A friend from my Mini Club and I are going to take a road trip middle of next week. Finally getting a chance to check out Back of the Dragon and drive part of Claw of the Dragon. Lots of Dragons around here it seems. The Back is 32 miles long and crosses three mountains and valleys with 3500 foot elevation changes. To drive all the roads that make up the Claw would take a lot longer than I can spare though. Both are better known as motorcycle roads than for cars, so that should work fine for my friends R52 JCW and my F car. About 225 miles the first day and 250 the second. Should be fun especially with the minimal traffic in the middle of the week. It'll be the first decent drive I've taken since MOTD back in May. If anyone's in the area and wants to join us we're leaving from Greensboro at 0900 on the 1st. Day1 https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZH...K0&usp=sharing Day 2 https://drive.google.com/open?id=1pH...4s&usp=sharing http://backofthedragon.com http://www.clawofthedragon.com/asset...ighres2015.pdf And if you've got 10 minutes to waste this is a pretty good abbreviated video of the Back. https://youtu.be/wuHAeI29S04
I’ve RIDDEN the Back (rt16) many times over the years, but actually enjoy 58 (the crooked road) more. Run it over to Damascus and then take 131 down to Shady Valley and run the south part of 421 (the Snake) down to Boone. Lots and lots of great roads for Motorcycles and Minis in that whole area. Enjoy your trip!
I'm actually going to skip the NC portion of day 2. Since I live in VA and 58 runs right by the road I live on I plan to take 58 from Abingdon all the way home. About 210 miles on 58. It's nice drive until it changes to 4 lanes near Martinsville.