Deals Gap...or Tail of the Dragon

[PORSHIN]

How many of you have experienced Deals Gap, North Carolina aka the tail of the dragon? Well, this past weekend I was in the mountains of NC doing what Porsches do best, When I decided to go on down and check it out. What a day! For those who aren't familiar with what this place is here is an overview: An 11 mile stretch of road with 318 mostly hairpin curves, rocky cliffs upward on one side and downward on the other side all through deep desolate forest miles from any town. There is a website for info : http://www.tailofthedragon.com/ Anyway, my wife and I decide to stop and pull off the road to watch the maniacs go by. And they did. Crotch rockets with engines beyond 10,000 rpm and riders dragging knees, Miatas from stock to extreme, teenagers to grandfathers, Bmw's both two and four wheeled. The only Porsches we saw were my Carrera and a Boxster running in front of a line of traffic with no obvious intention of getting out of the way. (I'm not blaming the car). Anyway, when we finished watching, all we wanted to do is get out of there in one piece. As we were driving through, (we weren't holding any traffic up but we weren't broad sliding around the curves either because we kept meeting other vehicles in our lane going the other way) we came around a blind right hander to see a BMW m-3 in our lane. I'm glad these 911s can stop instantly because I did as the beemer cut back into his lane. As he did I see some guy flying through the air above and to the right of the BMW and as the car passes, I see he had been on a motorcycle which was preceeding him over the edge of a dropoff. He was going head first toward the woods and the same dropoff. The BMW kept going but I stopped about 200 feet down the road at the first pulloff. I ran back to check on the MC rider while my wife tried to call 911. No signal...could not call. When I got back to where he went over, I looked down and nearly 200 feet straight down, was a mangled Harley. About 100 feet down was a rather plump and shaken middle aged man trying to claw his way back up the side of a cliff or hillside that was so steep you had to use hands AND feet to grapple your way up. I asked if he was alright and he said "I think so but I need to get my scoot up out of here". When we got him to the top, he said that the BMW was passing him and pulled back into him when we came around the curve running him off the road. There is no room for passing on this road and I don't think there is even a straight stretch more than 75 feet long. The guys in the BMW had to know what they had done but kept going. If the man on the bike had been injured and we hadn't witnessed it, he would probably have just died laying down there because it is a heavily wooded area and mostly deep drops on one side and cliffs upward on the other side. If you are alone and run off the road over one of these cliffs, there is no way any one would ever know you were down there. Luckily, when he flew over the hill, he missed the trees. He went between two trees that were only about 2 feet apart.He suffered only minor cuts and bruises. We stayed with him for about an hour, gave him some water and moral support until the deputy arrived, gave the cop a statement and continued on our way noticing that the trees along this road have signs on them that tell who was killed at that spot. That road would be great for a race if it was blocked at both ends and the cars ran only in one direction. If you ever go down there, bear in mind that this place attracts people from all over the country and about 50% of them are beyond your wildest dreams of what defines insanity. That is the way it was on Sunday anyway. It might be different on a weekday. Today it's Monday and this morning the guy on the motorcycle called me to express his gratitude. He is back home in Pennsylvania and is fine. Says he doubts he will ride again. I will continue to ride my mc and drive my p-car...just not there!
Rob
85 Carerra
95 Honda CB 750
96 Honda VT 1100 C-2

[carnut169]

Sounds great, but the link does not work.

[Chris Bunker]

Deals Gap is Awesome. A buddy of mine and I stopped there on a trip we were making for work down to FL from MI. It just so happened that we were towing a big 28 ft car hauler trailer with plenty of room left over for a couple sporty bikes (I rode a Suzuki TL1000 and my buddy had a Honda Hawk). It was late fall, so the hords of squids had pretty much cleared out by then, and we were treated to a lonely ride through the Gap. We passed one bike and one car coming the other way. What a beautiful area, one of the top ten Moto/Auto experiences of my life for sure. That place can get you in some serious trouble if you aren't careful though. I'd love to drive my 911 through there!

Chris Bunker
78 SC
ex-biker

[Rot 911]

try this link: http://www.tailofthedragon.com/

[racemor]

I have been there a few times too. Sorry to hear of your biker's story. Not to be harsh but I don't think Harleys were built for the Gap. Even a well ridden bike would be scraping the pegs constantly and frustrating the crazies trying to make record runs. Chris hit it on the head with the time of year. Summertime in the North Carolina mountains is not too good for driving. The roads are packed with people from the lower elevations looking to cool off. But from late fall through winter, barring snowfall, these roads are awesome. And the lack of leaves can sometimes help visibility and avoid running up on slower traffic.

