NC 281 ride...

[hubcapsc]

A friend called me up on Sunday to set up a ride for Monday... several of
us met up at his house on Monday morning and headed for Tuckasegee...



There's enough good roads just on this section of map to make a good all
day ride for a group... I really like 281 to Tuckasegee...

These pictures are 107...



We got closer to a cloud...



Here's the view of South Carolina's lake that looks like a Christmas tree...



Just a mile or so away...



We stopped along 281 at a dam...



The former gas station at the intersection of 281 and 107 will be a gas station again
soon.

There's a good place to get a brisket sandwich (and numerous other similar good things)
at the intersection of 107 and 64... it is a big produce place... you order and pick it up at a window
and either take it back to your place or eat it at one of the several tables they
have set up outside...

After we ate there it started sprinkling and then raining, we headed back to
our South Carolina homes...

-Mike

[The emperor has no clothes]

  I assume no flooding in your area ? (Nice to see you giving the Log Truck some love)

[hubcapsc]

No problem for my part of the state. I talked to my
Sister near Shallotte NC, just south of Wilmington
yesterday. The eye was north of her somehow and
pounded her with wind from onshore, so she got
no surge/flood damage. She said just four
miles down the road where it flooded is devastated.

I started to ride the black bike, but... it wouldn't
start. I've since determined that the battery seems
OK, in fact, it started while I was testing the
battery. The red bike started with one button
press...

-Mike

[Mr Whiskey]

We've ridden 281 N. from Lake Toxaway to Tuckasegee & while good I must admit I prefer 215 N. toward Canton/Waynesville (pavement's better IMHO). We'll hafta try the S. side of 281, thanks
Bought Sugar a beer at that gas station & left my ID on the counter once, had to call in at work (commercial driver) & ride all the way back over on a Mon. to get it

[hubcapsc]

I prefer 215 N. toward Canton

Yes, 215... there are good roads that connect 281 and 215 too.

There's several swimming holes on the Canton side of 215, if you're
coming home from a ride on a holiday on 215, you're sharing it with
pickup trucks filled from cab to bed with drunk wet people, so be
careful out there 

-Mike

[Mr Whiskey]

Yes, almost as many good places to get wet as there are tasty curves
We've spent a day at Sunburst Falls... (these are not my pics)
Glad you posted this! Might go back for FCR to hike Sam Branch, Three Arch Bridge, & Wash Hollow, thanks
http://ncwaterfalls.com/sam_branch1.htm

(CCC built the bridges at Sunburst & Three Arch)






See ya soon Brother,
ride safe!

[msb]

Always nice to see more ride photos and commentary on here... thx for taking the time to post    Those shots of you riding through the clouds are reminiscent of my recent ride through smoke - filled BC and ID last month... it sure adds a different perspective.
I like that you include a screen shot of the route map... never know when some "out of towner" may be looking for places to ride

[Farside]

  Nice report even if it was a short one.    I wish I lived close enough to ride God's Country Side like you and others for a nice daily get-away! 

[Pappy!]

Ditto to what Farside wrote!

[boss hoss bill]

In addition to what Mike has said, one of my favorite spots is on 281, just where it enters S.C..

This , if my memory is correct, is the Bad Creek overlook on Lake Jocassee.  As you're going south on 281 this is on your left. It is a power station facility that is fenced in by a chain link fence and gate. If you pull up to the gate, it automatically opens and you drive about a mile to the end of the road overlooking the lake. Truly a pastoral setting! On hot summer days beware of the "tar snakes" on this otherwise well paved road!

[Mr Whiskey]

Interesting place (they should do tours!) Thanks for the HeadZ Up, we'll keep an eye out for it
https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/south-carolina/bad-creek-hydro-plant-tunnels-sc/

[hubcapsc]

Beautiful lake, good roads, great waterfalls, and if you
walk down in there, old growth forest...

The Bad Creek site provides a trailhead for the 80-mile long Foothills Trail. Duke provides a parking area, with public phone and portajons, and a half-mile spur trail takes the hiker to the Foothills Trail. This spur will also take the visitor to a one-mile long (non-loop) trail through the Coon Branch Natural Area. This unique place features stands of old-growth timber and showy springtime wildflower displays.

-Mike

[..]

If on a bike DO NOT make the tight right at then end of the lined road. bad Creek. It dead ends and in some places is only wide enough for one vehicle. Not a good place to be on a bike.