Found a New Covered Bridge in Georgia

The Georgia DOT has a website detailing 15 accessible covered bridges in the state, and I am on a mission to visit them all; thus far I have visited seven. I was out riding in eastern GA north of Augusta this past Saturday and stumbled upon one that is not listed on that website! It is right off of Highway 104 northwest of Evans on the southwest side of a small pond/lake; here's a map; you can see it if you switch to the Satellite view and zoom in. What a surprise to find it! It's not old and historic, but it's nonetheless a covered bridge.



Had a great ride; it was a beautiful day to be out. I covered about 200 miles over the course of about four hours. I pulled into the Lincolnton Post Office to snap a photo, and a fellow wandered over to chat. Turns out he rides a ZX-9R and had just gotten off work and was heading home to take it out for a spin.

Ride through Brevard, Hendersonville, & Chimney Rock

This past Saturday I enjoyed a nice day of riding up into NC, passing through Brevard, Hendersonville, and Chimney Rock, covering around 400 miles in about 9 hours.

I left home around 10:30 and headed up I-26 and I-385 to Greenville, where I got on US276N. I stopped in Travelers Rest (appropriate place for a stop, no?) and enjoyed a plate of barbecue chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans at an Ingles Cafe. The food and service were both very good, and I was back on the road in about half an hour. I went up over Caesar's Head, which is always one of my favorite roads, and continued northward through Brevard toward the Blue Ridge Parkway. I had planned on riding the Parkway eastward through Asheville and had checked for closings on the official website hosted by the National Park Service; it listed a couple of closings, but nothing that would impact me. Well, it turns out the site hadn't been updated in a bit, because both directions were closed at the US276 junction.

I began getting suspicious as I approached the junction, because I began encountering snow on the sides of the road, so I guess the Parkway was probably pretty covered at places. I did enjoy a good view of Cold Mountain, though, before heading back to Brevard on US276.



A bit north of Brevard on the way back down I stopped and enjoyed the beauty of Looking Glass Falls.


In Brevard I got on US64E and headed through Hendersonville, where I stopped at Oakdale Cemetery and visited Wolfe's Angel, a statue made famous by the novelist Thomas Wolfe.


I then continued eastward on US64 to Chimney Rock (US64 has some nice sweeping curves east of I26), where I headed north on NC9, a very twisty and fun road. I had planned on riding the Parkway to NC80 down to US70, to I-40W, and then to NC9. I definitely wanted to ride NC9, and the way things turned out, I got to ride it twice! North to I-40 and then back down to Chimney Rock. It's actually quite a different road depending on the direction of travel, as the direction, camber, and radius of the curves are reversed. Fun both ways, though!

I then retraced US64 back to Hendersonville, where I got on I26E and headed home, getting in at around 7:30. I regret not being able to ride the Parkway, but it was a very good day of riding with some beautiful scenery and fun roads nonetheless.