A funny thing happened on our way to the Devil's Triangle

[DocRags]

Ed (Erags) and I headed out on the "Hungry History Buff" trail in TN today. We saw the site where Uranium was enriched during WWII to create the Atomic Bomb, then stopped by the Wheat Community African Burial Ground (an 1850's slave cemetery with more than 90 unmarked graves). We enjoyed a delicious lunch at the Harrow Road Cafe in historic Rugby. (We now know what Welsh Rarebit tastes like). After lunch, Ed noticed an area on the map labeled "Devil's Triangle," which is when things got a little dicey. It was described in our guidebook as having "some of the most unusual two lane twisty roads in eastern TN,... with gentle country road sweepers to gnarly steep switchbacks; from serene straights to Dragon-like twisties; from gentle pull-offs to three foot deep rock strewn gullies just inches from the pavement." The book also mentioned "sections with difficult steep switchbacks, poorly patched asphalt, heaves in the roadway, broken pavement, gravel in road, steep dropoffs and coal/logging trucks to dodge. :yikes: Other than that, it is a great road." :thumbup: Kind of makes you wonder why we decided to travel it, doesn't it? :dontknow: We turned on what we thought was the right road and enjoyed riding under canopies of trees, on a twisting road with hills. The road then ended up turning from pavement to broken pavement to gravel to rocks WAY bigger than gravel interspersed with huge puddles of uncertain depth. We slowly trudged onward, thankful for Spyderpops bumpskid plate, wondering several times if we were on the right road. Then, to our amazement, kids on ATVs started showing up, flying over hills towards us! :shocked: After dodging them for awhile we finally ended up turning around when we couldn't figure out a safe way to get around rocks, uneven terrain and puddles. After reaching the bottom of the hill we actually ran into a new Spyder rider (with 500 miles on his RT), who pointed us in the right direction. We managed to eventually complete the Devil's Triangle...good practice for the Dragon. All in all it was a great day, albeit filled with unexpected sights!

 

[bikeguy]

The difference between a disaster and an adventure is attitude. Y'all obviously have the right attitude. Cotton

 

[JCSMOKE]

Exploring the unknown is always an adventure:thumbup:

 

[PrairieSpyder]

It sounds like a good adventure. Nice sightseeing trips, too!

 

[bhfromme]

As a kid I thought it was Welch Rabbit.

 

[NancysToy]

As a kid I thought it was Welch Rabbit.

That is another name for it...and it may have been the original name.

 

[Captain Fin]

You Guy's rock

Life is a lot more interesting when you live on the edge. Thrill seeking is great for any age.

 

[GeoffCee]

As a kid I thought it was Welch Rabbit.

We live only 30 miles from Wales where Welsh Rarebit is said to originate.
The following recipe gives a possible tongue-in-cheek explanation of how the dish came about.

"Welsh rarebit is perhaps the most famous Welsh dish of them all and one which, along with Irish Stew and Scottish Haggis, travelled the world over. There is much debate as to where the name derives from. Some say it comes simply from ‘rare' (lightly cooked) and ‘bit' (small portion) others believe it derives from the traditional Welshman's inability to catch a rabbit leaving him to use cheese as a poor alternative!

8oz grated, strong cheese such as Cheddar or Cheshire
1 tablespoon Welsh butter
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 level teaspoon dry mustard
2 teaspoons flour
4 tablespoons Welsh beer (or milk)
shake of pepper
4 slices bread toasted on 1 side only

Put the cheese, flour, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, butter and pepper into a saucepan. Mix well and then add the beer or milk to moisten. Do not make it too wet. Stir over a gentle heat until all is melted, and when it is a thickish paste, stop stirring, and swivel it around the saucepan, which it will do quite easily. Leave to cool a little, and meanwhile toast the bread on one side only. Spread the rarebit over the untoasted side and brown under a hot grill. This mixture can be made and kept in the refrigerator for several days if required. Sweet white wine can be used instead of beer and gives a good flavour. Serves 4. Welsh Rarebit is called Caws Pobi in the Welsh language."

 

[quickster47]

We actually live fairly close to the Devil's Triangle and have ridden it 20 times or more. And if you think the roads are not to good now, you should have ridden it before the recent repaving. It was horrible and is significantly improved now.

Carl

 

[MouthPiece]

While ya'll were having your fun, Cindy and I were riding up I-95, and then I-26 to Columbia, South Carolina. We hope to be up in Virginia tomorrow to meet up with Cal777/Rudy and ride the Blue Ridge Parkway down to Maggie Valley. Hope to see everyone there.

Rudy, if you are reading this, we are staying at the Hampton Inn in Northeastern Columbia. We'll be leaving in the morning 9:00ish. I'm not sure how long it will take to get there, but expect us probably in the afternoon.

Chris

 

[DocRags]

We actually live fairly close to the Devil's Triangle and have ridden it 20 times or more. And if you think the roads are not to good now, you should have ridden it before the recent repaving. It was horrible and is significantly improved now.

Carl

Once we were actually ON the correct road it was a great ride...it was our unintentional detour to an ATV trail that was horrible riding (for a :spyder2:, anyway). I wish I would have obtained pictures of the ATVs with us on the trail. I included the quote from the trail book describing the road conditions to explain our justification for continuing on..."well, the book DID say broken pavement, gravel, etc..." :roflblack: LOL.

 

[Chupaca]

Wow..!!

Sounds like an amazing trip..glad you made it through now you have earned the right to say "been there, done that" . Congrats and let us know where your headed next..!! hyea:

 

[blacklightning]

We actually live fairly close to the Devil's Triangle and have ridden it 20 times or more. And if you think the roads are not to good now, you should have ridden it before the recent repaving. It was horrible and is significantly improved now.

Carl

I rode the Devil's Triangle 2 years ago, and swore that I would never do it again. It was an adventure, but it was also dangerous. We ran into all the things that were described earlier, including the coal trucks. To top things off, it started to rain just as we were nearly done, and rained like crazy all the way back to Gatlinburg.