The gently curving Blue Ridge Parkway helped us get to the Blue Ridge Gathering — and lots of twisty mountain roads that aren?t so well known. Photos by the author.

The Blue Ridge Gathering is an annual meeting of sport-touring riders in western North Carolina, one of the best regions in the U.S. for motorcycling. In October 2018, riders came from as far as Newfoundland to ride some amazing mountain roads.

?I dug through the archives and the first records are from 2002, so this must be the 17th annual Blue Ridge Gathering,? said Phil Derryberry of Nashville, Tennessee, one of the event?s founders. ?The original goal was to bring together Honda ST riders in these mountains, but it?s simply become a gathering of people who like to ride here. It?s not about what you ride, just that you do ride.?
Just how good are the roads in these parts" Good enough that Jim G. Gow rode from York Harbour, Newfoundland — 2,400 miles one-way — just to get here.

Phil is a self-described 7th generation Tennessee hillbilly. ?The first Derryberrys were Adam and Eve — yes, really,? he smiled. ?They settled there before Tennessee was a state. Both of my grandfathers were moonshiners and bootleggers at one point in their lives.? Though he?s a software developer and highly accomplished pianist, Phil embraces his hillbilly roots. Part of that, he told me, is knowing the best mountain roads, and he says they?re in these parts.

?People come to the Blue Ridge G...