Deal’s Gap Shut Down
Saturday, August 11th, 2007 at 8:05 pm by angrybob
Throughout the mid-90’s, I would trailer my sport bike down to the Smoky Mountain area of US 129 at the Tennessee / North Carolina border. This my friends is the road called Deal’s Gap or Tail of the Dragon. It’s claim to fame is “318 turns in 11 miles” and I believe it.
For us Michigan flat-landers, this whole general area was a Mecca of federally funded race tracks. You had Deal’s Gap for the tight technical stuff and you had the Cherahala Skyway for the high speed sweepers. Seems as if things have changed in recent times.
We would always plan our trips to occur during the weekdays simply to avoid the masses, squids, and cops. It was a good strategy as there was rarely a ticket. I don’t know about weekdays now, but it sure seems as if weekends are off limits for the twisties on two-wheels at speed.Â
Just this month, there have been successive stings on US 129 with up to fourteen (14!) cop cars at one time in the eleven mile stretch to write tickets. Look, I know its a game: we go through there at speed and try not to get caught, they try to write tickets to speeders. The deal is though that this road is pretty empty most of the time. Problems do arise when semi’s go through there where they go off the road - almost weekly. An example from Aug 7th:
Its bittersweet really. We’ve known for years not to go there on the weekends. If you ever want to overdose on calimari, go to Deal’s Gap on a sunny Saturday. You will see it all. Enough goes wrong every weekend that a cottage industry for people who simply catch the crashes on film has developed by the name of killboy.com. In that sense, I cannot blame the cops.
I could spend rows and rows copying and pasting all the recent events surrounding Deal’s Gap, but its already done at Tail of the Dragon. Alright, here’s a teaser:
BULLETIN AUGUST 11 - SATURDAY: Well today there were only six THP marked cars, one undercover black Expedition, and one Blount County unit. The Troopers wrote a couple of probably deserved tickets but spent most of the day snoozing in the shade. Easiest duty they have had in a long time if the can dodge my cameras. The Blount County SO K-9 car stayed pretty busy writing silly plate violations at the Overlook. “You-all don’t come back now.”
Check it out…
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I remember the days before “the Dragon” was discovered. When it was a “locals” road and a lucky find for out-of-towners who happened upon it acciddently (my lucky day). With national notariety have come the problems. The cops are there in force because it’s the only way to keep a lid on the insanity. Ambulances roll up 129 almost every weekend in season. If all the wanna-be-Rossi’s would tone it down a bit, we might still have a gloriously cop-free place to play.
But I believe it’s too late for the Dragon to ever return to it’s former pristine state.
There are many roads all over this country that are just as great as the Dragon, but they will only stay that way if you keep your mouth shut! The moto-rags have been particularly grevious violators of the sanctity of these stretches of asphalt nirvana. Use the Dragon as an example of what happens when a favorite road start becoming “known”.
Real riders, find roads by lots of riding off the beaten track and through other like-minded individuals (not in magazine articles). Once the cat is out of the bag, we can never go back. Share your own favorites only with close acquaintances. It pays to keep secrets!
Rhino