There Be Dragons

Route 129 connects North Carolina and Tennessee on the southwestern edge of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. At its core, it is a twisty little two-lane road that climbs and dips its way along hillsides and water. It's the type of road you'd expect when you want to get away to the countryside.

The Tail of the Dragon, as it's known, is also considered one of the most technical stretches of road in the country. The road's mystique and attraction have grown over the years due to the 318 turns in 11 miles, along with the bikes and lives its claimed. Long tractor-trailers are for the most part banned, and motorcyclists and sports car drivers from around the world converge on this remote part of Appalachia for a chance to push speed.

You can start on either end of the Dragon, though the Tennessee side seems to be considered the start. I started on the North Carolina side at Deal's Gap. 

A motorcycle resort and another roadside bar/store greet you on this end. Though you can buy TOTD t-shirts on either end of the ride, this side seems to be more established and more commercial. Go ahead and buy a t-shirt or sticker here--prices are decent and the selection is good. But if you're the superstitious type like me, pack those trinkets away until you've earned them at the end of the ride.

This is also where you'll find the Tree of Shame. It bears the wreckage of bikes and tributes to riders who've died in this stretch of road.

Spending a few minutes at the tree should be required reflection for anybody about to ride the TOTD. 

There are plenty of copyrighted maps you can look up to see the route, so I'm skipping the turn-by-turn description, but check out the video below. I mounted the Drift Ghost HD vidcam on the right front turn signal for the first time.

A few photographers have set up shop along the TOTD, and if you can wait a day or two you'll have a professionally captured image of your ride to glory. The ones I know of are www.killboy.com, www.129slayer.com, and www.us129photogs.com. Here's the best one of the bunch from my ride.

Just make sure you are finished with TOTD before engaging in a suitably embarrassing display of celebration.

And if you do ride TOTD, have fun, be careful, and don't let the squids rush you.