North Georgia mountains (The Gauntlet)

I am going to be heading down to try the "gauntlet" in a few weeks. Gonna meet up with some folks in Greenville and doing a weekend around the N. Georgia area.

Words of warning as far as road condition, high popo level, etc?

I was told that RT.64 headed to Murphy, NC is too congested and avoid at all cost?

This is the route:

Day 1:

http://goo.gl/maps/dJpAA

Day 2:

http://goo.gl/maps/CbTIq


Thanks!

 

Sounds like a great route. My given log in name on n ga riders forum is "n ga road troll" wolf pen gap is nice and tight second gear stuff but ride with caution for pea gravel. Blood mountain "129" is fun,but I would always pre ride slowly up or down it scouting for popo. Then its play time. .check out " just playing on blood mountain" on you tube. Enjoy ur ride

 

Be careful! Those mountain roads ultimately forced me to start racing.... Some of the crosses on the side of the road are friends of mine....

107
28
178
130
War Woman Road

I ride up there once in a while but do not go fast..... Too many memories. Save the knee pucks for the track. :up:

 

Focus on the single wheel skid marks that go straight at the tight bends.

 

This will be a fun but street "PACE" ride. The riders I will be riding along with understand this also....

 

You picked a horrible time to do it..... The Floridians all show up this time of year to look at the trees...... at 25 mph...... :FL:

 

Cam knows what he's talking about. War Woman is one of my favorites.

 

+1 concerning ultimately forcing one to go racing. I was up there every weekend(Suches area) back in 84-86 till I started racing WERA. Frank(late TWO owner. RIP my friend) called us The Wrecking Crew because we had our share of crashes.

Hwy 60s sketchy now because of tar snakes.

Wolf Pen is fun but as stated, lots of pea gravel at the worst places.

Richard Russell is fun w nice views but theres a few downhill decreasing radius turns on the side heading toward Helen that'll sneak up on complacent riders. Seen a few bad crashes there.

75 heading north out of Helen gets really nice after about 5 or 6 miles. Nice loop using 180 to circle back around. Almost as good as Blood..

Blood is the best run(3 lane sections) but it also has the most traffic. Watch out.

I've also lost friends up there.

And there WILL be lots of Leaf-lookers around.

 

Don't forget the Lumpkin County Sheriff's Department. This time of year is christmas for them.

Oh, and bicyclists. Watch for the pedal pushers.

 

what's this north GA riders forum you mention??

your routes look good. you're hitting most of the good stuff. the only big place that is patrolled heavily on the weekends is the 60/129/180 loop, usually just the 129 and parts of 60 part.

my favorites are 60 north of TWO/Suches (you need to stop at the new Two Wheels of Suches), 197, warwoman road, 75 just north of Helen, and 215 in SC.

276 usually has a lot of traffic on it during the weekend and little passing zones, IMHO do 215 twice. make sure you at least ride the last 4 miles of Warwoman where it hits 28 south of Highlands. 76 is nice but it's like the cherahala, by the time you are having fun you are into the "go directly to jail" speeds. NC is patrolled A LOT on the main roads. watch your speeds there if you are on sport bikes.

other than that, have a good ride, plenty of good roads and not many sport bike riders these days up there...

 

Yep, the only thing I'd add is Hwy 60 north of Wolf Pen gap is fantastic. If you're going to add one road, add that one. If nothing else, up to the fish hatchery and back. There's a couple forest roads that run back there too. You can take the gravel forest road from just south of TWO all the way up the the hatchery and then fresh pavement back down 60. That was a favorite of mine when I had my SM.

Wolf Pen and Blood mountain are fun, but they are heavily trafficked by three groups I tend to avoid, newish riders with low self control, law enforcement, and sightseers. I'll tend to stay away during peak times, and then venture over late in the day when most people are gone. Early would work too, but I'm not what you call a morning person. Richard B Russell falls into this category a little bit too.

 

Agree regarding hwy 60 after passing thru Suches while heading north. Great scenic stretch of road that enjoys little traffic, relatively speaking.

Also agree regarding 76(Richard Russell) waaaay too fast when up at 'having fun' speeds. And that coarse grain of pavement is hell on leathers and engine cases.

 

Best way to avoid the Lumpkin Co. LEO's is to ride very early. Lumpkin Co uses very low speed limits to generate revenue. On the upside, the judge is a big NASCAR fan I start at day break and I'm done by 10a.m. By 10 a.m. the LEOs are out and the biker boyz and soon-to-be-WERA-racers from ATL are just arriving. Union Co and the others are not so bad, and it is usually a little cooler later in the day as you go North and pickup some elevation.

Good local riding forums are GSB - georgiasportbike.com, and blokessportbike.com

The routes look good. Just be aware that not all roads are marked correctly, and some are not marked at all.

Can't speak to road conditions - it's been a while - but expect some low clouds and visor fogging early in the day.

Enjoy,

Steve C.
#105

 

Dought..... Forgot about 215 above Rosman off of 64..... BEFORE we started racing in CCS/WERA, we raced down 215 from the Blueridge Parkway. We were scrubbing off kneepucks and draft passing....... with the engines off.... Beautiful scenery. Please be careful though..... I had to attend funerals and look at the wives/kids left behind....

 

Rt.215 is part of "day 1"

 

on 28 right past highlands on day 2, there's a 35 zone. They're always there.

 

Also, you probably shouldn't wheelie across the intersection of 52 and 115, as tempting as it seems. Don't ask me how I know.

 

As pointed out, the season can make this turn out to be a frustrating ride. Don't go if you have to use a Friday, Saturday or Sunday. The mini vans will frustrate but the 5 pack of Harleys will make you want to shoot yourself in the head. Make it a Tuesday and Wednesday, get up early.

64 is a decent road, but traffic there is ALWAYS too much, don't matter when you go. Only use it if you need it to get to somewhere else.

 

Wayah Road out of Franklin, NC is not too shabby. There can be a fair amount of gravel at times, but the scenery is awesome.