My birthday this year fell on a Saturday, fortunately for me. But also the company at my new job decided just this year to give everyone a new holiday off, Good Friday. As it happens that fell on the day before my birthday so I was gifted a long weekend for my birthday. Weather looked good so I decided on a very long ride. Saturday looked like some rain chances so I decided to ride it on Friday, which worked out perfect. The nicest weather I could imagine. Not too hot for climbing but warm enough for the descents. I was a little worried about my neck which started bothering me on Thursday to the point where it was painful to turn it and exhausting to hold it up all day. But after a good night's rest it actually felt ok when I woke up bringing a sigh of relief. I managed to get going earlier than I thought I would, and got to enjoy a pretty sunrise peeking between the mountains and through the bare trees. I made short work of Buck Creek and Cold Mountain roads, the latter with its quarter mile 20% section, without walking. I had someone actually honk at me on Pine Creek road and I actually got off the road, very unusual to see that here. Everyone else today was nice and courteous, as always, if anything people here are almost too nice, and wait a bit before passing on a curve(this rule doesn't apply to the tourists on 441 though, more later). Presently I arrived at highway 107 for a nice descent and long flat section to Cullowhee. I was very worried that traffic would be bad with folks driving to the college in the morning. But as it turned out almost all the traffic was headed south towards Cashiers which makes sense as it's a pricey town to live in. So I enjoyed this part with very few cars. And NC is hard at work on widening and straightening the road and adding bike lanes. I rode on some of the completed parts and it was very nice. Next I took the back way through Cullowhee which was deserted, and used a very nice new bike path beside the beautiful Tuckasegee river. Some nice back roads from Webster to Dillsboro also by the river. Then after a short jaunt on the expressway, I rode up Dicks Creek road. Scouting the route I was the most uncertain about this one connecting through to the other side. Strava heat map was completely dark and it was hard to tell by looking at the satellite photos. I knew for sure forest service roads connected but I didn't know if they would be overgrown or whatever. I got a bit worried while still on the pavement when I saw a No Outlet sign. Probably for the FS gated road I figured, no worries. The road turned to gravel and after a bunch of cabins climbed higher and steeper into the Nantahala national forest. Still no gate. Finally at the top there was a seasonal gate that looked like it hadn't been closed in years. The gravel was very well beaten down by vehicles. I encountered several hunters along the way near the top. The descent was really steep and technical but I had fun and popped out to pavement, Wolftown road, US 19. Thankfully there was almost no traffic and the road has a strange bike path sized shoulder on the right(my side thankfully) so I felt super safe. Next obstacle was Wrights Creek/Dobson Ridge roads. This was pleasant and deserted, and took me to a tunnel under the Blue Ridge Parkway at Big Witch gap which then connected up with Bunches Creek road. I followed this down to Big Cove road, which was a pleasant gradual descent beside Raven Fork, a river sized creek. Right before the park entrance I came across a herd of elk crossing the road and grazing wherever they liked on the road shoulder. This stopped traffic for a minute or two and I took the opportunity to snap a few photos. A young girl in the truck near me decided to scream at the top of her lungs, and this spooked one of the elk, and it briefly headed towards my direction before going back in the woods. Soon enough I had to get a move on and passed though and continued on. I planned on using the visitors center to refill my bottles as I would pass it in both directions before and after the climb up to Clingmans Dome. I had gone almost 80 miles by this point and had just ran out of the three liters of water I started with. I'm glad I filled all three as even though it was in the thirties for awhile, it warmed very quickly and I was good about staying on top of my hydration. The store didn't sell snacks or anything but there were 4 vending machines, and I had plenty of dollar bills for this purpose. Only one worked though, and it was the Coke Zero and Diet Coke only one. Bummer. I still drank a Coke Zero for the sodium and caffeine. They had a very nice water bottle filling station next to the water fountains. Only they were all turned off. Screw you too National Park service. So I had to fill my bottles in the bathroom sink. Thankfully the faucet was high enough to allow my bottles to fit easily. Gotta look on the bright side I guess. As the visitors center parking lot was crammed full of people and cars I knew it would be busy on the climb. It was very straight and gradual to start and cars were doing 55-60 mph, which honestly is what I expected. What sucked though is that sometimes someone would drive a reasonable speed and all the cars behind would tailgate each other. So I would have quiet periods of 30 seconds or more followed by a train of cars and trucks bumper to bumper, usually somewhere between 20 and 100 cars at a time. Eventually I settled into a rhythm using