Let's talk about the road itself for a second, because it's got a real character. Moonshiner 28 is a driver's road and a rider's road — sixty miles of twisting, flowing mountain highway that motorcyclists have prized for years. It's the middle child of the three roads that meet at Deals Gap: not the tight, frantic, three-hundred-and-eighteen-curve Tail of the Dragon, and not the high wide sweepers of the Cherohala Skyway, but something in between — long flowing curves you can settle into, lakes and gorges and forest, mile after mile of it.
The name, I'll be honest with you, is modern marketing — a brand somebody trademarked to celebrate the moonshine heritage of this country and pull riders in. But the heritage under the brand is bone-real, and Boone will prove it to you. What matters for your drive is that this is a road to savor, not to hurry. There's no prize for the fastest run.
A couple of practical notes for the miles ahead: services are genuinely sparse — gas and food at Deals Gap, Fontana Village, the Nantahala area, and Franklin, and long stretches of nothing in between, so don't run your tank low. Watch for fog in the mornings, ice up high in winter, deer and bear at the edges, and always, always more motorcycles than you expect around the next curve. Drive it relaxed and it's a joy.
Photo: Harrison Keely · CC BY 4.0
