I've decided to put this up here right now as I've found out that sooner, even though its waaaaaay sooner, is always better. Last year some people found out about our run a bit too late, so this takes care of that with an 8 month early notice!

Last year I managed to get 2 FF members to come on out and join our run and hope to see a couple more than that this year. Last year we had 26 cars total (some joined us after the initial day and some left a day early) from 6 different states, so the run has really, really grown since I first set this up back in 2003 where there was only 3 of us. I set this up originally over on The Contour Enthusiasts Group where I had a 2000 Contour SVT, my first new car. Over the years I've stayed friends with members over there and honestly, not alot of us have the Contour anymore but the friendships have endured, so the this is why the run has so many cars attending every year.

We stay here Caney Creek Village in Tellico Plains, Tennessee which is located in Tellico Plains Tennessee, about 3.5 miles from the start of the Cherahola Skyway, a 57 mile road through the mountains that goes from 3,000 ft elevatiion to a MILE HIGH once we get into North Carolina! The scenery is spectacular, with little areas to pull over and take pics or to catch your breath! This road has sweeping turns that go up and down and some turns never seem to end, those are the ones you gotta pay close attention to. At certain parts of the Skyway people have spray painted SLO across the road, this is very appreciative I must say. There are signs that make you aware of the grade, 9% infact, so your brakes take a beating but noone has ever had any problem with brake fade but you really need to engine brake by using a lower gear for sure.

Once the road ends from the Skyway you turn left onto 129 (aka "The Dragon") but the "real" Dragon doesn't start officially until you get about 15 miles down the road but this route has great scenery too, a river runs next to the road once you get going and its water running over the rocks, really nice! When you get closer to the "real" part of the Dragon on the right is a huge dam and you make a right turn up a steep incline, things are now about to get serious!! About 2 miles down the road is Deal's Gap motorcycle resort, a popular hangout for everyone and a place to get gas (only 2 pumps), get some snacks, drinks and gifts. There IS NOT lot of parking here, so you can park on the side road where there's a clearing or across the street up the hill. Once your done here you pull out and make a right turn, going up a hill and ITS ON!!! The first thing you do is cross back into Tennessee and the fun begins, 318 turns in 11 miles

Towards the end there's a clearing with a little rock wall on each side and you can stop there and take some pics, that is if there's room, alot of bikes stop there because there isn't alot of parking right there. We always head down the road past that to slay the rest of the Dragon and then there's a HUGE CLEARING where's there's plenty of parking with a nice rock formation across the way from us. There's also a large lake right by us too. This is a good spot to check everything out on your car and for most of us, let our brakes cool off. Most of us have blue rotors and some, depending on your car and/or driving style, have SMOKING BRAKES! Back in 2009 my buddy Derek with his "rental" Saab 9-3 (first timer) and Billy with is Cherokee SRT8 with 315 series tires had smoke billowing out of the front wheels w/cobalt blue rotors.

After this we head back and do it over again and many of us feel the way back is more fun, as much sense as that makes, it really, truely is. The entire day is about 140 miles of driving and it really takes it out of you, especially for first timers because your concentrating so hard on the road. Speaking of the road its VERY smooth but has NO guardrails on the majority of the road...YOU MUST NOT DRIVE PAST YOUR OR YOUR CAR'S ABILITIES!!! Tires and brakes are key, not hp! The Fit is perfect for this road, although I must say I was really missing the torque of my Mini Cooper S out there last year, the Fit has NO torque, its a Honda afterall. I installed new tires/wheels on the Fit back in June of 2010 (20mm wider tires, 5% less aspect ratio and 1" wider wheels) and this really made a difference in the Fits handling and braking. The tires are NOT some summer perf tires either, just Conti DWS' and they did a great job, I even managed to scuff the shoulders on the front tires too, so needless to say, I had fun

We took it upon ourselves to explore another road out there last year, route 28 (aka "Moonshiners" road) This road is right next to Deal's Gap motorcycle resort, so its easy to find. We only took this road from Deal's Gap to Robinsville, but this year we're going to go "exploring" and see what its like. You don't have to have super intense roads all the tiime to enjoy yourself but we really don't know what the road is like out there but I know this, part of "Moonshiners' road reminded us of the Dragon and the other nice thing about this road is that its a big less traveled. Speaking of less traveled, we run the Dragon at night, last year was the first time I got to do this and I must say....UNBELIEVABLE!!! There was only 4 in our group that ran it Friday night last year and I was lucky to have my buddy Hectour in his Mazdaspeed 3 infront of me, no worries about me running him down for sure. We ran it straight through and then stopped at Deal's Gap to "cool down", my brakes were smoking big time but NO BRAKE FADE at all!

