TET-S Georgia Section

Preface:
Over the past few years, Larry (my ridin partner) and I have made lots of trips,
TAT - first 400 miles which was almost 1000 miles including trip from Chattanooga to Jellico and then from Mile 400 back to Chattanooga, where we had parked truck & trailer
Talladega NF - including trip from home and back home was 900+
Apalachicola NF - several trips down there. I think we have covered every inch of the western part
Trip to Louisiana Bayou country 1400 miles
Natchez Trace - 1300 mile ride
2nd TAT trip (from mile 400) to middle of Arkansas. - this trip included Alabama portion of TET-S - 1700 miles
3 days around Tellico Plains
and many more. and I've read lots and lots of Fantastic ride reports, but until a few days ago, I never tried to write one.

Let me tell you, It's a PITA,,, I now have GREAT respect for DrRock, Colebatch, BigDog and many others
But,,,, it does let you re-live some fun times

SO, I'm gonna try one more

The first one was TET-s Florida section - http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=854033

On most of my (& Larry's) trips, we encounter some kind of problem with “Mr Garmin”. I have the el-cheapo model GPS (Nuvi 500), so I can't turn off re-routing. And some roads don't exist in 'Garmin Maps'. On this trip, I got smart(er) and built an overlay map with the TET-S track on it, so now when it re-routes while I'm not looking, I'll know it, cause it won't be following my RED line on the map.
This is probably the best thing I've done to help deal with Garmin problems.
Now, on with the story....
This is the entire loop we rode in 3 different trips, one for Al section, one for Florida Section, and this one for Georgia Section

starts from Donalsonville Ga. We take a route I put together to get us back to Screven Ga, where we left the route in August.

Route for today


Since I got the GoPro, I don't take many still shots, so most all photos you see will be Video Capture.

I didn't get any video on the way to Screven, but I should have. We got on a couple of roads that had sand deeper than anything I ever saw in Florida except for maybe a couple of the beaches. and somehow they managed to FLUFF this sand so you wheels sunk about 6 inches into it

I would have turned on the camera, but there's only 2 ways to do it.
1- take your hand off the grip.
2- stop and turn it on, and I wasn't going to do either. I was afraid to slow down, dam sure wasn't going to stop..
anyway, we get back on the route

photos start just north of Screven This area is mostly dirt, long straight sandy roads

Turkey huntin without a gun




as long as you stay in the tracks, sand's not too bad


and they say we don't have enough prison space


Long, Straight


and sandy


They don't waste any farm land on ditches and right-of-ways


Peanut pickin' time



We only had to go about a quarter mile on this rd

When you got deep sand and washboard rds, it gets interesting










Old tobacco drying barn

We got a motel in Statesboro

Lookin' forward to following your ride. I've only ridden a small portion of the TET-----so it will be nice to see your ride.

Man---that sand looked pretty tough---can't let your guard down for a second in that stuff.

I agree on the map overlay---------man that has opened up a new world for me too.

I'm going to Baja in a few days and I have about 130 tracks logs in the map image---a huge help. I could nave never loaded that many tracks till I learned about the map overlay thing. I'm using gpx2img to do it. Best $20 I ever spent. Dr. Rock taught me this on the Mobius 10.

Now on--with your story !!!!

BigDog

Day 2 starts from Statesboro Ga
Route for today


Roads are same as yesterday, but except for “Sand Beds”, not as much sand as day 1

Old water powered Grist Mill.

My family used to own one similar to this

Howards Mill


Old Cotton Picker



100 miles north of Screven GA, we enter Screven County


Now, back into some that will keep your attention


And some pretty roads

and the first thing that looks like a hill


Nuclear plant somewhere around here. We got one of these at home too


Hey, another hill


Yep, we found the nuclear power plant, The Vogtle plant has 2 units operating and 2 more under construction




International Paper Co, Augusta Newsprint mill


We stopped in Augusta for lunch and filled up with Petrol for $3.38/gl Rode 3 miles across the River
into SC and everywhere we looked, it was $2.99.
Most roads in SC were paved, but had some pretty good scenery.



Most creeks we saw were dry or almost dry, same as in SW Georgia

Lakes too




Finally get to a dirt road


More photos of SC. The dirt roads don't have 'Ditches' like we usually see. The roads have a high crown and taper off to an embankment. Works very well, we didn't hit any washouts.














