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Briefs Dragon' targeted for safety blitz
The Daily Times
Maryville, TN
2003-06-15
The Blount County Sheriff's Office Traffic Safety Unit used ``saturation enforcement'' Saturday to make a section of Calderwood Highway safer for all motorists.
The 11-mile section from Tab Cat Creek to the North Carolina line is known as the ``Dragon'' and is a favorite with motorcyclists who enjoy the 318 curves on that stretch of highway where accidents frequently involve motorcycles.
Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers and officers from the Knox County Sheriff's Office, some of them on motorcycles, joined the effort which resulted in 27 traffic citations, 22 of them for speeding. Three tickets were issued for passing on double yellow lines and two for violation of the state's financial responsibility law.
Sheriff James Berrong said similar saturation enforcement efforts are planned on the potentially dangerous highway.
Foothills Parkway section closes for repairs
2003-06-14
by Thomas Fraser
of The Daily Times Staff
The Blount County section of the Foothills Parkway will be closed for a year to repair damage suffered during May's flooding rains.
A preliminary estimate offered by a Federal Highway Administration inspector, who visited the site last month, puts the cost of repairing the road at $1 million.
The road, which traverses Chilhowee Mountain, is closed at Look Rock pending repairs to a section of road that gave way two miles from the southern intersection of U.S. 129 during the rains of May 5 and May 6. Some 7 inches of rain were recorded at Cades Cove during the storm.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park Public Information Officer Bob Miller described the washout as a ``sheer dirt slope,'' that claimed a section of the road, opening up the roadbed to further erosion.
``It will be closed through next spring,'' he said.
Miller recommended that people wanting to access the Abrams Creek area -- Abrams Campground remains closed -- travel via U.S. 129, or cross the Top of the World community to Happy Valley.
Top of the World residents can still access their community by way of the Foothills Parkway. The 10-mile section from East Lamar Alexander Parkway to Look Rock remains open.
Herb Handly, executive vice president for tourism for the Smoky Mountain Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the closing may result in some disappointed motorcyclists, but was not expected to affect Townsend tourism traffic.
``I knew the damage was extreme,'' he said. ``I didn't know it was that extreme. It's not good.''
Among those he expects to be disappointed are participants in the Honda Hoot scheduled for next weekend in Knoxville.
Many attendees like to travel to ``The Dragon'' on U.S. 129 by way of the Foothills Parkway.
``They make a lot of trips in our direction,'' said Handly of those who are drawn to the Honda Hoot.
However, ``I don't know whether (the closure) will prevent people from coming to Townsend,'' he said, as few use the Foothills Parkway as a direct route into town.
He said there has been some consideration among Townsend business ranks of publicizing The Dragon and the area's other motorcycle-friendly attractions, but those plans will probably be put on hold until repairs to the parkway are complete.
Elsewhere on the Tennessee side of the Park, Parsons Branch and Upper Tremont roads remained closed after sustaining damage in the same series of storms that shut down Foothills Parkway.
Park visitors can call (865) 436-1200 for updated campground and road-closure information.
The Cocke County section of the parkway remains open.
The Dragon's Lair
By WAYNE BLEDSOE, Knoxville News Sentinel
June 1, 2003
The Dragon is 11 miles of asphalt and has 318 curves. For motorcycle enthusiasts, those numbers equal paradise.
A stretch of road on U.S. 129, the Dragon follows the southern border of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park from Blount County to the North Carolina border in Deals Gap.
On any given weekend, hundreds of bikers can be seen, swaying on S-curves like hula dancers and negotiating hairpin turns, leaning nearly sideways, knees only inches from the unforgiving pavement. When the Dragon bites, it can be as minor as a scraped cycle and a bruised pride or as serious as death.
The Dragon draws bikers from all over the world. Many trailer their cycles to the area, some have their bikes flown in, and others ride from across the country to a find a road said to be unlike any other in America. It even has its own Web site, www.tailofthedragon.com.
