One of the great pleasures of living in the Piedmont region of North Carolina is our proximity to the Blue Ridge Mountains. Coming home from a trip to Tennessee, we decided to take the “short” route straight across the mountains rather than staying with I-40. Just east of Newport (TN) on U.S. 70, we ran into Road Closed signs. After a few miles on the approved detour, I switched my GPS to “shortest distance”—why leave the route planning up to state goons?

The road ahead grew narrower. And rougher. As we crossed a one-lane bridge over a swift little stream, we faced a three-way fork. Pavement to the left and right, but the GPS said straight. And the sign said State Maintenance Ends. Ah…adventure!

I threw the Xterra into 4-wheel drive and we headed up Hurricane Gap Road.

 It didn’t take long for the relatively smooth gravel surface to give way to ruts and rocks as the forest closed in on both sides. Not exactly Moab, but the off road suspension and 4-wheel drive certainly earned their keep.

Mile after mile of beautiful fall foliage—and eyeball-jolting washboard road.

If you take a look at the map you’ll notice a substantial gap in the road. The road itself doesn’t quite disappear, but the mile or so that isn’t shown is very rough. Right at the Tennessee-North Carolina border it crosses the Appalachian Trail. Somewhere along that stretch we came bumper-to-bridle with a family on horseback—a beautiful afternoon ride.

I hope they enjoyed it as much as we did. Now that we’ve had the Xterra out on some real back roads I know we’ll be looking for more!