my Garmin radar where I would just ride the grass shoulder when the caravan of tourism would blaze past. I felt much safer this way because while most people gave room, the cars were so close together I was afraid someone wouldn't notice me in the middle of the train. Thankfully the road had a very wide and level grass shoulder almost always. I kept my pace low to conserve energy and mostly enjoyed the climb, although it was slow. I'd estimate I did 15-20% on either pullouts or grass. Gleefully I turned off of 441 right before Newfound Gap onto Clingmans Dome road. Another time. I had gleaned from some research that most people said the road to Clingmans Dome featured much more courteous and slower traffic and this is exactly what I observed. One concerning and surprising thing is that I saw tons of super loud, obnoxious side by side off highway vehicles everywhere on this climb, bringing back bad memories of being squeezed almost off the roads of the Rockies. Seems like this is illegal but there were loads of them. Since I saw none on the climb from Cherokee, I assume they all came from Gatlinburg. I arrived at length and a little cool to the parking area and walked up to the tower as they don't allow bikes and anyway there were insane amounts of people. I chatted for awhile with a nice guy from Wisconsin who was the same age as I, and he was amazed but more flabbergasted when I told him how long my ride would be. I rolled down the mountain with arm warmers up and had a good time on the descent, without really any cars blocking the way. The descent is pretty gradual so I mostly topped out around 35mph. So I got passed by a few cars but nothing like the way out. My Garmin counted 550 cars that passed me on the way up. Which sounds like a lot but a weekday in spring is much less busy than summer or fall or a weekend. Very quickly I was in Cherokee where I followed the main drag though town. I figured it would be busy but it was utterly deserted. Almost nobody out. With a little confusion I found the Fire Mountain trailhead and started climbing. I picked up the fire tower trail which bypassed the rest of the trail system and went up steeply to Mount Noble. It was a little difficult to pedal up but I managed to ride the whole thing minus a few minor downed trees. I was a little unsure about the connection down to the highway because this was another dark section of the Strava heat map. But it was super obvious and very well maintained gravel, and I had a blast on the way down. The sun went down soon after and I got a decent view of the sunset over the Ocanaluftee river on a quiet gravel road. I went through the tiny town of Whittier in the fading twilight and began the last major climb up Connelly Creek road as darkness descended. This is a deserted climb even in the middle of the day so I settled into a sustainable pace and enjoyed a podcast. The climb is pretty reasonable till the last really steep and loose part which I just barely managed to ride. At the top, Leatherman gap, the terrain is rolling and there are two creek fords. The first was shallow and no problem. Second I misjudged and went right through the middle which was a mistake. It was too long to not pedal through and I ended up soaking my shoes. Great. Temperature was around 50 and but I was pretty warm after I put back on my knee and arm warmers. As I had thick wool socks on this turned out to be a non issue thankfully. I felt pretty good on the descent and was glad I brought both of my lights which even on low made it super simple to descend in the dark. On the ride into Franklin on NC 28 there were only a couple cars, not too bad. By now it was past 10:30 pm so I figured Franklin would be asleep but it was actually still pretty active. I turned off the highway to the Greenway trailhead to find a horde of pickup trucks and cops and cop cars accosting some young folk with flashlights, and I was too tired to care so I rolled right through the proceedings onto the boardwalk where I found a young woman in tattered clothes hiding from the police in the dark close to the river on the other side of the boardwalk. I nonchalantly said good evening and she didn't reply as she was probably scared shitless. I pedaled the flatlands through the river valley without issue, and kept glancing over at the parallel US 64 which I had already decided to use as a shortcut up through the gorge. I was really not feeling another 20% gravel climb especially because by now it would be pushing midnight by the time I got back. There was a surprising amount of traffic for 11:30pm, although it was Friday night after all. But by the time I got to the end of Peeks Creek road and joined the highway the traffic had thinned out. I decided to ride hard up the gorge with anything I had left and actually was setting a decently fast pace. The moon was so bright I turned off my headlights and rode through the gorge with the roar of the Cullasaja way down below. The falls were stunning in the moonlight. I stopped for a photo but it doesn't do it justice. Since I was very close to 20,000 feet of total elevation gain, I wanted to ensure I got well over the total. Also it was 11:50 when I turned onto Gold Mine road, and I still felt good so I climbed up to the church for a bit of insurance elevation gain, and as I rolled up the clock ticked over to midnight. I blazed down the descent with a smile on my face, what a great ending to a ride I'll never forget.