The Sunday drive generally leaves between 9 and 10 in the morning.
This year there will be a variety of options for Sunday.

1) A Smokey Mountain run
2) A trip to Asheville to tour the Biltmore Estate.
3) A Trip to Asheville with a new mountain run still being determined

 

Ok how long does the run A usually take?

 

It is most of the day with a stop for lunch and some stops in the Smokies for pics etc.
It ends with a trip back through the 11 mile Dragon before returning to the lodge.
Some break away from the group and head for their next destination or home along the way where ever it works best for them.

the route>>>

 

Ok so what state or states does the dragon stretch from? Is it NC and TN?

 

Most of the dragon is in TN, but the Fontana Lodge is in NC. Deals Gap (at almost the top of the hill) is the border between the 2 states. There are some real descent roads on the NC side too.

 

Where is the waterfall that I missed in the spring?

 

ok cool. Looks like im going around with everyone Sunday to the park, then keep going up 441 and head home. should be good time and i get to do half the loop

 

Gary, is #1 my group or another group? Just curious because it looks just like the route I was talking about, but in reverse (which doesn't matter to me). But if there's no sense two groups doing the same thing, we can just go together.

 

Note to self:

1.) Hmmm, Tom may be leading Sunday morning Smokies run.
2.) Deb & I plan on doing Sunday morning Smokies run.
3.) Tom is leading 'aggressive group' through the Dragon on Saturday.
4.) Therefore if #1 = anything like #3 this might be an unusual sightseeing adventure !

OK, new tires are for sure being installed!

 

Tom,
#1 Smokey Mountain run can be your group.
It is basically the reverse of the route you suggested but it is the route that worked well the last two times we ran it.
Depending on how many cars choose this run on Sunday morning ya still might want to divide it into smaller groups and choose a few other leads and then spread out a bit.
It works best with 10 to 12 Crossfires per group.

It seems that these things always work themselves out at the GTG

 

I believe James1549 discovered this spot.
Left onto River rd. off of Hwy 165 before getting to Tellico Plains
It's a small area according to those who found it last spring so taking ALL the Crossfires there would probably prove to be difficult but can be done in groups of 10
I think it is worth the detour off the main route though for sure.
View the lower sections of each map to better get an idea of the location....

...

 

Excellent! Well, if there are enough for two Smokey Mountain groups on Sunday, I'll be happy to lead one. If not, I'll be in one!

No worries, Kurts. If I were leading a group that wasn't all aggressive folks, we would definitely tone it down.

 

I'm leaning toward running the Smokey mountain route again as well so I could be another lead if needed.
Still pondering on the run toward Asheville and doing a new route in that area but it is 2 hours away from Fontana Lodge and I don't have any plans to tour the Biltmore Estate.

decisions decisions

 

Hey Guys,

I personally like the way our group did the Sunday run the last two times. I know we ran into some traffic in the spring on 441, but last fall we didn't. The place we stop at in Cherokee for lunch has a great setup for our group. I like the stop at Sugarlands Vistor Center for a break. And brings back memories from a long time ago! I would like to do the regular Sunday loop again and see what traffic brings. If too much, we can definitely change it for the spring. The maps you guys are showing came directly off my GPS tracking feature I used.

The waterfall is great to see. But parking is very very limited. We were told the police are very serious about parking violaters, no first time warnings. So for some it may be just a drive by because it was very crowded around the falls.



As Gary said and with all the planning in the world, things will and could change at the time and work out just fine.

Sorry I haven't been following this thread for a while. Sorry if its repeating.

James

 

I'm definitely in for the Sunday mountain run. Would like to be in an aggressive group.

 

In the spring we had 4 groups, aggressive, 2 medium, and old ladies (no offense to any old ladies listing in that may want to drive in the aggressive group!)

 

In the Spring event, we started out in one of the medium groups when we left the dam for Robbinsville and lunch. But it was TOO SLOW! So several of us bumped up to an aggressive grouping and had a ball the remainder of the day!

It is worth noting that during several of the segments, we had cars surface with issues (1 - overheating; 1 - tire wear). The comradery that surfaced was especially noteworthy as others "came to the rescue" to help deal with these issues. We were the car directly behind itsky thru "The Dragon", as he was the one that had tire wear issues surface in our group. (Note: And he didn't necessarily take his time, either! He would have been fun to play "catch-up" with if he had had a good set of tires! Roberta said the pace was just fine. Wait 'til this fall!)

 

We had a lot of fun this spring, too bad the camera wasn't on when uncle Al blew all of that smoke.

I will have fresh rubber for the dragon, and that should help a lot

 

I will be there for that too this year, not leaving till monday

 

If its the same guy I talked to, the overheating issue was a false alarm. The needle was one segment above the half mark. That is pretty good considering putting your car thru the paces.

James