Category Archives: Adventures and Travels

It was that time again. Campstoc 2013 was held at Willville Motorcycle Campground, Meadows of Dan, VA. Left early in the morning on my BMW F800GS. The Honda ST1300 was in need of tires at the time, and besides I wanted to do some dirt roads.

Headed up through US 220 in NC and continued on US 52 to Mt. Airy, when I left major highways behind, and continued up on Squirrel Spur road, a maze of nice twisties and turns. I eventually hit The Blueridge Parkway. By that time, the temperature had dropped to about 60 degrees. I took my sweet time on the Parkway, hit US58 and pulled in to the campground. It looked like I was one of the first to arrive. It was very quiet. Mule was unloaded, and I set up camp as close to the river as I could.

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A group of us decided to ride over to Burke’s Garden, VA for the day on Friday. Very nice area, and the roads were built for serious riding. Had no trouble at all keeping up with the St13’s on my oversized dirt bike :-).<a
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Eating hot dogs and hamburgers, finishing up with cobbler made on the fire.

Dutch Oven containing the Cobbler Dessert. Yummm.

On Saturday I decided to just ride the Blueridge Parkway and relax, stopping here and there for photos.

Somewhere south of Meadows of Dan on the Parkway.<a
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Mabry Mill.

The rest of the gang discusssing where to ride off to.

Still deciding:-)

Tunes…

Will the camp host. You just can’t have a better camp host than Will. Making camp fires for us every night, and joining us telling tales from his younger days of motorcycle adventures.

Had fun, as always. Looking forward to the Blueridge Gathering in the fall.

Coming up shortly: Natchez Trace Parkway from Natchez, MS to Nashville, TN, Sept. 21st – Sept 29th. 800 miles to get there. The Trace is a 444 miles ride through exceptional scenery and 10,000 years of North American history.

We’re spending a week on the road for the ride, Lois on the BMW F650GS, and me on the ST1300. Lots of places to see, and many neat places to camp. Stay tuned.

Every year as usual, well except last year, a few of the Honda ST1300 riders from near and far meet up for a few days of camping, good riding and story telling around the campfire. This years CampStoc was held at Moonshine Creek Campground in The Smoky Mountains of North Carolina.

I rode up on Thursday May 24.th along Hwy 9 and 11 in South Carolina, cut up through the mountains on US 178 to Rosman, NC and followed the Blueridge Parkway for a few miles before heading into the woods where the campground was located. A few had already arrived when I got there. Pitched the tent, and settled for the night.

Crawled down in a creek on my way to Clingmans Dome on Friday May 25.th. Didn’t have a tripod with me, so had to make a little rock pile to rest my camera on to make a 3-4 sec exposure possible..

On the Parkway towards Waynesville, NC. The temp had already dropped to about 65 degrees.

This is how it looked like after most of the gang had arrived. Most of them on ST13’s, one on a Yamaha 1200 Super Tenere and a few others. Very nice campground.

Burning hotdogs for night snack.
 

And of course pizza, boxes and boxes of it were brought in.

Stories were told…

And listened to….

Ran Parson Branch (again) from Cades Cove to to US 129 Deals Gap. Pretty straightforward dirt-run, but it can bite you in spots if you don’t pay attention.

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Good times. Going back in the fall.

425 or so miles for the day. Dodged the rain in Alabama, and also the rain when we got home in SC. All day slabbing on interstate 20, which is not our favorite way to ride, but gets us from A to B the fastest way. Came home and unpacked, sorted and cleaned equipment. 3 weeks riding and about 6000 miles later leaves a lot of nice pictures, videos and memories. It’ll take weeks to sort through it all. Wish we could stay out longer, but work calls. We’ll have to  wait a while.

Thanks to everyone that followed us on the journey.

525 miles for the day. Tore out of Van Buren before the rain started. Ate lunch a little west of Memphis, TN. The nightmares of getting through Memphis, TN and Birmingham, AL went fine, even with crazy drivers all around. Needless to say, no pics for today.

Final leg home tomorrow is about 420 miles, so shouldn’t be much of a problem.