Tom

[pookie]

So all this talk about this road makes me want to drive it, can anyone give me directions from Charlotte??? I am really familiar with the Boone Blowing Rock area, is it over that way?
Thanks in advance
Ryan

[PORSHIN]

It's rt 129 and it's in the very southwest corner of your state. It goes from nowhere NC to nowhere TN.

[ToyCollector]

Folks, this is not the first incident that reads like this that I have read--especially on this road. Unfortunately, one of my Cobra brothers (from VA, not a personal acquaintance at all) pulled an equal assinine maneuver on the Dragon and ran a Suburu WRX off the road (he was recepiant of your situation Porschin, car ran wide in oncoming direction (it was met with much outcry on www.clubcobra.com --since removed due to the size of responses). Two weeks ago my insurance agent (who rides motorcycles) said a tractor trailer (during the week) was running the Dragon when he got stuck taking a tight hairpin on the Dragon, ran off, and had the cab teetering off the cliff. How'd y'all like to see that right at your apex point going 60 mph?? This s%^t gives us all a bad name. There is a reason why they call it the dragon. As the original post mentions, no cell coverage, and who knows even with lifeflight how far you are from a hospital, then how far you are from a DECENT hospital. If you want to have fun, take it to the track and spend the 200-300 bucks where everyone is going the same way!!

[pwd72s]

Piece of cake! We have a road in Orygun that BANS semis. Why? Because they are simply too long to make the curves. Ditto class "A" motorhomes. Should I tell you where it is? I think not. Crazy bikers would show up.

[cegerer]

I'm not sure if this report from the website is unusual or just another day on the Dragon??? Sounds to me like a good place to avoid!

July 21 - .... Had some fun runs on the MZ but still being very alert for gravel in the road.Late in the afternoon the Blount County SO were looking for a bike with 2-up who had run from a deputy. Both riders were wearing T-shirts and shorts and the bike was traveling at excessive speeds thru the Dragon. In another incident at about 5pm, a cruiser was forced off the road by a BMW car. The rider and bike fell some 80 feet down an embankment near Parsons Branch curve. Miraculously, the rider crawled back up the bank with only minor injuries. Yesterday evening, a women cruiser rider had an accident between Tabcat and the Overlook resulting in possible back injuries. In another incident yesterday afternoon. Our friends Dezmo and Slug rode the Wayah / Franklin / Hwy 28 route today. They report Wayah Road & 28 in excellent conditon with only a few minor bad pavement patches.

[PORSHIN]

Hey Toy,
Love that slantnose!

[PORSHIN]

That article was inacurate. The rider called me yesterday and told me the wrecker driver that pulled his bike up the mountainside had to use over 120 feet of cable to reach his bike. And since I was there, I'll say it was closer to 120 ft than 80 feet! We have a road here in Va just a few miles from me that also bans RV's and trucks. Every once in a while one will try to take a shortcut over the mountain and end up with three or four wreckers trying to extract them. They should ban them on Deal's gap too though. That road is not at all suited for anything longer than ...oh...say...a Porsche !!

[nostatic]

This doesn't look good:

[ToyCollector]

Porshin, thanks for the compliment.

Also, thanks for the follow-on posts. My post was not just rhetoric. I myself have done crazy things before I hit the track, so don't get me wrong, but once on the track, you realize that it is the safest place to explore the limits of yourself and machine. I just can't go all out in good conscience knowing I may need to swerve to avoid a cyclist/pedestrian/kid, run wide, or worry about same semi coming the other way.

Ohh, and just just cause a semi or RV is banned from the road, don't think they won't be on it. My own road bans them, and they still are running the road and taking the calculated risk.

Nostatic, it could be worse, at least we know it's a Taurus with good ABS. Or maybe it's really bad and the Taurus never hit the brakes.

[RarlyL8]

You need to hit Deal's Gap on the off-season. A coworker of mine is a sportbike racer. He and his buds hit the Gap every year or so. Man has he got some stories! The way he tells it you only run flat out in one direction. One state bans the racing while the other makes money off the tourism it creates. They actually arrested a cop from the "wrong" side when he chased a biker across state lines during one of thier runs! Guess there is a pretty big fued going on.