Best Dam Ride of the Year!
Saturday June 11, 2016 – by Ron Donahue
Well…….maybe not the best, but pretty good anyway. I left out from the Dunkin Donuts on
Hardin Valley with nine BMW’s following my Africa Twin. Attendees for this ride were Holky
Holt, Jim Wishart, Ox Anderson, Charlie Miller, Mike Coffey, Eddie Grills, Jim Hurley, Paul Pintar,
and visitor, Eddie Bush. It was set to be a scorcher that day, so I wanted to try and get to high
ground and in the mountains before the heat got too intense.
Our first stop was at Norris Dam where we also met up with rider #11, Al Mayer. From there
we headed across the dam, hung a left somewhere, and encountered my first of two
“shortcuts” which turned out to be gravel. Google earth wasn’t real clear about that. I guess I
need to read my own article on the website about how you should ride your planned ride
ahead of time to check out the route. Once we committed to it, we plunged ahead without too
much whining. Fortunately, it was a short road and not that thick piled mushy, gravel stuff. We
headed towards Oak Ridge, took another shortcut off of Lafayette to get us to Hwy. 95, and I
saw that dreaded sign “Pavement Ends Ahead”. This was gravel road #2 of the ride.
Fortunately, it wasn’t too bad either. My apologies to the street bikes. We all plunged ahead
again like good soldiers. After Melton Hill Dam, it was on past Ft. Loudoun Dam, Tellico Dam,
and to our next gas/rest stop at the outskirts of Tellico Village. A few of us got gas, chewed the
fat, dripped sweat while standing still, and rolled out to learn about evaporative cooling in our
mesh jackets.
Looking at my clock, I noted it was getting late. I had changed our lunch time at Tapoco Lodge
from 1:00 to 2:00 at the break since the ride seemed to be dragging. Stomachs would be
growling soon, including my own. I had hoped the group would speed up a bit but they must
have been enjoying the heat too much because I only got into 6 th gear twice the entire day. I
think they were letting me know in their own little way about the dislike for the gravel roads.
We rode to Tellico Plains on a beautiful route taught to me by the Holky himself, and headed up
Rafter Road and Shaw Mountain road in an effort to bypass some traffic at the bottom of the
Skyway. From there we travelled up the Skyway and felt some wonderful altitude heat relief.
We turned thru Joyce Kilmer to pass Santeelah Dam, even though you could barely see it. That
accounted for Dam #5 of the day.
I could hear the stomachs growling over the sweet exhaust note of my new parallel twin. So,
back onto 129 and towards our lunch stop at Tapoco Lodge. It was now 2:30! We enjoyed a
fantastic lunch, INSIDE THIS TIME, WITH THE AIR CONDITIONING. I had originally planned on
bypassing Fontana Dam if we were running late since I had added Norris Dam at the last minute
to the itinerary. There was now one problem with that. The waitress told us that 129 was
closed just past Cheoah Dam since someone had tried to do a little knee ‘draggin’ in an 18
wheeler! So, now I had no choice but to go back the way we came and forfeit 4 more dams, or
head up Meadow Branch Road that would take us into Fontana Village to grab Hwy. 28 and
head back towards the store at Deal’s Gap. I chose the latter, but first headed up the street and
made a U-turn just past Cheoah Dam so we could add that one to our list. It was now going on
4:00. When we reached Fontana Village, I stopped and waited on the back portion of the group
to arrive. After 15 minutes, they didn’t. Then Mike Coffey appeared and informed us that Al
had a flat tire just after turning up Meadow Branch Road. He thought they had it under control
with patch kits and an air compressor, so I told him that Ox, Jim, Holky, and myself, would just
head over to Fontana Dam and wait for them there. After more than an hour had passed and
no group had yet to arrive, Ox and I headed back over to see what was going on. I can’t
remember exactly how I found out, but somewhere along the way Mike Coffey met up with us
again and told us they had taken the bike back to the lodge. Wishart was growing a 5:00
shadow so he and Holky headed on back thru the dragon towards home. Charlie Miller had
gone back earlier as well looking for the rest of the group, but as it turned out, he never found
them because they had all gone back to the lodge to try and repair the bike. He was expecting
to see them somewhere on the side of the road. Charlie headed back to Cleveland.
