Road check - NE TN and eastern KY

[1moreroad]

Starting to plan my route for the ESTN this year.  I want to see if people know the following routes.  Good?  Bad?  Alternative?

I plan to cover 400 - 450 miles per day.

Outbound
Northeastern TN –
Route 127 to route 197 from I-40 to Oneida towards KY border

Eastern KY – route 478 from Whitley City to Redbird
Route 1193 to route 192 roughly paralleling I-75
Route 490 to route 89 from London to Irvine
Route 213 to route 77 to route 772 to route 711 to route 955 from Irvine to I-64 at Olive Hill

Return heading towards Smoky Mountains NP   
Southeastern KY -
Route 218 from Gallipolis to Huntington
Route 66 north of Cumberland Gap and route 74 west of Cumberland Gap (but watch for trucks)
Northeastern TN –
Route 90
No number.  Twisty little road from I-75 to Pewee, TN
Route 116 to 330 between Caryville and Oak Ridge

TIA

[Guy]

Starting to plan my route for the ESTN this year.  I want to see if people know the following routes.  Good?  Bad?  Alternative?

I plan to cover 400 - 450 miles per day.

Outbound
Northeastern TN –
Route 127 to route 197 from I-40 to Oneida towards KY border

Eastern KY – route 478 from Whitley City to Redbird
Route 1193 to route 192 roughly paralleling I-75
Route 490 to route 89 from London to Irvine
Route 213 to route 77 to route 772 to route 711 to route 955 from Irvine to I-64 at Olive Hill

Return heading towards Smoky Mountains NP   
Southeastern KY -
Route 218 from Gallipolis to Huntington
Route 66 north of Cumberland Gap and route 74 west of Cumberland Gap (but watch for trucks)
Northeastern TN –
Route 90
No number.  Twisty little road from I-75 to Pewee, TN
Route 116 to 330 between Caryville and Oak Ridge

TIA

I'm don't know a lot of the backroads down in S. Central/Eastern KY, but it looks good to me. Especially 89 into Irvine. Not much traffic, and can be wonderfully twisty. Once you get to Irvine, try 52 to Beattyville, it is one of the day ride destinations for Lexington riders and is a ton of fun. It is worth riding out and back

[kyzrex]

You have picked some really good roads, some of the best along your route, but not the only really good ones.  If I may suggest.....

On the way up.....go a little further north on 27 and use 90 over to 192

On the way back from Huntington.....drop down to Louisa and pick up 32
                                                          66 looks more twisty on a map than it actually is, still a good road, scenic
                                                         find a route over to 421 and go down through Harlan to Pennington Gap, head west over to Jonesville, Va and then use 70 down to Rogersville.  If you don't do anything else.....ride this road!  From Rogersville, cut over to Rutledge and use 92 to get down south to 411, go west to 416 and use that to get down to 321 east of Gatlinburg...nice roads and avoids all the traffic on 66.

When in Olive Hill....stop at the Smokey Mountain Truck Stop for lunch.  

How are you planing on getting from Olive Hill to Marietta?

[1moreroad]

Thanks, guys!

I'm don't know a lot of the backroads down in S. Central/Eastern KY, but it looks good to me. Especially 89 into Irvine. Not much traffic, and can be wonderfully twisty. Once you get to Irvine, try 52 to Beattyville, it is one of the day ride destinations for Lexington riders and is a ton of fun. It is worth riding out and back

Added 52.

You have picked some really good roads, some of the best along your route, but not the only really good ones.  If I may suggest.....

On the way up.....go a little further north on 27 and use 90 over to 192

Just 90 or is 700 to 90 better?

On the way back from Huntington.....drop down to Louisa and pick up 32

How about highway 152?
                                                       

find a route over to 421 and go down through Harlan to Pennington Gap, head west over to Jonesville, Va and then use 70 down to Rogersville.  If you don't do anything else.....ride this road!  From Rogersville, cut over to Rutledge and use 92 to get down south to 411, go west to 416 and use that to get down to 321 east of Gatlinburg...nice roads and avoids all the traffic on 66.

Added.

When in Olive Hill....stop at the Smokey Mountain Truck Stop for lunch.  How are you planing on getting from Olive Hill to Marietta?

Bunch of little roads.  I'm open to recommendations.  Traveling through the towns of Franklin Furnace, Peneel, Danville, Burlingame, Lottridge, and Decaturville.

