Remember when you got hooked on pizza in high school and couldn't help scarfing it at every meal for weeks? Then you'll also remember that the accompanying buzz faded shortly thereafter; with any guilty pleasure, the too-much-of- a-good-thing syndrome usually kicks in well before you make the Guinness Book of World Records. Most of us can only inhale so many jumbo pepperoni pies before the inevitable bellyache.
So it was with Honda's annual biker bash, the Hoot-after decamping to Knoxville, Tennessee, to attend the event for the sixth year in a row, I felt like I'd exhausted my ride options in the area. That's why, while packing for this year's hoedown, I was tickled to read that Honda had put together a new route for Motorcycle Cruiser's annual ride-in bash. Even better, I had no idea where it was.
The folks at Team Red invariably string together a sweet series of byways for these rides, and our several years at the bucolic Norris Dam had been, by any measure, resounding successes. It's just that by Year Three, we'd OD'd on all that concrete and water. Kudos to Honda, then, for coming up with the Ride to Roan Mountain
Freaky FloraIf you've never been to Roan Mountain, you've missed one of North Carolina's most popular natural attractions-at least that's what the locals told me (what they didn't mention is that the top portion is actually located on the North Carolina-Tennessee state line). But I'd never even heard of the place, so I was just stoked to be hitting a fresh, unexplored destination-even if rhododendrons aren't really my thing.
Yup, rhododendrons. Roan Mountain's claim to fame is that it's host to the largest natural display of these flowers on the planet. Thousands of folks come 'round to witness the vibrant Rhododendron Catawbiense gardens at peak bloom every June'-about the time I stumbled upon them, too.
Roan Mountain is both a town and a state park, and your first stop should be Roan Mountain State Park Visitor Center (just outside the town) to get oriented, stock up on literature and refill your water bottle. And if you like guys in uniform, a naturalist is on hand to dispense more in-depth info, too.
The gardens themselves sprawl across seven miles of meadows studded with moss and heather, some eight miles beyond the park. As you gain elevation on the ride up Highway 143, Roan Mountain State Park recedes in your rear view and is soon replaced by dense hardwood forests. This dream of a road unfurls with seductive sweepers and ripping curves that loop in and out of the ever-rising plateau of the Pisgah-Cherokee National Forest. On a good day, you're rewarded with sweeping vistas of the surrounding peaks. Just down the other side of this rather large hill lies the fabled Blue Ridge Parkway, but to access the famous gardens (and the old Cloudland Hotel), it's best to hang a right at Carvers Gap onto the Forest Service road.
Carvers Gap is a low notch in the ridgeline of Roan Mountain, and the adjacent parking lot also gives you a straight shot at the Appalachian Trail (AT). To the north, the AT crosses a series of grassy balds-nearly treeless areas that offer unobstructed views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The 10-mile stretch that includes Carvers Gap has been lauded by many an AT through-hiker as one of the most beautiful bits of the entire trail. Just south, the AT climbs to the high point of the ridge-6285-foot Roan High Knob.
When I rolled into the Gap, it was flush with rhododendron in full bloom, the plump blossoms putting on a blazing show of color. Legend has it that Indians came to the top of the Roan to wage a great battle, and so much blood was spilled that the rhododendron turned from white to red. Plunked haphazardly among forests of evergreen, the gardens seem anomalous, but there's no denying their visual pizzazz. And because of its elevation above the clouds, the whole area goes by the nickname "Cloudland."