Need 10" ground clearance for this log,,,, we had 9 1/2




Old Charleston Road






Back in GA, arrive at Hartwell






Let me say; Any road, especially a dirt road is a 'Good Road' as long as you're straddling 2 wheels
BUT,,,,, the best thing about day 1 and day 2 is that it gets us to DAY 3
which will be along shortly

Day 3 – It was a 'Very Good Day'


Started out paved from Hartwell, but not too long. Today we go back into SC, back to GA, and into NC

First dirt – Black Mountain road




Then Brasstown rd













At the end of Brasstown rd, we come across this restaurant



looks closed, but there's a really nice lady outside burning trash, so we stop. She says they only open a couple days a week (at night), but she's got a pot of coffee on, and we're welcome to come in and have a cup, so we do. She also gave us some breakfast pastries.

While we're there, she's telling us about a couple who came through a few days back on a BMW (car)
They told her the GPS had put them on the BT road and they couldn't turn around, so they came all the way thru. She said they looked exhausted.
She wouldn't take any payment, so we just left the money on the table when we departed

Then Pool Creek road
starts out paved


but soon turned to dirt. This was another Good Road














Then Hale Ridge Road – another good road... Hell, there ain't no bad roads up here!!!



Air conditioned Church. Looks like they may just hold funeral services here




Rest stop on Hale Ridge


Now Larry's ready to conquer the world, or at least this trail anyway


continuing on Hale Ridge










Back on pavement, we're entering NC


Rabun Branch road










Then we head back south on Dillard road, and it's about lunch:30,




After Dillard, the first dirt is Patterson Gap rd & guess what? It's another good road

Lesson #84 on posting,,,, you can't edit what you put into the 'Title'
Patterson Gap runs into Tallulah River Road, partly paved, some loose gravel, and a little dirt
Looks like they're replacing all the bridges on this road with 2 lane bridges.





















On this trip, even with the overlay map, I still figured out a way to screw up...
We're supposed to cross the Tallulah River at this point onto the Sandy Bottom / Charlies Creek Road
Do you see a road on the other side?


To the left is another little road down to the river

nothing there either, so we discuss it for a minute and Larry reiterates what a pisspore navigator I am, an I guess he's right again, cause the camera saw the road when I couldn't

can you see the trail on the other side?

BAJA,,,, man, you make me drool...

we backtrack down to the 'Big Bike Bypass' and continued on.

Met this guy while backtracking (hindsight will come into play)


I had looked at Charlies Creek Road in Google Earth and really wanted to ride it, so we decided to ride it from the other end (West to East).
Charlies Creek Road starts off by climbing 800 ft in about ¾ mile. That's only 20% avg grade, but when you throw in the 5% grade sections,,,,,,,

West end of Charlies Creek rd
























Met these riders 'bout ½ way,


They said they didn't see a way across the river either, but asked a local how to cross, (yellow suzuki maybe), OK, Larry was right

Movin on











an it just continues like this......

an we get to the Tallulah River, simple huh!






Larry hit a big, slick rock in the river, so when he gets to other bank, he quickly grabs his camera to get a shot of me fallin' in that COLD! water... Forgot to mention.... morning temps on this trip were high 30's

an I ALMOST accommodate him


Remember how good hindsite is,,,,, Why didn't we turn around an ride it E > W, it would have be a totally different ride from the W > E that we did
anyhow, we take the BBB again and go on to Hiawassee to get a room.

Glenda [timetrax], who is my real navigator called and said that all rooms in Hiawassee were $100+, (and she didn't give me enough allowance to cover that), so we ride on into NC near Hayesville and get a really nice room at Deerfield Inn for $70


When we're on these trips, usually about 6PM, my travel coordinator, Glenda[timetrax] calls and says "You 2 dumasses do know that it's almost dark and you're heading away from any form of lodging, don't you", and of course then she tells us which way to turn to get to a motel. Spot is a good thing to have. She uses it to keep us out of any REALLY BIG messes

enjoying the ride report!!


Brad

Good stuff guys.......keep it coming.

Great pics!!

the blue lines are Big Bike Bypasses around some of the technical stuff

Day 4 starts just south of Hiawassee on hiway 17 for a few miles and we turn onto Wilks Road, a good bike road.and it climbs to the ridge of Blue mountain, follows ridge for awhile and then crosses Chattahoochee River,
vidcaps from Wilks Rd










This is Saturday, so lots of campers/hikers... bet they would've give me a cup of coffee if I could have got Larry to stop.




