Knoxville to Buckhorn Lake State Resort Park, KY
June, 2013
A ride led by Geoffrey Greene, as told in the BMWROK Forum.
And a good time was had by all (I hope)!
At the start point we had 7 riders, Mike Copenhaver, Roger White, George DeVeny, Jimmy Holt, Tim Skeen, and Rick Fields. After being a part of a recent discussion about group riding at the Motorcycle Sport Touring Association rally earlier in the week, I decided to try splitting the group into 2 sections, and that seemed to work well. My thanks to Roger White for taking the other section. The groups can still be pretty close and maintain a visual contact, but having just a little space means you've got people a little less crammed together. That's good. It also means you're less likely to frustrate other roadway users. You still watch out for the person behind you to make sure they see every turn, but it allows the section leaders to everyone in their group more easily.
We stopped about every 45-50 miles, and at the first stop on US25E, we added 3 more riders, Mike Davidson, his father-in-law Joe Copenhaver (two Copenhavers in one ride, and neither of them was Darcy!), and fellow MSF Rider/Coach Mike Previtera. Now, with the group at 10, having two groups was definitely a good thing. We'd already been treated to some fun little roads paralleling TN33 such as Hines/Hinds Creek, Little Valley, and Lone Mountain Road, but there was more to come.
Just up the road from the first stop, while on Little Sycamore Road, we had to make a detour onto Hoop Creek Road to avoid road paving. Hoop Creek has an interesting history. Following the Civil War, many of the freed slaves stayed in the Hoop Creek area and were able to purchase land there. From what I've read, the newly freed slaves and the former slave owners got along well with each other, and it was an unusually well integrated area. You can watch part 1 and part 2 of Bill Landry's Heartland Series on this topic at:
YouTube: Part 1 - Hoop Creek, Claiborne County, East Tennessee
and
YouTube: Part 2 - Hoop Creek, Claiborne County, East Tennessee
The second section of the route, including our detour, took us, unexpectedly, through Hoop Creek, then through a corner of Hancock County, and into Virginia on roads with names such as Little Red Fletcher, Russel's Chapel (CURVY!), Sugar Run, Ocoonita Road, and Left Poor Valley (and yes, there is a Right Poor Valley).
The third section of the route went up US421 to Harlan, and to me, it was the least interesting part of the ride. However, sometimes you have to get on a bigger road to get somewhere since, in these mountains, you have a limited choice of roads. But north of Harlan, US421 gets curvy and we had a great time blitzing northward. The guy driving an antique Cadillac (remember those fins?) was kind enough to wave us past, so we had little to hold us up. A short distance east on KY221, and we turned north on what I think of as one of the "Roads of the Year", KY2009 (there's also a 2008, 2010, and 2011 close by). It had 1.5-2 miles of gravel after a few paved miles, but with the recent rains, it was hard packed, not dusty, and no problem. Getting off the gravel we continued onto an even more rural part of 2009 aka Greasy Creek. It was 12 miles of non-stop twists and turns. And when we actually met 1 car, it was a real surprise! One car in 12 miles of fun...I'll take that any day of the week.
The last section of the northbound trip included KY80 and KY 451. Generally the lower numbered roads mean they will be less fun, but KY80 was pretty delightful despite a bit more traffic. KY451 was excellent, although being a Kentucky coal mining area, there are, in some areas, houses built right up to the edge of the road. I suppose they have to use every possible inch of land when the mine owners want to mine as much as possible and the workers need to be close by. And it may also be that many of these areas were developed at a time where the primary traffic was by horseback with coal being moved by train.
We had a good lunch at Buckhorn Lake State Park before our southward travels. Tim needed to be in Chattanooga by nightfall, so he headed home via the fastest and biggest roads Ms. Garmin could give him. The rest of us headed through the little community of Buckhorn and onto KY2022. It might not surprise anyone that this was my favorite road of the day. It's a 10.5 mile long "driveway" barely more than a single lane wide, and we went the full length without seeing another moving vehicle. At times I almost felt I'd been transported into a different era as we rode through wooded areas without any sign of civilization other than the nicely paved tarmac.
We stopped briefly near Manchester where the primary topic became "How the heck do I get home?". At that point, it was still best to follow the route unless you wanted to go straight over to I-75. George needed to scoot, so he headed for the house on a bigger road once we got near Barbourville. The remaining 8 of us headed down more 4-digit KY roads before taking our final break at Frakes just a few miles north of the KY/TN border. At that point, the Morristown contingent that had met us at the first stop, headed east towards Pineville and from there to US25E and home.
Down to 5 riders, we descended into our home state in the community of Clairfield at TN90 (the road running from US25W towards Middlesboro). We turned to go through the Campbell County community of White Oak, and I have to say that Campbell County has definitely not overspent on road maintenance through this area. But it was still entertaining. At this point, everyone but me was riding some iteration of the GS series (I was riding an '81 R100RS airhead), so bumpy roads were easily soaked up. Connecting back to Stinking Creek Road, we virtually paralleled I-75 as we moved southward to a final pause just before jumping on the big road.
