On Wednesday, August 24th, we took a Day Ride loop through Maryville, Tn.

We left our home in North Knoxville around 10:30am. We wore our light weight jackets since the air was a little cool.

 

Jeff kicks off the day in this video:

We traveled north on Broadway. First we stopped at Weigel’s for some fuel and to pick up a snack for later.

We then traveled down Norris Freeway, and up to Norris Dam. We stopped at the Visitor’s Station parking lot to  eat at one of the picnic tables right next to the dam.

We rode over Norris Dam and into Lake City (Rocky Top).

We turned right onto 116.

330 South took us into Oliver Springs. The we rode into Oak Ridge.

Traveling down the Oak Ridge Turnpike, we decided to stop at the Guard House- a structure we’ve driven by many times.

This guard house together with the small one across the street controlled access to Oak Ridge from the southwest during its years as a secret city. Now the location is used mostly as a gathering place for cyclists before rides out highway 95 (the Turnpike).

From the Wikipedia entry (see full entry HERE):

The three Oak Ridge gatehouses, also known as “checking stations”, “guard houses”, or “guard shacks”, are security checkpoints in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, built c. 1948-1949 to control access to the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) production and research facilities in Oak Ridge.^[1] These are individually listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places as Bear Creek Road Checking Station, Bethel Valley Road Checking Station and Oak Ridge Turnpike Checking Station.

The weather had warmed by this time and we shed the jackets. We left the Guard House and continued down 95.

You can read more about the Oak Ridge Greenways HERE.

Not too far from Oak Ridge is the Melton Hill Dam. It is nicely maintained and not a lot of visitors on the grounds when we visited.

We left the Melton Hill Dam and continued on 95 into Lenoir City. We crossed the Loudon Dam and took 321 into Maryville.

By 3pm, we entered Maryville and were ready for lunch. We decided to stop in at one of our favorite restaurants- Aubrey’s.

By the time we finished our very late lunch, it was 4pm. We took Alcoa Highway to Pellissippi Parkway and into West Knoxville so we could stop in at Biker Rags.

We hung around Biker Rags for awhile, then got back on the road to head home and see the fur kids.

We arrived home at 5:30pm and our total ride was 140 miles.

You can view our entire list of DAY RIDES by CLICKING HERE.