Now, I know the size of the group could be a little intimidating but rest assured everyone here are HUGE car guys and if you know anything about cars guys, well, we're cool and easy to get along with. We have many different types of cars, ages, backgrounds, personalities. We really don't try and keep a group this large together but if your new and wanting to go and worried about getting lost or wanna stay with a group, I've got you covered on that one. We've got enough people who know their way around down there, so its not like back in the day where we had to keep the group together because of so many noobs. I don't mind stopping off so you can take pics, I understand that the noobs always wanna do that.

The run is Oct 6th thru the 9th. Some people come down a day early, which is fine and some leave a day later, on Monday but the majority of us use Thursday as a travel day and Sunday the day to get home. Gas prices down there are alway cheaper, last year the Exxon station was charging $2.56 for premium and its 92 octane. There's also a BP station as well. The Exxon station is really nice, has hot food and a touch-free car wash and clean bathrooms. There's a couple nice local restaraunts as well, not to mention a quarter carwash next to the BP station.

In closing I'd like to personally invite you to join us out there in the fall for a great time, I guarantee it. I've been setting this up and going since 2003 and not one person has ever said it wasn't worth the time and/or money. Speaking of money, the cabins are very affordable, single bed cabins are $60 a night, 2 bed cabins are $70 and they've even got larger cabins that sleep from 6-8, so combining groups can really lower your rates, big time. There are "economy" cabins too that don't have showers but you can use other peoples showers for that, trust me, we did that for those guys last year, its no biggie but just make sure you've got your own towel I usually spend about $400 for the weekend total and I've been driving about 600+ miles one way to get there, so I'd say about 1500 miles total for the weekend. I've lived in Detroit and now Chicago, so that's how far it is for me. The drive getting is there is really worth it once you get there, its a totally different scene down there, nice people, good weather, good food and good times.

Any questions can be thrown out there or you an PM me

 

I plan on being one of your noobs this year!

 

I remember you either PM-ing me or commenting on another thread about this Tauwolf, welcome aboard

We can actually use this thread to post banter back and fourth about this years run, so the page could get pretty long but one things for sure, the info I posted originally about this is rock solid. If by chance the cabins fill up too fast, I will let you guys know where else to stay in the area. There are other cabins in the area and the owner of Caney Creek knows these other people too. Some people may also chose to stay in Robinsville as its real close to the Dragon, we've had some do this in the past and they'd meet us out there and even come back to our cabins to hang out, making a day of it as its about 60 miles from Robinsville to Tellico Plains. Let me say this though, we'll cross that bridge if/when we come to it. We'll start reserving our cabins in May and once we get to that point, I'll have somethng in here for you guys on that, so checking the most current post at that point will give you the most up to date info on the run or you can always PM me.

By the time spring comes and this run is well into the posting/planning/chattng phase, I'll pass along my cellphone number to anyone who's planning on attending so I can talk to you personally if need be. I want everyone and anyone who's planning on attending to be 100% comfortable with coming out with us.

The past couple years we've had several groups coming from different parts of the country. One group comes down I-75 from the metro Detroit area. Our group, coming from the Chicagoland area, will be coming down through I-65 going through Indiana and meeting up with the Detroit group down on I-75. The Florida guys come up I-75 and may be meeting up with people from Georgia along the way. There's also a guy who comes from South Carolina, so if someone is in that area, we'll help set that up, whatever it takes to make things easier

As always, any questions, feel free to drop me a PM.

BTW, killboy.com photos - The Original Photographer from US129 Tail of the Dragon at Deals Gap has pics of everything that goes out there, so if you wanna spend some time looking at pics, feel free to check this site out.

 

I'm going to start planning to see if I can make this happen, for myself at least. Not sure my wife/kid would be into it, and I definitely don't want any barf in my car!

