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                North Carolina, the South East and America...

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Charlotte is a great location from which to take motorcycle rides.  We are several hours from the Blue Ridge and Smoky mountains and about 4 hours from the Atlantic Ocean.  Our club members usually ride the mountains (lots of twisty roads!) but we also like to ride to the beach to enjoy the ocean and fresh seafood.

                                 North and South Carolina Mountains

There are generally three areas to consider when riding the mountains of North and South Carolina.  From north to south there is the "Boone" area, then the "Asheville" area and finally, the "South Mountains" area that contains the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the "Tail of the Dragon" which is perhaps the most famous motorcycle road in the world!

The following map shows these three areas:

      

Note: the mountain areas of North and South Carolina are located within the red lines.

Boone, NC is a funky college town (Appalachian State) nestled in the mountains.  Lance Armstrong trained here and it is where we hold our annual Daniel Boone Rally.  It has great nightlife and restaurants.  Boone is a 2 hour drive from Charlotte via I-85/US321 or I-77/US421.  From Boone you can ride north into Virginia, west into Tennessee and north and south along the Blue Ridge Parkway.  The roads are great and the scenery is truly specatacular!

Asheville, NC is a cosmopolitan city with a neat downtown area, great nightlife and superb restaurants.  It is well known as the location of George Vanderbilt's summer home, Biltmore House.  Asheville is easy to get to as I-40 and I-26 converge there.  It is the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park which is located to the south.  Motorcycle riding in the greater Asheville area is decidedly urban but quickly becomes rural as you leave the city.  Asheville is a great place to get on the Blue Ridge Parkway to travel toward Boone or the "South Mountains" area.  Asheville is a two hour drive from Charlotte or Knoxville, TN.

The "South Mountains" area has no real focal point town.  Instead, it is dotted with a number of charming small towns with historic downtown areas.  This area contains the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and also the "Tail of the Dragon" which is perhaps the best known motorcycle road in the world!  There are a bunch of waterfalls in this area and a Cherokee Indian reservation.  The area is best accessed from I-40 in Asheville but there are a number of US and state roads that connect it with I-85 as it winds through South Carolina.  From Charlotte the "South Mountains" area is about a four hour drive.

                             North and South Carolina Beaches

Because of the highway patterns, Charlotte area residents usually find themselves at beaches that span the North and South Carolina border.  To the North are the beaches near Wilmington and to the south is the famous Myrtle Beach area.  Myrtle beach is nationally known for its "Myrtle Beach Bike Week."

Another area that is popular but hard to get to from Charlotte is the "Outer banks" where the Wright Brothers first flew their planes.