Chris Zinyk and his friends Ian McGregor and Jeff Rocheleau brought their motorcycles down by trailer from Ontario, Canada.
"We live on flat, straight roads," says Zinyk, who has cycled the course a dozen times since he arrived.
How fast did he go?
"The speed limit," says Zinyk, with a suspicious smile. The speed limit is 40 mph in Tennessee and 55 mph in North Carolina.
McGregor's bike displayed the scars of a weekend wipeout.
"I'm glad I did it on the Dragon," says McGregor, preparing to be ribbed by his friends. "It's a learning experience. You definitely have to know how your bike handles."
And there is every kind of bike traveling the road - modern sports and racing cycles commonly referred to as "crotch rockets"; Harleys; Italian Ducatis; BMWs; Honda Gold Wings; vintage two-stroke cycles; and choppers with "ape hanger" handle bars.
Leslie Pemble, who co-owns Deal's Gap Motorcycle Resort with her husband, Rob, says it is not uncommon to see 4,000 to 6,000 motorcycles pass through the resort's parking lot on a weekend.
The 14-room motel and store lies at the North Carolina end of the course in Deal's Gap.
"We bought it three years ago when it was a run-down hotel," says Pemble. "We made it motorcycle-friendly. There's no rowdiness or bad stuff. At night, mostly people sit around and swap stories by the fire."
In the three years that the Pembles have owned the resort she has seen two bikers airlifted out of area due to accident injures and "two or three deaths." She says that most deaths occur further in North Carolina on the Cherohala Skyway (Tennessee 165/North Carolina 143) - a straighter road near Robbinsville, N.C., that Dragon bikers often tackle.
The "Tree of Shame" grows at the resort. The tree is decorated with parts from crashed bikes - signed by the unfortunate riders. Marked by a sign with its name, the Tree of Shame display is a reminder that the Dragon has teeth.
The reaction of Tim Branch is typical of a first timer on the Dragon:
"This is awesome," says Branch in an excited voice.
Branch and friends hauled their cycles by trailer on a 10-hour trip from Windsor, Ontario, for the privilege of riding down U.S. 129.
"It's not like this back home," says Branch. "Here people will pull over to let you pass. The people here are very friendly."
A paramedic, Branch found himself having to check on both a friend and a stranger who had gone off of the road. Both, luckily, had no serious injuries.
"A few guys push the limit," says Greg Bardish, who traveled from Michigan and convinced Chicago-based buddy John Rodenhiser to take the ride.
And there are the common obstacles for any rider to avoid. Gravel, fallen limbs and leaves, even a little rain can make riding the highway very dangerous.
And then there are the uncommon dangers.
"There are wild pigs on the road at night," says Rodenhiser. "We saw some little ones, but they told us (in the resort) that the boars could be waist high - and if you wreck into one, it'll turn around and eat you - but maybe they were just pulling the Yankees' chain!"
Hunting dogs also stray onto the road and can be a hazard - although none are known to have developed a taste for biker flesh.
Mike Pijanka, of Lexington, Ky., says the negatives about the road and bikers have been overplayed.
"People get hurt, and I'm not trying to trivialize that," says Pijanka, who teaches biker safety courses. "But the ratio (for accidents) here is probably better than it is in town, considering the number of bikes."
Pijanka first rode the Dragon in 1983.
"In '83, you might have seen 10 to 15 bikes in a day," says Pijanka, who enjoys the camaraderie of the cyclists as well as riding, "now it's thousands."
Pijanka, who brought his Yamaha FZ1 for a rally, avoids the crowd by only riding the Dragon in the early morning and at night.
"And, at night, it's a different thing entirely," says Pijanka
He says that a lot of cyclists have a bad attitude toward local law enforcement - an attitude he thinks could be tempered by the Highway Patrol and county deputies taking rides with the bikers and offering safety programs.