I had a great day and enjoyed seeing and riding with everyone. It was a long ride and a long day, but I hope you thought it was worth the effort and had a good time. Geoffrey Greene
And a good time was had by all (I hope)!
At the start point we had 7 riders, Mike Copenhaver, Roger White, George DeVeny, Jimmy Holt, Tim Skeen, and Rick Fields. After being a part of a recent discussion about group riding at the Motorcycle Sport Touring Association rally earlier in the week, I decided to try splitting the group into 2 sections, and that seemed to work well. My thanks to Roger White for taking the other section. The groups can still be pretty close and maintain a visual contact, but having just a little space means you've got people a little less crammed together. That's good. It also means you're less likely to frustrate other roadway users. You still watch out for the person behind you to make sure they see every turn, but it allows the section leaders to everyone in their group more easily.
We stopped about every 45-50 miles, and at the first stop on US25E, we added 3 more riders, Mike Davidson, his father-in-law Joe Copenhaver (two Copenhavers in one ride, and neither of them was Darcy!), and fellow MSF Rider/Coach Mike Previtera. Now, with the group at 10, having two groups was definitely a good thing. We'd already been treated to some fun little roads paralleling TN33 such as Hines/Hinds Creek, Little Valley, and Lone Mountain Road, but there was more to come.
Just up the road from the first stop, while on Little Sycamore Road, we had to make a detour onto Hoop Creek Road to avoid road paving. Hoop Creek has an interesting history. Following the Civil War, many of the freed slaves stayed in the Hoop Creek area and were able to purchase land there. From what I've read, the newly freed slaves and the former slave owners got along well with each other, and it was an unusually well integrated area. You can watch part 1 and part 2 of Bill Landry's Heartland Series on this topic at:
YouTube: Part 1 - Hoop Creek, Claiborne County, East Tennessee
and
YouTube: Part 2 - Hoop Creek, Claiborne County, East Tennessee
The second section of the route, including our detour, took us, unexpectedly, through Hoop Creek, then through a corner of Hancock County, and into Virginia on roads with names such as Little Red Fletcher, Russel's Chapel (CURVY!), Sugar Run, Ocoonita Road, and Left Poor Valley (and yes, there is a Right Poor Valley).
The third section of the route went up US421 to Harlan, and to me, it was the least interesting part of the ride. However, sometimes you have to get on a bigger road to get somewhere since, in these mountains, you have a limited choice of roads. But north of Harlan, US421 gets curvy and we had a great time blitzing northward. The guy driving an antique Cadillac (remember those fins?) was kind enough to wave us past, so we had little to hold us up. A short distance east on KY221, and we turned north on what I think of as one of the "Roads of the Year", KY2009 (there's also a 2008, 2010, and 2011 close by). It had 1.5-2 miles of gravel after a few paved miles, but with the recent rains, it was hard packed, not dusty, and no problem. Getting off the gravel we continued onto an even more rural part of 2009 aka Greasy Creek. It was 12 miles of non-stop twists and turns. And when we actually met 1 car, it was a real surprise! One car in 12 miles of fun...I'll take that any day of the week.
The last section of the northbound trip included KY80 and KY 451. Generally the lower numbered roads mean they will be less fun, but KY80 was pretty delightful despite a bit more traffic. KY451 was excellent, although being a Kentucky coal mining area, there are, in some areas, houses built right up to the edge of the road. I suppose they have to use every possible inch of land when the mine owners want to mine as much as possible and the workers need to be close by. And it may also be that many of these areas were developed at a time where the primary traffic was by horseback with coal being moved by train.
We had a good lunch at Buckhorn Lake State Park before our southward travels. Tim needed to be in Chattanooga by nightfall, so he headed home via the fastest and biggest roads Ms. Garmin could give him. The rest of us headed through the little community of Buckhorn and onto KY2022. It might not surprise anyone that this was my favorite road of the day. It's a 10.5 mile long "driveway" barely more than a single lane wide, and we went the full length without seeing another moving vehicle. At times I almost felt I'd been transported into a different era as we rode through wooded areas without any sign of civilization other than the nicely paved tarmac.
We stopped briefly near Manchester where the primary topic became "How the heck do I get home?". At that point, it was still best to follow the route unless you wanted to go straight over to I-75. George needed to scoot, so he headed for the house on a bigger road once we got near Barbourville. The remaining 8 of us headed down more 4-digit KY roads before taking our final break at Frakes just a few miles north of the KY/TN border. At that point, the Morristown contingent that had met us at the first stop, headed east towards Pineville and from there to US25E and home.
Down to 5 riders, we descended into our home state in the community of Clairfield at TN90 (the road running from US25W towards Middlesboro). We turned to go through the Campbell County community of White Oak, and I have to say that Campbell County has definitely not overspent on road maintenance through this area. But it was still entertaining. At this point, everyone but me was riding some iteration of the GS series (I was riding an '81 R100RS airhead), so bumpy roads were easily soaked up. Connecting back to Stinking Creek Road, we virtually paralleled I-75 as we moved southward to a final pause just before jumping on the big road.
I had a great day and enjoyed seeing and riding with everyone. It was a long ride and a long day, but I hope you thought it was worth the effort and had a good time. Geoffrey Greene