Chattahoochee River, I live about 5 miles from this river in south Ga, and it's a wee bit bigger than this down there




Then we turn onto Poplar Stump road, follow ridge line a little further and then follow the Chattahoochee into Helen Ga.

morning sun turned everything to Gold

Landslide






continuing on Poplar Stump










Here, Poplar Stump joins back up with the Chattahoochee river


and follows it on into Helen Ga

we ride a couple miles and hit hiway 348 (Richard B Russel Scenic Hiway), very scenic and Crooked paved road
google earth view of RBR hiway


a few vidcaps from RBR














Off this hiway, we hit Hatchett Creek rd I THINK, I did a poor job of labeling my video along here,
but whatever it is, it was good ridin'


















Then it's Wolfpen Gap rd - Blacktop, but Crooked, so it's good








Coopers Creek rd starts off paved, but once you're past the houses, it turns to loose gravel








Flat Creek / Flatland Roads. I couldn't tell where one ended and the other began, so here's a
BUNCH of vidcaps These 2 and Charlies Creek were FUN-FUN-FUN...

















































I guess you can tell from the number of vidcaps from these 2 roads that I LIKED 'EM... if I lived in this area I'd ride these everyday just for exercise
I had read on some threads somewhere (don't remember where), that there was signs and gates and such on this road, but we didn't see anything..
DISCLAIMER: I didn't take my eyes off the road much.
One of the things that made these roads so exciting was that the fallen leaves hid lots of holes and big rocks, so at least in November, you better pay attention to where you're going...

Enjoyed perusing your report and viewing the accompanying photos. Got to get down there myself very soon.

I don't have anything else compiled right now so I'm gonna Profile my ridin partner (an myself a little bit)

I met him when I was 14 (he was a lot older, I think). I had just got a H-D Hummer (you younguns probably don't know what that is), and a few days later,
Larry and Ted (another friend) came over to my house. larry told me later that Ted had come to his house and said
" Hey, I heard there's a boy over in Jakin with a motorcycle, Let's go over and race him"
and so we did.
After highschool, I went into the Navy and didn't see much of him 'til one day coming back from the lake, I saw a couple of guys riding in a borrow pit side the road, It was Larry & Ted, so, now I gotta have another bike. Got a yamaha 125mx.
we met every Sunday at the clay pit and before long we had a trail laid out up and down those banks, and sho-nuff, it was a race every Sunday. It had grown to about 10-12 riders then.
It eventually got to where we had cars parked for 1/4 mile side of the road watching us race. We were riding motocross and didn't even know it.
that evolved into racing mx and several more bikes 'til we got too old (30+).
My work began to consume all my time and I didn't get another bike 'til I retired.

After I retired, Larry first convinced me I needed a couple 4 wheelers so Glenda and I could ride with him an Margo (his wife)
Then he said I needed a DS bike to ride with him on, so (KLR650)
then I needed a big bike so we could take our wives with us sometime (VTX1300)
$20,000 + later, we're where we are now.
He has a stable full of bikes and 4 wheelers
and I have 3 bikes and 2 four wheelers
All our trips revolve around his work (he's greedy, you know)
He always says something like "I don't have anything to do for X days startin tomorrow, build us a route to 'somewhere'"
Then he says "You need to write a ride report" (I can't even get him to post a comment)

But he's good with the camera,,,, every time I drop the bike,,,, next day a picture of it is posted on his refrigerator for the whole world to see.
That's my best friend "Larry" [LJHrider]
With all he's talked me into, I can't afford any more.


soon as I get some photos uploaded and comments written, I'll post some more....

Thanks.
I know you got good roads and hills up there, but I promise you, these are worth the trip...

Very cool.I'd like to ride some sections of that eventually.

Be a good ride on that KLR

We came off Flatland rd onto pavement into Suches, where we had lunch and talked with several other bikers. Most were riding cruisers, but some had DS bikes as well.
One guy was really glad to meet us. He is about 60 yrs old and said he was worried he couldn't ride for many more yrs, but if we could still ride, he should be good for at least another 20 yrs.

Left Suches on Coopers Gap rd. A good mountain road, but does not meet my “Really Good Road” standards.






This road is just a good mountain road, but with the leaves off the trees, the view was spectacular.














Next road is FR 42 or maybe Appalachian Blue Ridge or both
All I know for certain is it was up on top of a long mountain and followed the ridge line for a long way










This must be a hikers trailhead. There's at least 30 cars here and the people we see are doing stretches & squats & stuff
an most of em look fit,,, like they may walk or do some kind of exercise












There's some nice people in Georgia too. Soon as this one saw us (thru the dust), he pulled over and let us pass




This one is not so nice. Took at least a mile to get around him/her, but to be fair, he/she was puttin up so much dust,
he/she may not have seen us