Ox and I arrived back at the lodge and saw the bike underneath the covered parking area. How
many ROK members does it take to fix a flat? Apparently 6, but it was a good team and all were
needed. It wasn’t just a tire plug. It was a tube in the tire that had a puncture. No one had a
spare tube. The tire had to be removed, broken down, and the challenge was how to make a
tubed tire and rim become tubeless. Believe it or not, that is what they did. I think Eddie Grills
( Cowboy ) was the mastermind in this endeavor. You will have to inquire as to how they made
this work at the next ROK meeting since I was at Fontana Dam waiting and wasn’t there for the
actual modification. Al was apparently trying to keep as much original equipment on his old
R100 as possible because the tube already had two or three patches on it. After reinstalling the
rear wheel, the muffler, and half of the rear of the bike, our group was ready to roll out and
head towards home. It was now 7:00 PM. Fortunately, the road had reopened between us and
Deals Gap on 129, so we were able to head straight out through the Dragon.
The last two dams passed were Calderwood and Chilhowee ( only Al passed Chilhowee, but the
rest of us were close enough, hot enough, and tired enough to count it ). That put our total
dam count to nine: Norris, Melton Hill, Ft. Loudoun, Tellico, Santeelah, Fontana, Cheoah,
Calderwood, and Chilhowee. Due to the mishap, not everyone went by every dam, but we all
saw most of them. People peeled off in all directions after Foothills Parkway headed towards
their home. Al got home safely with his tire still holding full air pressure ( attaboys all around to
those who helped ). I was sitting at Newk’s in Farragut slurping on crab bisque about 8:45
before heading over the hill to home. It was a long dam ride and a long dam day.
Special thanks to Mike Coffey for keeping me informed as the runner for the group. He must
have put 50 miles on his bike running up and down Meadow Branch Rd. It was great to see Ox
Anderson back in the saddle with us after a long recovery from back surgery. Thanks to all who
participated.
Remember, the shortest distance between two points is boring. Until next time, keep it
between the ditches and in your lane.
Well…….maybe not the best, but pretty good anyway. I left out from the Dunkin Donuts on
Hardin Valley with nine BMW’s following my Africa Twin. Attendees for this ride were Holky
Holt, Jim Wishart, Ox Anderson, Charlie Miller, Mike Coffey, Eddie Grills, Jim Hurley, Paul Pintar,
and visitor, Eddie Bush. It was set to be a scorcher that day, so I wanted to try and get to high
ground and in the mountains before the heat got too intense.
Our first stop was at Norris Dam where we also met up with rider #11, Al Mayer. From there
we headed across the dam, hung a left somewhere, and encountered my first of two
“shortcuts” which turned out to be gravel. Google earth wasn’t real clear about that. I guess I
need to read my own article on the website about how you should ride your planned ride
ahead of time to check out the route. Once we committed to it, we plunged ahead without too
much whining. Fortunately, it was a short road and not that thick piled mushy, gravel stuff. We
headed towards Oak Ridge, took another shortcut off of Lafayette to get us to Hwy. 95, and I
saw that dreaded sign “Pavement Ends Ahead”. This was gravel road #2 of the ride.
Fortunately, it wasn’t too bad either. My apologies to the street bikes. We all plunged ahead
again like good soldiers. After Melton Hill Dam, it was on past Ft. Loudoun Dam, Tellico Dam,
and to our next gas/rest stop at the outskirts of Tellico Village. A few of us got gas, chewed the
fat, dripped sweat while standing still, and rolled out to learn about evaporative cooling in our
mesh jackets.
Looking at my clock, I noted it was getting late. I had changed our lunch time at Tapoco Lodge
from 1:00 to 2:00 at the break since the ride seemed to be dragging. Stomachs would be
growling soon, including my own. I had hoped the group would speed up a bit but they must
have been enjoying the heat too much because I only got into 6 th gear twice the entire day. I
think they were letting me know in their own little way about the dislike for the gravel roads.
