I know this is late notice, but we have a group going up to Boone, N.C. this weekend for some fun riding. We plan on riding the Snake, Back of the Dragon, and lots of other interesting roads in the area. Alltogether, we plan on doing about 272 miles on saturday. If anyone is interested in joining us, we will be leaving the Inn Place around 8:30-8:45. Just look for a black ford lightning, or a red M109R. The location of the hotel is 1075 hwy 105 in Boone. The weather should be great with a low in the mid to upper 50's and high in the mid 70's. Hope to see someone there.

Here are a couple of photos from this weekends trip to Boone. I cannot tell you where this is, because I was totally lost. We rode a total of 258 miles on saturday. All were mountain roads, and very twisty.
The photo of the road going through the rock is awesome. The slab of rock just shot up into the sky about 200' and is about 50-75' thick. A railroad once went through the rock therefore the top has room for a smoke stack. The railroad has been replaced by a road. This is called the Damascus road (like in the bible). No place to rent a donkey, but you can rent a bicycle and rid down the trail and then you and your bike is picked up and you can do it again. Very few people try to bike back up these hills. Less than 5% can make it back up. There are about 3-4 rental shops with over 100 bikes each. This is a big attraction here.

* Last updated by: blacklightning on 9/9/2013 @ 8:23 AM *

That's Backbone Rock between Shady Valley, Tn. and Damascus,Va. are you going to "Thunder in the Smokies" this weekend?

This is the first that I have heard of the "thunder in the smokies". I figure it will be time to take the sport bike to the mountains the next time. Maybe I can get to one of those meets one day.
You are correct on the location of those pictures. I could not remember where we were, but it was a fun ride just the same. We got behind 3 older guys on goldwings when we headed back on the snake up 421. They were doing their best to not allow us to pass them. It was all good, we just pucked along behind them since they were going at a spirited pace anyway. If I had been on the zzr, it would have been another story. With the 250 tire on the rear of the nine, and the pipes touching the ground in the tight turns, I was fine with their pace.