The most common complaint against the cyclists is speeding and passing cars in no passing zones. But it is not unheard of for cars to do the same to the cyclists, and it is simply impossible for some large trucks to keep from straddling both sides of the road to navigate some of the turns.
"It's a little frightening knowing that a big semi-tractor-trailer or tour bus could be around the corner," says Buffalo, N.Y., cyclist Jennifer Valvo - one of an increasing number of women motorcycle enthusiasts. "My greatest fear is a car coming around the wrong side of the road. I try to stay in my lane no matter how fast I'm going."
Blount County deputy Jim West has little negative to say about the bikers.
"Ninety-nine percent of them just want to ride and have fun," says West. "The sheriff will call a sweep and then just call us back the next day," says West. "You can't stop them from riding. It's a public road. The biggest problems are the ones who don't know what they're getting into."
West says he sees everyone from professional riders, who come to the Dragon to practice, to Harley riders who just want a beautiful cruise.
"It was a different situation (from) 20 years ago where you'd have 400 or 500 Outlaws," says West. "But the Outlaws, the Bambinos, they're just like us - they've grown up."
While most on the Dragon look like sport bike riders, Harley riders Rick and Diane Pritchard, of Kilgore, Texas, have the old-school biker look.
"When we were first married in the early '80s bikers were thought of as scum of the earth," says Rick. "We got the hairy eyeball wherever we went. Now you have doctors and lawyers and all sorts of people riding."
Diane decided to take a video on one of her recent rides.
"I wanted a video so when I get old I can get a big screen TV and still feel like I'm riding the Dragon!" says Diane.
Rick has some simple advice for Dragon first timers:
"Come and ride it; take care of yourself; and don't exceed your capabilities."
Graham Star, May 21, 2003
I can't hear you. There's a motorcycle in my ear
by Mike Andrews, Editor
Unless you are both blind and deaf, you know they are back - the motorcyclists.
Let me say for the record before I get hate mail in black leather Harley-Davidson envelopes that I have absolutely nothing against motorcyclists. If one day I have a daughter and she grows up and decides to run off and marry I motorcyclist, I will have absolutely no problem with that, so long as she takes his name and agrees to never attempt to speak to me again.
I know many motorcyclists who are fine, upstanding citizens, several of whom still have most of their own skin.
I generally wouldn't mind the motorsickles, as my grandmother would call them. But most of them are engineered by evil scientists to inflict more eardrum damage than your average 747.
I learned this first-hand this past week coming down Tallulah. From the southbound lane came a rider who decided the car in front of him wasn't going fast enough. He scooted right between the driver's side headlights of my car and that of the car he was passing. In so doing his motorcycle rode within a foot of my driver's side door. For about three minutes I went deaf in my left ear.
No doubt, most of the motorcyclists who come to Graham County to ride the roads are expert bike handlers who respect the roads, but there are several who seem to think our county is a virtual reality video game.
Notice to any motorcyclists who don't understand: U.S. 129, including The Dragon's Tail, is an actual road that many people use to get around. It is not your personal amusement park. Some of us actually are interested in driving to Knoxville.
I often hear it said that those guys and gals are often doctors and lawyers letting off some steam, and that they deposit large amounts of cash in our local establishments. I know for a fact that The Dragon's Tail is the single most famous feature of our area. I have only met a couple of outsiders who had ever heard of Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, home to some of the oldest trees on the east coast. But anyone who has every gone near a motorcycle knows The Dragon's Tail. It is the Wrigley Field of biking roads.
Of course it isn't just cyclists who want to ride like maniacs. Sports car owners do their part, too.
This from an Internet site from a Miata owner named Rob: "The Tail of the Dragon is the best mountain road I've ever been on and I should know, being originally from West Virginia. I can't remember the last time I drove my car that hard and got that big of an adrenaline rush."
Thanks for sharing your adrenaline rush with us. And maybe someday I'll hear out of my left ear again.