[kyzrex]

90 is good all the way

32 from Louisa to Sandy Hook is great, can't say about 152

To Marietta.....pick a route that takes you through Rio Grande.  Stop there at the original BoB Evan's farm and eat at the resturaunt, if you go through Ohio.  Otherwise cut over to WV and come up that way.  ANY road in WV will be a good one.  

[Yankee Dog]

I was in that neck of the woods about a week ago. consider Hwy 80 from Elkhorn City, KY to Medowview, VA. It was a great twisty road. I could see my own taillights in a few places.

Yankee Dog

[bogfro]

I was in that neck of the woods about a week ago. consider Hwy 80 from Elkhorn City, KY to Medowview, VA. It was a great twisty road. I could see my own taillights in a few places.

Yankee Dog

Yeah you're probably remembering Hayter's Gap.  That's one of the curviest roads I know of.

[garry]

70 from TN into VA is great fun. KY 32, 213, 77, 89, 52 are all winners too. Lots of great roads in eastern KY. One of my favorite places to ride.

[1moreroad]

OK OK.  I figured out a way to hit 70 and the Cumberland Gap National Park.  I last went through there on a motorcycle on Christmas Day, so everything was closed.  Thanks.

[bogfro]

66 north out of Rogersville is also a really good road, about 25 miles of twisties to Sneedville.  Lots of opportunities to run your bike off a cliff there, though.  You could go drive by Pressmen's Home while you're in the area, too.  A ghost town.

If you're coming from Cumberland Gap, I'd suggest 63 from there to Sneedville.  You might also want to check out 600 east of Kyle's Ford.

Another fun one is 217/987 just north of the state line, that parallels the National Park boundary.

Then there's 33 west out of Sneedville to Tazwell......

Then there's................  

[1moreroad]

66 north out of Rogersville is also a really good road, about 25 miles of twisties to Sneedville.  Lots of opportunities to run your bike off a cliff there, though.  You could go drive by Pressmen's Home while you're in the area, too.  A ghost town.

If you're coming from Cumberland Gap, I'd suggest 63 from there to Sneedville.  You might also want to check out 600 east of Kyle's Ford.

Another fun one is 217/987 just north of the state line, that parallels the National Park boundary.

Then there's 33 west out of Sneedville to Tazwell......

Then there's................  

I was going to do 31 to 63 to get from Rogersville to the Gap.  Even with that extra loop, I should be able to get to Marysville by night.

[bogfro]

I was going to do 31 to 63 to get from Rogersville to the Gap.  Even with that extra loop, I should be able to get to Marysville by night.

Well shoot, if you're gonna go all the way up there, then you might want to check out the 116 loop by Brushy Mtn prison.  You'll only be like 5 miles from there.  Normally I wouldn't go out of my way to ride 116, but heck, you'll be right there.

If you're looking for tight twisties, 66 is a waaaaay better road than 31 to get from Rogersville to Sneedville.  66 has one of those signs that says something like "warning truckers, winding road next 25 miles".  31 is more of the fast sweepers.

[1moreroad]

If you're looking for tight twisties, 66 is a waaaaay better road than 31 to get from Rogersville to Sneedville.

Fixed.

Garmin now wants to route me more east

QUESTION ABOUT KY TO VA -
How about:
119 from Whitesburg to Cumberland
160 from Cumberland to Appalachia
68 from Appalachia to Pennington Gap

This will put me a little north of 70

Garry - I'll PM the route after this last little bit of feedback

[garry]

119 is good fast sweepers. 160 is pretty crazy twisty up and over the mountain.

[bogfro]

Fixed.

Garmin now wants to route me more east

QUESTION ABOUT KY TO VA -
How about:
119 from Whitesburg to Cumberland
160 from Cumberland to Appalachia
68 from Appalachia to Pennington Gap

119 over the mountain is pretty wide (usually at least 3 lanes, sometimes 4), but curvy.  Similar to Blood Mtn in GA.

160 on the KY side is freshly paved (a few years ago), VERY twisty, usually pretty clean.  The VA side has a lot more gravel and coal dust, etc.  Good views of the strip mines!

To the best of my knowledge, I've only done half of that stretch of 68, to where it splits off with 38 to go to Harlan.  The part of 68 that I've done is a string of coal mining residential communities (pretty poor, at that), connected by a decent curvy road.  It's a good lesson in the KY coal miner's lifestyle, if nothing else.