 

^^^Hello there Jim^^^

I see your looking into attending our run this year, cool

I was checking out your "soon to be" list and your a wise man to pick the Conti DWS', several of our Dragon Slayers that need an all-season tire have these and loved them out there! One guy, who's one of my best friends, has a modded Mazdaspeed 3 and threw everything at those tires out there and NO problems at all, even has smaller 17's from the Mazdaspeed Protege' too, great performing tire!! I had a chance to buy that Progress bar but I didn't make my intensions clear and it went away with the car as a FF traded it in and got himself a Genesis coupe' and then came out there with it and ran with us, his name is Evan.

You spoke about not wanting anyone getting sick in your car too, well, the above guy Evan brought his g/f and although she didn't throw up, she had to take something for motion sickness though, the road can do that to some people for sure, so just be prepared Not trying to scare you or anyone out there but this road is pretty intense...

 

My wife & I will try and join you at the Dragon. This is a picture that was taken last year the same weekend that you were there. We had just had our Fits for a month and decided to go to the Dragon and "wring them out" a little. Stock tires, stock everything. We found that when the Fits are pressed they pick up the inside rear (as pictured).

 

Greatest Fit pic ever EFT I can't to show this pic to the guys on the other forums!

Hope you and your wife both make it out with us this year, twice the Fits, twice the fun!

 

Agreed. That pic needs to be plastered all over this forum lol.

 

that pony bucked!!!

 

We'll probably make it at least for one day of the weekend. You can't believe everything you see on the Internet.

 

Threw it out there to my wife this morning as a statement rather than a question. Went something like this... "Do you think you and Daisy would want to come with me to a FitFreak rally up in the Blue Ridge Mountains in October? Lots of driving and a little bit of sight-seeing. One night for sure, maybe two?"

Response... "I don't know if I could handle it cuz you would probably scare the shit out of us. I know you'd really want to push it since you put those springs on your car. I just assume that you would want to do that by yourself!"

Sweeeeeeeet. Count me in!

 

Ha Ha....That's why we take our own cars. Neither one of us like riding with the other.

 

Sounds like we've got 4 Fits counting me so far and its only early February! How did Hanibal say it on the A-team...."I love it when a plan comes together!"

 

246 days to go!

 

two hundered and thirty six more days!!!

 

I have about a grand in suspension upgrades planned, which should be completed by summer. I'm bringing my A-game to my first Dragon run!

It's a 2-lane highway, correct? Do they shut it down for these group runs? Or is oncoming traffic all part of the experience?

 

Its a 2-lane road that doesn't close for any runs, although I'd gladly pay a fee if you could do that and have the traffic only go one way though As long as I've been going down there I just don't worry about the oncoming traffic, not trying to sound like a hero or anything, just how I feel about it. This is why the night run is so great, I think we passed one car on last years night run. It does help to have a lead car that knows the road, is faster so you can push as hard as possible and use that cars head/tailights as a guide, its pitch black out there, remember, your out in the middle of nowhere.

Hey Tauwolf, you ever been on the triple nickel in Ohio

 

I am definitely interested in this. How early do you have to book cabins?

 

We usually book our cabins around the first week of June, this way its about 4 monthes away and since Dixie (owner of the cabins) has been dealing with our group since 2003, she knows we're good on our word about RSVP's. That being said, thing come up and when they do, please call her and let her know the situation and that you can't come out with our group so she she can rent your cabin out to someone else, if you book early. Now, if for some reason you can't stay with us because it gets booked up quickly, don't sweat it, she can direct you to other cabins right in the area, its not a big town so we'll be able to set up meeting place to head out together and that place has been the brown and white sign that simply says "ENTERING CHERAHOLA SKYWAY", can't miss it, its right on route 165. There's also a Dragon that some made on that road, very cool thing you might wanna get a pic next to.

We've got a good group of guys and gals that make it out every year, so if you your coming alone don't worry, everyone is easy to get along with and if your bringing your better half or another car, no problem if you wanna do your own thing one day, we'll give you good directions, if you don't have a GPS and/or suggestions on things to see, like Bald River Falls which is right off the Skyway, nice little road to get there and a beautiful waterfall

This town is exactly what you think its going to be when you think of "southern hospitality", everyone makes you feel welcome and its a small world as we've run into people from my home state of Michigan while down there. Noone has ever said its wasn't really worth my time and money to drive down or up here, its just something that's gotta be experienced atleast once, YouTube can only give you a glimpse into this road and what its really about. Elevation changes and G's don't translate onto your monitor

220 more days!!!

 

dang it. tad too far for me. i live in Minnesota.