When: September 6th(arrive) to the 8th(depart), 2019
Last year, Daender and I arrived Friday afternoon and spent some time at the dam and made a run on the Dragon in the FiST(rip from my life), so you can do the same, or just settle in.
Where: The Tail of the Dragon, lodging at the Fontana Village Resort
https://www.fontanavillage.com/
This is the hotel at which we stayed last year, and this year if we can confirm 10 rooms, we can get them at $113 a night, though if not it was under $130 last year. So far I’ve gotten 3 rooms confirmed, but it would be great if I could get a block reserved. There are two restaurants on the premises, and a gas station nearby. There are a couple of restaurants within 10 miles, but not a whole lot.
ONE THING ABOUT WHERE: The Dragon is remote, there is no cell service. Deals Gap Motorcycle Lodge has WiFi(probably where we would meet for breakfast on Saturday) as does the hotel. *More on this in a bit.
What: First and foremost, it’s a meetup, a place to put faces to names.
Along with that, it’s a drive/ride(bikes are more than welcome, in fact that’s part of why I picked this weekend). Friday we will get in our Dragon runs, along with early Saturday at sunrise. If you want to experience the US129 at it’s magic hour, beat the traffic(It’s so worth it).
Friday we will arrive, maybe make a few runs, and then meet for supper at the lodge’s restaurant, the non-fawncy one. Saturday is when we will spend a lot of the day driving. I plan to meet up at the Deal’s Gap Lodge for breakfast at 7:30, after a few runs on the Dragon. From there we will do the Cherohala Skyway, then loop back and try to hit all of the new Foothills Parkway. All of this is up for debate, but we are definitely doing the Skyway, Hopefully the weather will be a bit better than last year, as the last trip up the Skyway was wet.
Sunday is the day when we will depart(unless you plan on staying longer, which is fine.) You can choose the route you take that day.
What to Bring: Along with yourself, there are some essentials I would recommend. First and foremost, a radio to communicate. Again, there is no cell service, so if you need help, you need a radio. We will at least plan to have the radio at the front and at the back, but having your own would be ideal. You can get them on Amazon for fairly cheap. Another is a lesson I learned last year: TOOLS. Stuff breaks, there are no shops in the area. Some of us will have tools, but it would be best to bring a few of your own.
Who: So far you can contact me, I made an email that I will try to keep check of: oppoatthedragon2019@gmail.com. If anyone wants to join in and assist, that would be awesome!
You can also contact me on here or Facebook, as I will make a post on the OppositeTalk page as well. Closer to the event I will make a chat of some sort, and I think the most approved in the past has been Slack.
If you have any questions or requests, contact me here or there or through Email! If you can come, please let me know with the next 2-3 weeks!