb stories high and walk through waist deep water. Funnest thing I've ever done...



The last one is a pic of my buddies to give you a little perspective as to how large the place is.... if you want more pics, let me know...


We stayed in a motel near Mt. Vernon, KY (7-8 hours crawling through a cave wears you out!) Then left around 11am Sunday morning.


Well, on the way down 129, we found a dam.... (isn't that some points in the scavenger hunt???)


Finally made it to the Deal's Gap Resort! At 2:30-ish, we found the VERY twisty Tail of the Dragon only to be 'ushered' though with the TN State HWY Patrol around every corner. From the bottom of one side up and over the bottom of the other side, we counted 14 cops either riding or sitting and watching. No one was doing over 30 on this road today...

It was funny, I actually came out of the little store there to find several people either looking at or taking pictures of the Hawk. One guy said now he wanted to get back home and get his CB "out of it's boxes" and back out on the road. Quite the conversation starter the Hawk was...


Heed the warnings left by others!!!!


The cruisers outnumbered the sportbikes today by about three to one.




At one of the overlook stops on 129.

There's another dam.... is that more points for the scavenger hunt too?


This last pic is actually at the Rarity Mountain Road exit on I-75 in the mountains just inside Tennessee from KY. It seems to me to be the highest around and has a pretty good view.. the sun was dipping, and so was the temp.... got ready for a cold ride home...

Overall, this was one of the best weekends I've ever had... the caving thing was pretty awesome, Deal's Gap was great, and the Hawk was actually a GREAT bike for the trip! We actually had a friend go to the cave with us in a car, and he came back with all the equip then my friend Jim and I headed on down to Deal's Gap. Most of the highway was a lot of 90mph+ hauling ass and with the exception of having to get gas every hour and a half, we made good time. I'll do it again as I want to ride the surrounding roads down there too. It's an good two day trip.. I don't highly recommend caving the night before, as we were sore from that...

Hope you like the pics.

[Swipe]

Been watching some cool motorcycle vids of Deals Gap and The Dragon, the roads look awesome. I spent a few months in that area in '91, beautiful countryside.

[Mayoke]

Awesome pics!
Thanks for sharing!

[Dash]

Great pics Logicus. Deals Gap is an awesome road. I`ve seen a lot of "Dragon Tail" vids. man, it`s biker paradise. downside is that quite a lot of accidents happen there.

[motorcycleman]

The cops should be there keeping the truckers and rubber necking mobil home drivers off that road- when I was there there were no cops but a good chance you would come around a corner to find a tractor-trailer taking up both lanes

[Logicus]

Yeah, there's quite a bit of controversy - lots of pics and vids of cops crossing the double yellow, etc... I personally found that the 30 mph limit wasn't horrible... esp since it was my first time on the road on a bike... I did roll on the centerline once around a curve I took a little fast.

There were a LOT of cops, though. EVERYWHERE. I was very surprised. I can't believe some of the vids on youtube... most of the crashes looked to be b/c of a little overconfidence with the throttle, and some to people oncoming over the centerline.... anyway, it was still a beautiful ride and a pleasure to visit there. The people at each of the stops were cool too. Not a lot of GSX, CBR, YZF's there... most sportbikes were ducatis, triumphs, etc.. Wish now I had taken more pics. I think I say that everytime I leave an event or place.

[motorcycleman]

The last time I was there the fastest bike through (so far that summer) was a goldwing! He must have also qualified as the craziest driver! I was on my harley and tried to keep a couple of sport bikes in sight- they quickly disappeared but... a few corners later there they were by the side of the road- one of them had lost it and was in the ditch with a broken leg. Lots of crashes happen there- I'm sure that is why the cops are there to cool things down a bit.

But what a curvey road !

[Logicus]

Here's some more pics...

Well, unfortunately, we were behind traffic most of the ride up and over 129 both ways, but www.killboy.com managed to get these...







And my friend Jim who went with me on his Fatboy... I love that pipe...

[jaysun0ne]

logicus how is the riding along the kentucky indiana state line?
i read there are some good roads west of you

i have been about 30min to an hour south of indy and it starts to get hilly down there. was thinking about an over night trip, but not sure if i can fit that in before the end of the season.

[Logicus]

Curvy Roads???

Well, honestly if you can get to US 42 which runs along the Ohio River, just take your pick of the roads that lead east from it. I haven't been farther south than Louisville, but all the roads in between are pretty awesome....



The map above shows a route that I regularly take quite often. My friend (with the Harley) lives on RT 18 where it is McVille Road. I come down 18 from Burlington/Florence area and there are some very nice twisties there, and it was just repaved about 3 months ago. Very smooth. This turns into McVille Road and you go through a little town called McVille and Bellevue Bottoms. After passing through there, you come to point 'c' on the map which is a crazy 4 way stop sign intersection... at this point you can go west and drop down to a pretty famous little spot called Rabbit Hash (where the mayor is a dog - used to be a pig - maybe I have it backwards) or what I do is go East on 536. 536 is a curvy little road that actually crosses the state to about Route 10 on the East side. That goes to 127 and you head south - 127 turns into 42 and pretty much any road you take east from 42 is going to be fun. Some are more maintained than others (you might find broken asphault, that wonderful 'shoulder repair' that leaves that damn separating line down the middle of your lane, or gravel from driveways) but they are all fun roads. 42 follows the river to just past the Markland dam and you could take 36 east from there which is also a great road.

What I do is get on yahoo maps and just put it on hybrid, zoom in, and look for roads that may be fun. I took a trip thought the southern part of Indian a couple of months ago... lots of straights. Lots of beautiful country though... and I love the 90 degree turns throughout the farm country formed by intersecting crop fields! Anywho, I hope this helps.