We woke to sunny skies on Tuesday, and even though it was chilly in the morning, it was a much more promising day for travel than Monday had been!
Today would be a new route for us. We’ve pretty much always travelled north from either Florida or South Carolina traversing I-40 to the west to pick up I-75 for the final portion of our northern route. Today, though, we would be taking I-26 north from Asheville, NC through Tennessee, and into Virginia.
It may not be the shortest or most direct route to our ultimate destination of Norfolk, Virginia, but we had some time to kill before we could get there, and this route would finally take us through East Tennessee – an area we’ve never been to, and home to an RV-Dreams friend who’s wanted us to visit ever since we ventured out on the road almost 6 years ago!
Tom was checking the route in the Mountain Guide, and we could not even find I-26 going north from Asheville, although it’s on our road atlas. A quick email to the author of the mountain guides gave us the information we were looking for – US Hwy 23 has been recently upgraded to interstate standards and renamed I-26 (even the roadsigns on the interstate still say “Future I-26”). There is about a 9 mile upgrade to the Tennessee state line at 6-7%, that previously had been 9-10% . . . we’re much more comfortable with 6-7%!
Before we tackled that, though, we needed to get through the Smokey Mountains. As we turned out of the RV Resort onto Hwy 441, we began our first climb of the day – that one was one of the toughest, since we hit the grade from a standing start – no momentum to carry us up.
It wasn’t bad at all, though, and we had a pleasant drive to Asheville.
As we travelled north on 26, the amount of green on the trees diminished, and we started to see some traces of the previous day’s snow.
It was quite a long climb, without much break, but the road was nice, and traffic was very light. We reached the Tennessee state line, and started back down the mountain!
It was a beautiful day, and our drive was pleasant and uneventful. Before long, we had reached Virginia.
We stopped in Bristol, VA to fill up with diesel, and then took Hwy 58 the rest of the way into Damascus,
until we reached the point where my phone was telling us that we were at the Laurel Creek Campground . . .
but there was no sign, no indication of any kind that crossing this narrow, one lane bridge was going to take us to a campground!
Fortunately, we were off the main road and out of the way of any cars crossing the bridge, so we were about to call the campground owner to verify that we were in the right place, when there was somebody knocking on Tom’s window. He asked if we were headed to the campground, and assured us that we would get there by crossing the bridge. OK then, we proceeded . . .
and down a hill to the campground where there were 12 back-in sites along the bank of a very strongly flowing “creek” – looked more like a river to us.
We got backed into our site next to a tiny house!
We weren’t really sure what to expect in Damascus, but we like this cute little town and campground (for now)!
We took Casey for a walk on at trail at the end of the campground road, where we could see the creek as it rushed over to rocks – it really looks more like a river!
Damascus is a hiker’s and biker’s town, with the Virginia Creeper Trail passing through town, as well as being a main re-stocking location for the Appalachian Trail. There are multiple outfitters in town, and there was a steady stream of hikers while we were there.
Another popular activity is riding bikes from the endpoint of the Creeper Trail, at the top of Whitetop Mountain, 17 miles downhill into Damascus. There are multiple shuttle services that will take riders and their bikes to the top, and even rent bikes for the ride. It sounded like fun, but Tom’s knee had been bothering him for the last couple of weeks, so we decided to stick to Jeep tours of the area.
When I finished work for the day, we took a late afternoon drive along Laurel Creek, about halfway up to Whitetop Mountain.
The countryside is beautiful.
Some of those mountain roads can get pretty narrow, though!
On the way, we stopped at the Laurel Creek Trail for a short walk along the creek. The trail is across a bridge over the creek from the parking lot .
It was a very nice trail . . .
but when it started to climb the mountain, we stopped and turned around.
Got to take it easy on Tom’s knee!
We followed the Creeper Trail further up the mountain, and stopped at several parking areas along the trail.
Beautiful country!
The next day, we took another afternoon drive – this time west out of Damascus and into Johnson County, Tennessee. We drove through the world’s shortest tunnel – Backbone Mountain,
and followed Beaverdam Creek through the National Forest.
It was another lovely drive through the countryside.
When we reached Hwy 421 (the road known as “The Snake”), we stopped at a little general store,
but unfortunately, it wasn’t open for the season yet. I guess we couldn’t fill up with Snake Venom!
We followed “The Snake” north over the mountain,
to Holston Lake, which is a very beautiful lake with several large marinas.
We stopped to enjoy the view,
before crossing the lake,
and continuing our drive back around to the highway. We passed by several more nice farms, and checked out a nice county campground.
We ended our tour in Abingdon, where we met up with our RV-Dreams friend, Jenny, for dinner at Cracker Barrel.
We all had a great time catching up, but we were sorry that Don didn’t feel up to joining us. We’ll catch up with you next time, Don!
We enjoyed our little visit to your neck of the woods, Jenny, and we’re glad our travels finally brought us this way!
The scenery where you are is beautiful allowing you to see for miles at this time of year.
ReplyDeleteTom needs to sit on a chair and do Leg Extensions to help his knees. A lot of the pain comes from lack of use while sitting behind the wheel.
When you see Spring send it our way, as it's only been teasing us.
Be Safe and Enjoy!
It's about time.