Maggie Valley

Less than a week after breaking my ribs at the Tough Mudder, I was on vacation with the guys in Maggie Valley.

For the past few years, one of my friends from Siracusa's has been organizing a golf trip, every year, for a bunch of us. I don't golf, but I was invited in 2023 and 2024, so I brought my bike both times and rode while they played golf.

The rest of the guys drove up in a big sprinter van, but Me and Jeep Dave drove up in Stacey's truck. It was helpful to have more than 1 vehicle, and I could use it to transport myself and my bike while they were golfing, if I wanted. The drive up was uneventful, except that my comfortable pace through the twisty mountains was a little too fast for Dave!

Near the casino in Cherokee, we saw a bunch of classic cars. Turns out the Cherokee Rod Run was that weekend.

I'm kinda bummed that I didn't get any photos of the cars.

The cabin was amazing!

I should call it a "cabin" because it was at least twice as large as the largest house I've ever lived in.

The view from the back deck was amazing, at all times of day and night.

There was a pool table in the basement, and we played a lot of pool.

And we even made it over to the casino in Cherokee one evening.

But the outdoor adventure is what I'm here to talk about...

My ribs hurt like the dickens, but I was finally past the point where there's no position to sleep in, and I was able to sleep for 4+ hours at a time. I'd wake up from the pain, and have to find a new position, but that was at least possible to do, and I'd get another 4 hours of sleep. I leaned a bit heavily on the advil, but it was bearable. If I was distracted, then I could even say that it was ok.

Not long after arriving, Dave mentioned that there was supposed to be a trail nearby, so we went looking for it.

Hey! What do you know... there was a trail nearby.

It basically just followed the draw of this little creek down to another road, and then back up.

Not too terribly long, but that honestly suited me pretty well.

I think this is my favorite photo of Jeep Dave. Everything about it is out of place, for being in the middle of the woods, but perfectly on-brand for him.

Oh, man, I love it!

The next day, while everyone else was golfing, I rode out of the cabin, down the mountain, and north to Lake Junaluska. It turned out that there weren't any trails, or even gravel toads, within easy riding distance, but at the time, that suited me as well as the short trail.

It was a good ride out to the lake, and the loop around it was a good distance too.

There was a sketchy bridge over the creek on the northern end.

The view from the southern end was magnificent.

I ended up riding all the way back through Maggie Valley proper too, about as far west as you can go and still be "in town". There were a ton of elk in a field, in the middle of town!

Turns out, Maggie Valley is known for its elk. I had no idea, so it was a great surprise!

I want to say that it was that evening that we went to the casino.

The next day, it sprinkled almost all day. The guys still went and played golf. I had a gravel loop in mind, but I just couldn't find the motivation, and I ended up sitting around, by myself, working most of the day. That may sound terrible, but it was actually really great. I love my work, and being able to do it in such quiet and solitude, in such beautiful surroundings was kind-of amazing.

It was also Mark's birthday, that day, so being by myself gave me the chance to run out to the local grocery and pick up some candles and cakes!

The next morning, I got up kind-of early, and drove back over to Cherokee. There was a trail system there called Fire Mountain. It turned out that it was in the "Unto These Hills" area, where a pretty amazing-looking outdoor drama about the Eastern Cherokee has been performing since the '50s. After looking at it online, I really want to go back up there some day and see it live.

The lot was at the far northern end of the complex. I parked and got ready to ride...

...but man, I'll tell ya. The advil hadn't really kicked in yet, and I was moving slow and labored.

The glare on the map a the kiosk made it difficult to get a photo of.

But, I got what I could, and took off onto the trails.

Almost immediately I passed a turtle, and I wished him well!

It was a pretty wet and gloomy day, but the trails were all bench cut, with rolling dips, and nicks, and generally well built to tolerate the weather. I spun a loop of the green trails, but the ribs weren't feeling any better yet. It looked like the strategy was to climb Uktena, bomb one of 3 other trails, then loop back and do it again, over and over.

The climbing was steep, but not terrible.

And the downhills were mostly swoopy and fun.

The advil took good effect somewhere during my first run up Uktena, and from then on, it was a great day!

At the very, very top, there's a shelter called Raven's Roost.

I guess you can struggle up to that, then rest up before bombing Kessel Run.

After my third time climbing Uktena, I realized that people probably climb Lazy Elk and Spearfinger over and over, and come down Kessel, Waya, and Uktena, but hey, leave it to me to make it as difficult as possible.

There were some nice views of the surrounding mountains from various spots along the trail.

But it was really more of an enjoy-the-trail rather than enjoy-the-woods kind of system.

That said, I REALLY enjoyed the trails. The flow was amazing. The signage was great.

I want to say that I only ran into like 2 other riders all day, and a pair of hikers. I'd bet that it was just the weather that kept people away though. The trails appeared to generally get decent traffic, and there were ribbons up like they'd had a race recently.

I'm not sure I'd drive up there from here to ride, but if you're in the area, it's a great destination. I was able to ride until I didn't feel like riding any more, and I even skipped the trail to the fire tower. So, maybe I will just drive up there again, and check that out, some day.

When I got back to the lot, there was a rehearsal in progress. I could hear them singing, but I couldn't see anything. On the way back to the cabin, I passed a classic corvette that had lost a wheel! It was in the process of being recovered, but man, what a drag!

I had the rest of the day to myself, so I ended up running around the Asheville Arts District for a bit. I'm definitely getting old because I enjoy checking out little shops and antique stores these days. I look forward to finding "treasures" when I'm out of town.

When I got back, it was getting dark and everybody else had arrived back an hour or so earlier. We all ate dinner, played more pool, and had a generally great time well until super late.

And that was it. The next morning, we drove home.

Great guys, great rides, great times, and a generally great trip! I hope that I can join them again later this year, too.