Rode over the Foothills Parkway to Cades Cove.
http://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/cadescove.htm
Cades Cove is the most visited National park in the USA.
Last Friday afternoon most of those visitors were in front of me putting along the Cades Cove Loop at 2 miles an hour. Any sign of wild life such as chipmunk poop caused the geriatric convoy to lurch to a halt so the wildlife could be inspected, photographed, videoed, Twitted and Facebooked around the world.
Having ridden the loop previously on my Valkyrie and ST1300 I was prepared for the small pace but what really got my goat was that I was in the middle of a Noah style torrential downpour. All the wildlife was drily tucked away showing they had more sense than me and showing that the zombie speed motorists had as much sense as the afore mentioned chipmunk poop.
By the time I got to the Parsons Branch turn off I was soaked. I could feel the water in my boots sloshing around my toes. I don't mind these conditions because it's about 80F. The rain stopped and the humidity was terrible. After I photograph the entrance sign the rain starts up again. The last time I rode Parsons Branch was on my ST1300. It was so dry the dirt road surface had dried to the consistency of fine talcum powder. I still have about 2 ounces of the dust in my tail light assembly. The heavy rainfall worried me because I could visualize the road surface turning to a thick mud paste. Even my off road tires woudl find it difficult to get traction.
Luckily the road had been heavily graveled resulting in a pretty good hard pack surface. No photographs due to the heavy rain.
I spent Saturday riding the forest roads that parallel and cross the Cheroahala Skyway.
