Tail of the Dragon
There is a mountain road in TN near NC called the Tail of the Dragon. This section of the highway is about 11 miles long and has 318 curves.
If you are riding a motorcycle or driving a sports car, this route is a big attraction for the skill needed just to drive it. In fact, at the southern end, there is a hotel with a big tree called The Tree of Shame. Any parts recovered from accidents are hung on the tree to remind people how dangerous the route is. It is covered in, mostly, motorcycle parts. Mix a little testosterone, young age and a crotch rocket and this paints the picture of how the tree got its ornaments.
Because the road is so well known, it gets quite of bit of traffic as well. Unfortunately, it is one of the few roads truckers can take from SE TN to NW NC so trucks use it as well. Because of all of this, there is usually a police presence and, as a tourist attraction, there are usually several photographers who will take your picture and give you the opportunity to buy prints from them later.
I remember the first time we rode the Tail. We came from the north (yes, it matters) and started our ride. A couple hot headed young men on crotch rockets thought we were going too slow and eventually found a short straight patch to pass us (in my opinion, any passing on mountain roads is a no no). We eventually made it to the end and stopped at a store called Tail of the Dragon store to get our t-shirt.
Let me explain “making it” riding an 800lb motorcycle on curvey mountain roads. On a motorcycle, most of the turning comes from leaning your motorcycle to the side you are turning to. The tighter the curve and/or the faster you are going requires a greater lean. Even though we were riding close to the speed limit, because of the tightness of the curve, we had to lean our bikes over quite a bit. By the way, if you haven’t figured out what happens if you lean too far to turn, you fall over, thus the ornamentation on the tree. On one curve, I leaned my bike over enough that the floor board (the flat area you set your foot on) scrapped the pavement slightly. My heart was racing when I got done.
“He laughs at fear and is not dismayed; he does not turn back from the sword. Upon him rattle the quiver, the flashing spear, and the javelin. With fierceness and rage he swallows the ground; he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet. When the trumpet sounds, he says ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle from afar, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.” - Job 39:22-25 ESV
“For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” - Hebrews 12:18-19, 21-24
After we bought our commemorative T-shirt, we turned around and rode the Tail of the Dragon from the south. It seemed much easier coming back even though my floor board got scraped twice (the way the curves follow the mountain, there are more sharp curves next to the mountain coming from the south). My heart wasn’t racing nearly as much.
Since that first time riding the Tail, we’ve been back and ridden it probably almost a dozen times. I remember thinking, the last time we rode it, that it isn’t that challenging anymore. In fact, one time we got behind someone who was going too slow. Now, The Devil’s Triangle (a route fairly close) is another story…
