SPARTA – DAY THREE

We were up early in anticipation of a good day of riding on some more challenging roads than we found the day before. We started off with another good breakfast and threw a couple of sandwiches and Red Bulls in the hard bags. We had programmed our Garmins the night before.

Jumping across the BRP we headed south on SR 1648 known as Old Wilkes Road. It started out paved and quickly turned to well maintained gravel with some sharp twisties. After a few fun miles it turned back into paved, but still had some fun to it.

We had these roads all to ourselves. We did have to dodge a dog and a few chickens in the road, but those are good signs to us. We passed some dilapidated buildings and stopped for a Red Bull at a roadside chimney, a relic from a long-gone homestead.

Somewhere along the way the road changed to SR 1562 and followed Middle Fork Reddies River to Wilbar on SR 1559. Here we took a left onto SR 1570 and SR 1575 both shown as Vannoy Road. This was a good paved back road winding through old country homesteads. We did encounter the remains of a just removed downed tree in the road at one point and found a few sharpies for fun.

At SR 18 (Sparta Road) we jogged to the north and took Longbottom Road which runs just to the south of Stone Mountain State Park for some 14 miles. Nothing too exciting on this back road …. It was way too straight for our liking. We did make a Red Bull stop at the old Joynes School building (1925-1953).

We then took a left onto SR 1739 and entered Stone Mountain State Park. This scenic road followed Stone Mountain Creek for several miles where several anglers were trying their flies. We also passed the Garden Creek Baptist Church, est. 1897.

We made a quick tour of the camp grounds in the park. We had originally considered staying here rather than at Raccoon Holler. We found these campsites way too sterile with few trees and little privacy.

Heading out to US 21 we encountered a herd of deer. And then we hit some really tight twisties on Oklahoma Road (SR 1100). We jogged down the mountain on US 21 just to see what was at Roaring Gap. It sure doesn’t live up to its name looking pretty boring to us.

Making a quick U-turn we headed south and hit a short section of mountain twisties and stopped at a scenic overlook.

Continuing south on US 21 we took to the back roads again at Thurmond.  We headed north on Haystack Road (SR 1328) and once again ran into some major gravel road construction. This can be really tricky with deep, loose gravel on twisting mountain roads. A road crew looked at us like we were crazy as we passed.

After a few miles of nervous handling we escaped the loose gravel and pulled over for a bite of lunch. We hadn’t seen a place to eat all morning so it was a good thing we packed a couple of Nancy’s humus roll-ups with a health bar that looks and tastes like a Firestarter for desert. I’d prefer a thick roast beef submarine, but Nancy wants to keep us healthy.

Back on Haystack we passed through some pretty desolate country on gravel twisties before emerging onto a paved road at what the map says was Devotion. There was nothing there except a house or two.

We had planned to take Saddle Mountain Road to the north, but it appeared to be private with a gate. We recalculated and headed east on Haystack to the next through road to the north, Blevins Store Road (SR 1338).

At Ladonia the road turned into Hidden Valley Road and we passed several large fields of what looked like rotting melons that for some reason had not been harvested.  We hung a left onto SR 89 through Lowgap and then took another left onto SR 18 just before the Virginia border.

We came to the BRP again and took it a short distance to the south before jumping off onto paved Hardin Camp Road SR 1460. This quickly turned into paved Glade Valley Road SR 1444. Nothing special here, but the bucolic scenery was interesting. And there were a lot of huge Christmas tree farms.

We passed through Glade Valley, crossed US 21, and continued on several paved back roads. We finally found some more gravel on Airbellows Gap Road. The roads got even better when we hit Cleary Road and passed through some backwoods pastures. At Elk Knob Road we found pavement once again.

We took a right and headed west on Elk Knob. Suddenly a sign caught our eye – Thistle Meadow Winery. Having never been to a winery and being quite thirsty, we pulled into the parking lot. This was not a snobby looking place, but there were several patrons in the store who looked like they knew their way through the vineyards. Nancy almost balked, but then one of the employees came over and caught us just as we were ready to retreat to the bikes.

Before you knew it we were introduced to the Sommelier Tom Burgiss and we were sipping samples of his work. We told him about ourselves and our interests in writing about the places we visit. He in turn gave us the grand tour of everything for the fermentation room to the bottle labeling.

Tom has a large party building next to the winery where he throws big feasts. He even offers a stop for a local motorcycle poker run each year. He doesn’t serve them any wine, just lets them use the party building for a while. There is also a quaint bed and breakfast adjacent to the winery.

We purchased a few bottles for later consumption and thanked Tom for his generous hospitality in showing us the whole place. We promised not to disclose his brewing secrets.

Back on the road we passed through Laurel Springs where we had just heard that the White House Christmas Tree had come from this year. Good chance as the entire countryside is used for growing the holiday trees.

Heading west on SR 88 we made a quick stop at the South Fork of the New River thinking there might be a camping area there, but there was only a canoe launch and tent camping.

The KLRs were bucking for home at this point. We pointed them in that direction and held on as they raced for the barn.

Total mileage for the day was 126. It was an excellent day of riding with a little bit of everything thrown in. And we met a great and interesting person in Tom Burgiss, Sommelier.

This motorcycling is great fun and rarely dull …. except for the straight paved roads.