We rode to Tellico Plains on a beautiful route taught to me by the Holky himself, and headed up
Rafter Road and Shaw Mountain road in an effort to bypass some traffic at the bottom of the
Skyway. From there we travelled up the Skyway and felt some wonderful altitude heat relief.
We turned thru Joyce Kilmer to pass Santeelah Dam, even though you could barely see it. That
accounted for Dam #5 of the day.
I could hear the stomachs growling over the sweet exhaust note of my new parallel twin. So,
back onto 129 and towards our lunch stop at Tapoco Lodge. It was now 2:30! We enjoyed a
fantastic lunch, INSIDE THIS TIME, WITH THE AIR CONDITIONING. I had originally planned on
bypassing Fontana Dam if we were running late since I had added Norris Dam at the last minute
to the itinerary. There was now one problem with that. The waitress told us that 129 was
closed just past Cheoah Dam since someone had tried to do a little knee ‘draggin’ in an 18
wheeler! So, now I had no choice but to go back the way we came and forfeit 4 more dams, or
head up Meadow Branch Road that would take us into Fontana Village to grab Hwy. 28 and
head back towards the store at Deal’s Gap. I chose the latter, but first headed up the street and
made a U-turn just past Cheoah Dam so we could add that one to our list. It was now going on
4:00. When we reached Fontana Village, I stopped and waited on the back portion of the group
to arrive. After 15 minutes, they didn’t. Then Mike Coffey appeared and informed us that Al
had a flat tire just after turning up Meadow Branch Road. He thought they had it under control
with patch kits and an air compressor, so I told him that Ox, Jim, Holky, and myself, would just
head over to Fontana Dam and wait for them there. After more than an hour had passed and
no group had yet to arrive, Ox and I headed back over to see what was going on. I can’t
remember exactly how I found out, but somewhere along the way Mike Coffey met up with us
again and told us they had taken the bike back to the lodge. Wishart was growing a 5:00
shadow so he and Holky headed on back thru the dragon towards home. Charlie Miller had
gone back earlier as well looking for the rest of the group, but as it turned out, he never found
them because they had all gone back to the lodge to try and repair the bike. He was expecting
to see them somewhere on the side of the road. Charlie headed back to Cleveland.
Ox and I arrived back at the lodge and saw the bike underneath the covered parking area. How
many ROK members does it take to fix a flat? Apparently 6, but it was a good team and all were
needed. It wasn’t just a tire plug. It was a tube in the tire that had a puncture. No one had a
spare tube. The tire had to be removed, broken down, and the challenge was how to make a
tubed tire and rim become tubeless. Believe it or not, that is what they did. I think Eddie Grills
( Cowboy ) was the mastermind in this endeavor. You will have to inquire as to how they made
this work at the next ROK meeting since I was at Fontana Dam waiting and wasn’t there for the
actual modification. Al was apparently trying to keep as much original equipment on his old
R100 as possible because the tube already had two or three patches on it. After reinstalling the
rear wheel, the muffler, and half of the rear of the bike, our group was ready to roll out and
head towards home. It was now 7:00 PM. Fortunately, the road had reopened between us and
Deals Gap on 129, so we were able to head straight out through the Dragon.
The last two dams passed were Calderwood and Chilhowee ( only Al passed Chilhowee, but the
rest of us were close enough, hot enough, and tired enough to count it ). That put our total
dam count to nine: Norris, Melton Hill, Ft. Loudoun, Tellico, Santeelah, Fontana, Cheoah,
Calderwood, and Chilhowee. Due to the mishap, not everyone went by every dam, but we all
saw most of them. People peeled off in all directions after Foothills Parkway headed towards
their home. Al got home safely with his tire still holding full air pressure ( attaboys all around to
those who helped ). I was sitting at Newk’s in Farragut slurping on crab bisque about 8:45
before heading over the hill to home. It was a long dam ride and a long dam day.
Special thanks to Mike Coffey for keeping me informed as the runner for the group. He must
have put 50 miles on his bike running up and down Meadow Branch Rd. It was great to see Ox
Anderson back in the saddle with us after a long recovery from back surgery. Thanks to all who
participated.
Remember, the shortest distance between two points is boring. Until next time, keep it
between the ditches and in your lane.
