In 2010, several senior members of the Raleigh Chapter of the Harley Owners Group (HOG) came up with a great idea for a ride: ride your Harley to all 100 counties of North Carolina in a 12-month period. The first group rode from May 1, 2010 through April 30, 2011. I wasn't available to ride then. However, in 2011 I was available and began in May. I completed all 100 counties by October 15, 2011 and set up a web page just to document my adventure: http://www.mikeuhl.com/nc100. In this week's blog, I want to share with you some of what I learned and encourage you to try this touring challenge or something similar.
(The image to the right is a photo of the patch I received from the Raleigh HOG Chapter for having ridden through all 100 North Carolina counties in less than one year, and providing documentation for having done so.)
The NC100 challenge taught me these valuable lessons:
- For rides like these, careful planning is very important and rewarded with greatly improved efficiency.
- It pushed me to ride places I wouldn't normally go, thus opening me up to new experiences.
- Because I had to document all of my visits, I learned how to take better pictures and process them for publishing on the web.
- Changing weather conditions, especially in the mountains, reminded me how important it is to be flexible: sometimes the plan has to be abandoned, if only temporarily .
- Few riders accept this level of challenge and even fewer complete it.
Planning
Do you love to obsess over planning a ride? Then the NC100 is perfect for you because you will want to plan efficient routes for passing through the counties. When I was eating breakfast in Lansing, NC (Ashe County) one morning, the father of a friend saw me pull out my map and planning sheet and remarked that I “looked like a general going into battle.”
What I could only learn from experience however, was that while multi-lane divided highways offered speed, country roads that went right through the middle of towns offered much better photo opportunities. Thus, choosing routes was usually a complex process of balancing the competing needs of speed and photos.
By the way, I needed 18 separate rides to cover all of the counties. As you can imagine, I road through some counties mnay times over.
Discovering Fun New Experiences
I discovered which roads are the most enjoyable to ride. For example, you will likely find how great riding the ends of US64 are: near the coast, US64 crosses multiple spans of water that are spectacular. On the western end, from Morganton to the Tennessee line, US64 travels through some of the most beautiful country in the US. Be sure to stop at Bridal Veil Falls (Macon County), which is right along side the road!
Push your skills a little. Riding near Banner Elk (Avery County) on NC194, I got to see how much nerve I have when climbing a mountain road under construction. I had to ride a couple of miles in first gear.
Discover beauty that inspires you. For example, stay at the Little Switzerland Inn (straddles McDowell and Mitchell counties) and get up early to watch the sun rise between the mountain peaks. You are so high up that you look down at the shimmering clouds as the sun begins to illuminate them.
Because you have to ride through all 100 counties, you will discover places you would have otherwise missed. For example, I found that Edenton (Hertford County) is a gem of a town; but because it’s so out of the way, I probably would never have seen it otherwise. How many of you have ridden through Canton, NC, which I vote as the smelliest town in the state? They have a large paper mill that creates the ambiance, but you’ll have to get off the interstate and ride through town to appreciate it.
Photo at left: author’s visit to Banner Elk, NC. Photo was taken by his wife, Sam. (October 7, 2011)
Take Pictures and Notes
The more fun the ride, the more valuable good pictures will be. Here are some fundamentals about picture-taking I think you will find useful: (1) try to include people in the foreground, especially yourself and riding companions; (2) apply the Rule of Thirds when framing the photo; (3) take a little extra time to capture interesting backgrounds (behind the people), such as signs and popular landmarks; (4) take lots and lots of pictures; and (5) bring spare batteries. With digital photography, more is better because you it's no more expensive to take 400 photos than it is 50; but with 400, you might end up with a real gem or two.
Weather
Be sure to plan around the prevailing weather conditions and adapt as needed. When it started snowing on me in Boone (Watauga County), I had to abort the ride and head home. I returned the next weekend (in October), determined as ever to finish riding the western counties. Tip: visit them in the summer.
You Try It!
Give it a try. I'm happy to answer questions you might have about touring the state -- or the country for that matter -- and encourage you to include a challenge like the NC100 in your riding plans. You can write me at mikeuhl@me.com.
I so enjoyed this experience I was disappointed when finished; I wanted there to be 200 counties! For 2012 and beyond, I plan to start my own new challenge: visit towns and cities around North Carolina and blog about them on this web site. Cities at the top of my list include Asheville, Boone, Edenton, Hendersonville, Moorhead City, New Bern, Spruce Pine, and Wilmington. I hope you come back to this page in a couple of months and see how I'm doing with this latest touring challenge.
Keep the Shiny Side Up!
-Mike