[bogfro]

If you take 160, you'll go right by the Kentucky coal museum.  Not that I've ever been in it, but a lot of schools take field trips there.  Probably a lot of info in there about how much it sucks to be a coal miner.  

[bogfro]

Now if you want a REALLY wild and unique ride (one you'll be able to tell stories about), and aren't riding a fat pig of a bike.........check out Little Shepherd Trail.  

[garry]

Now if you want a REALLY wild and unique ride (one you'll be able to tell stories about), and aren't riding a fat pig of a bike.........check out Little Shepherd Trail.  

Wild and unique is right. BTDT (paved part on a street bike) and don't need to do it again, although doing the dirt section on a dual-sport might be fun.

[Guy]

Wild and unique is right. BTDT (paved part on a street bike) and don't need to do it again, although doing the dirt section on a dual-sport might be fun.

+1. Glad I did it, won't do it again.

119 and 160 are some of the funnest roads in the area. Different styles between the two. 119 is wide open with good sight lines and smooth pavement. 160 is much tighter, sharp corners around rock walls, heavily shaded so any moisture stays on the surface for a long time.

[Jonathan]

Now if you want a REALLY wild and unique ride (one you'll be able to tell stories about), and aren't riding a fat pig of a bike.........check out Little Shepherd Trail.  

So how do you think a FJR would do on the road?  I've done some gravel roads on it and it did not seem too bad.  I road a little bit of the paved section and it was cool and was woindering about the rest of it.

[bogfro]

So how do you think a FJR would do on the road?  I've done some gravel roads on it and it did not seem too bad.  I road a little bit of the paved section and it was cool and was woindering about the rest of it.

I wouldn't do the unpaved section of it with anything less than a dual sport.  I did it with a KLR, and there's lots of washed out ruts, rocks, and stuff.  At times, even the KLR felt too heavy.  Now the paved section you could probably do with an FJR (although there's lots of other bikes better suited to it)....there's just a lot of narrow spots, and you'll need to move over if there's someone coming the other way.  Plus it's hard to drive an FJR only in 1st/2nd gear for a long way  

[Guy]

I wouldn't do the unpaved section of it with anything less than a dual sport.  I did it with a KLR, and there's lots of washed out ruts, rocks, and stuff.  At times, even the KLR felt too heavy.  Now the paved section you could probably do with an FJR (although there's lots of other bikes better suited to it)....there's just a lot of narrow spots, and you'll need to move over if there's someone coming the other way.  Plus it's hard to drive an FJR only in 1st/2nd gear for a long way  

I rode it on my wee little VFR, and thought it could be fun if it weren't so overgrown with branches and moss and leaves in the road. The other two guys (Sprint ST and C14) weren't so enthused. We all felt that it would be great on a motard, or at least something that was better geared for the road. Constantly going from 1st to  2nd back again because neither gear ratio was quite right.

[Jonathan]

I wouldn't do the unpaved section of it with anything less than a dual sport.  I did it with a KLR, and there's lots of washed out ruts, rocks, and stuff.  At times, even the KLR felt too heavy.  Now the paved section you could probably do with an FJR (although there's lots of other bikes better suited to it)....there's just a lot of narrow spots, and you'll need to move over if there's someone coming the other way.  Plus it's hard to drive an FJR only in 1st/2nd gear for a long way  

Thanks for the info.  I may just have to add another (but smaller) bike to the fleet.  Getting off the beaten path is fun from time to time.

[bogfro]

I rode it on my wee little VFR, and thought it could be fun if it weren't so overgrown with branches and moss and leaves in the road. The other two guys (Sprint ST and C14) weren't so enthused. We all felt that it would be great on a motard, or at least something that was better geared for the road. Constantly going from 1st to  2nd back again because neither gear ratio was quite right.

You did the UNPAVED part on a VFR????  

[Guy]

You did the UNPAVED part on a VFR????  

Oh hell no, that was on the paved part.

Here's my take on Little Shepperd Trail, it can be a fun road, but at least for me, you need the right bike. A smaller dual sport or motard, and at least a couple of runs through to get a good feel for the road. It is one lane, very tight corners, and not a lot of good sight lines. It is very lightly traveled road so you don't have to worry about cars much, but the downside is that debris is not blown of the road. There are some spots that are hella fun, but you really have to be on the ball to ride the road.