Knoxville TN
Miles = 809
We felt cheated from our mid-May spring trip as most establishments were still closed, so we cleared our schedules and decided to make an overnight run to Knoxville just after Memorial Day. We routed down through KY on a series of backroads that really took us in many interesting and uncharted areas. It was 442 miles on the first day, and a lot of backroads.
Day One
We began on I-75 and jumped off at Richwood to begin our backroads trip. We wound around I-71 finally breaking free at Sparta and from there on it was all pretty much due south. We rode through Perry Park and Gratz before stopping at Lockport. We were standing there as a houseboat came down river and not long after the locksman(?) arrived to operate the locks and get the houseboat through. We didn't stay long enough to watch the operation but the river was fast moving and I would have liked to watch it. We had to navigate a detour but it wasn't major and soon we were at Beech Fork Covered Bridge. This is a two-span construction spanning 211' over the Beech Fork and was built in 1865. There are parking areas on either side and we took the empty one and ate some lunch we had packed. We next stopped at Green River Lake State Park. We rode through the park some before stopping at the dam. Not much to see from the parking area. We motored on making a stop at the York Farm and Mill State Park. This is the area where Sargent Alvin York grew up in Pall Mall TN. We had been to the homestead across the street so this time we decided to stop at the Mill. There was a nice little waterfall, and the park was in very good condition. We walked down close to the Mill and waterfall but we were quickly on our way. Next up was the Brushy Mountain Penitentiary and the beginning of the Devil's Triangle route. The penitentiary was just closing so we couldn't go in to look around and although the distillery was open we decided to ride on. The road is a fairly famous motorcycling road and it was enjoyable but nothing super special in my opinion. We directly rode to Knoxville after that. We stayed right in downtown and we had to park our bikes in a nearby garage. Everything was open and we hit a couple of breweries and had a nice dinner.
Day Two
We left downtown without eating breakfast, but stopped on Merchant Drive to eat at the Waffle House. After breakfast we got back on I-75 and exited at 141 and rode TN63 up to TN297 which parallels I-75, and is really a nice road which I don't think we had ridden before. This road took us to Jellico where we crossed over I-75 and rode backroads back over the TN/KY State line and up and over Pine Mountain. We took KY225 over the mountain and stopped at the summit. Back down the mountain and continuing on backroads we were at the Laurel Bridge on KY490. The bridge was built in 1922 spanning 200' over Rockcastle River. We crossed over the bridge and walked a few short yards back to take some pics. We continued on and made our last stop at Fort Boonesborough State Park.