I had planned to take the ride with Slick but this time of the year is a little too toasty for her. So I decided to take this one solo. The weather was nice except for a few clouds, and they burned off as the morning went by. The temps was around 75 when I left and the humidity wasn't too bad. Slick almost went with me, but luckily she backed out. It got a little toasty around noon. She would not have been a happy camper. But hey, I'm the crazy one the will ride anywhere.
As I headed down highway 311 from home I decided the best route to take would be to hit highway 220 and head toward Asheboro where I could connect to NC 49. I decided to gas up Big Red and call Slick to make sure she could track me using a cool software program for my phone called Loopt. It allows you to track someone using your phone or the Internet. Slick was able to confirm she could track me and with that using the Internet. With her using Loopt, she was not too worried about me riding the route solo.
After gassing up, I headed down NC 49. Once I was away from the highway 220 and the outshirts of town the ride became really nice. I was finally at the point of the route I was looking forward too; the country. I love riding in the country. The more remote the better for me. The route consisted of farm lands, rolling hills and some nice old farm houses and building. The traffic was light and the roads were in great shape. The route on NC 49 goes for about 50 miles until your reach Concord. Once I reached Concord I had a choice of taking Interstate 85 north back home or another route. I chose to turn around and ride back the same direction.
I know that sounds kind of dumb to ride the same route, but I had wanted to stop on the way back and take a few photos of my trip. Below are the photos:
NC Aviation Museum
A.C. Lentz Saddlery (founded in 1901)
NC 49 Scenic Byway
Farm land Views for Miles
Scenic Country View
One part of the trip that was not part of my original route turned out to be one of my favorite parts; the Pisgah Covered Bridge. I saw a sign for it off of NC 49 and I thought I would check it out. Below is a picture of the bridge. Now the picture is not that great and I don't know the history behind the bridge, but the ride out to see it was awesome! It took me off of NC 49 for about 10 miles. It was a really nice ride and makes your stop to remember that the best parts of any trip is the great unmentioned side roads.
Old Pisgah Covered Bridge
All-in-all the trip was great and great way to start the day. I rode about 150 miles and was gone about 4 hours. I really enjoyed the route and look forward to taking some other trips from the NC Scenic Byways book.
Until next time and remember that life starts at the end of the off ramp.
Pappy
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