Are you looking for relief from the hot, sticky heat? Would you like to ride through stunningly, beautiful scenery? Are you tired of dangerous bumper-to-bumper traffic? Well we have the answers for you! Escape to the beautiful northeast Georgia mountains and north Georgia’s best motorcycle resort, the Copperhead Lodge in beautiful Blairsville, Georgia! It’s 47 acres of biker heaven with special amenities geared to bikers who want the best in accommodations, food, entertainment, and of course, some of the best motorcycling roads in the country. Smooth blacktop, minimal traffic, challenging curves, valleys, and twisties that seem to be made especially for adventuresome riders. Waterfalls, lakes, mountain streams, quaint villages and towns it’s all here. The central headquarters of this motorcycle mecca is the Copperhead Lodge! Beautiful cabins and rooms are just the beginning of this delightful stay with owners Michelle and Anthony—making sure that your stay is something you will never forget and guaranteeing that you’ll come back time after time again. So, stay tuned. We’re headed for the mountains as we join the winners of Born To Ride’s and the Copperhead Lodge’s Weekend Getaway Contest. Hey, this is Debbie with Born To Ride TV and we are here at the Copperhead Lodge in Blairsville, Georgia. This is Michelle Evans, the owner of Copperhead Lodge. I’m going to coin you on this trip—The Biker Den Mother! You’re looking out and taking care of everybody. So Michelle, just give us the geographic location of Copperhead Lodge. Where are you located? Michelle: We are about an hour and a half north of Atlanta, Georgia, tucked in the very northeast corner. In 25 miles you can be either in Tennessee or North Carolina. Debbie: Tell us about the acreage, the property here at Copperhead Lodge. Michelle: We’ve got 47 acres total. The Lodge is located in the center of the resort. We have 20 acres on the front side of the resort and 27 acres in the back where the creek is. It’s a bit more private and woodsy set up. We have 28 cabins on the property right now. When we’re done, we’ll have 52. Debbie: So you’ve got the cabin atmosphere, the lodge atmosphere, the swimming pool, the amphitheater; you’ve got everything! What we’ve really been impressed with is the catering you do for the biker. Michelle: Absolutely! This place was built with all of that in mind. That was the vision. We’re the second owners. We have a vision where motorcycling enthusiasts can come but also people who are not on bikes. We have a great mix of folks here. We do cater to the bikers. You will see that when you walk in; a big rock fireplace with a motorcycle set inside of it. That really sets the true vision. There are a ton of amenities that the bikers love. For example, last night we had a great band, we have guided rides all week long that our local folks do for us. It’s just motorcycle euphoria here! Debbie: You contacted Born To Ride about five months ago and said, ‘Hey! Let’s have a big Born To Ride Weekend! I’m willing to do a give-away to some of your readers and viewers.’ So, we did that and I’m telling you, they love it!
Michelle: Everyone who I talked to that came up on the weekend thoroughly enjoyed it. Some of them had never heard of this area. Many of them rode the guided rides with me on Friday. They couldn’t believe the natural beauty and the sites that we saw. I really think that this is a great thing. Not only for the Copperhead Lodge but for Born To Ride and our relationship that has flourished over the last year, and hopefully for all those folks who are a part of the Copperhead family. Debbie: I want to talk about the cabins in just a moment, but you started to get right into the guided rides. This is the girl who
leads the guided rides. You ride in and you meet Michelle. She gets you into your cabin, the next day she gets up and on her bike—taking you on these guided rides. Michelle: I enjoy the riding part of what we do! We also do a lot of custom maps for folks. When they come up here, we want them to see what this area has to offer. Quite frankly, we’ve had people from all over the country and from other countries that come here. And when I say there isn’t a bad road here, I’m not kidding! It gives me a lot of pride to take folks out and show them around. I’m always going to take them to the prettiest
scenic overlook, the best place for lunch, the best place to take a picture, make sure they get their picture under the waterfalls … all the things we miss when we punch in the GPS and stay on the roads that are less traveled. Debbie: I have to comment on the roads. Not one pot hole—not one! The roads are perfect, smooth roads where the signs are very well marked, too. Michelle: I do think this area recognizes the importance that the motor-tourist is to the value of our economy. And so for that reason I think they really do invest in that. For example, Wolf Pen
Gap is better than The Dragon as far as technically for a road … is under construction and being repaved right now. That’s going to be a great, new improvement to the Gauntlet. That’s the ride we promote. So, they are looking out for us with the safety of the roads for our motor-tourists. That’s very important for us. We see that as a great thing for us and our future to continue to build. Debbie: Stuart! Where are you taking us today? (Stuart Fincher, Born To Ride magazine Georgia Publisher and Tour Guide.) Stuart: The ride today is based on The Gauntlet at Copperhead Lodge. We are now on the Richard Russell scenic highway, one
of the most beautiful views in Georgia. This is where we grew up and we love it! You can be up here for four days and never ride the same road. It’s phenomenal. If you like the mountains, love beautiful scenery, a lot of it is National Forest so you won’t see a lot of stores and houses. It’s just wide open, man! The Dragon’s Tail has nothing on what northeast Georgia has. We’re proud of where we live. We tried to keep it a secret all these years, but it’s time to let it out! Debbie: Copperhead Lodge really loves bikers! Michelle has another ride going out today. Michelle actually took a group out today. We passed her on our way in this morning. We’ll be heading back in to the lodge where we’ll be meeting up with them. What’s
going on this weekend? Stuart: They have live music, they did a promotional give-away in Florida and all of the winners are up here this weekend where we’re trying to expose them to the beautiful mountains Georgia has to offer. Debbie: So, where are we heading next? Stuart: We’re headed to the Copperhead Lodge. We’ve got a few curves to get through before we get there, but that’s where we’re headed! Debbie: I’m promising you that once you comegreat up here! The riding is awesome! You can get out on some open roads and enjoy some fast scenery. You can get on The Gauntlet and ride
some elevation. It’s just breathtaking for me. Come here! You’ll be very, very pleased!” Another winner, Fred Scadron, shared his story with us on winning the Copperhead Getaway Weekend. “I saw there was a sweepstakes. And I said, ‘I never win anything.’ What do I have to lose? I was already on the Internet. I got a call two weeks later. I told my wife and she was ecstatic! I’ve never been in the mountains and I have never ridden in the mountains! I can’t tell you about the breathtaking experience and the adrenalin rush we both had. This made us an awesome experience that we’ll never forget. We definitely want to come back here. I really appreciate
Born To Ride in putting this together for us.” Copperhead Lodge 171 Copperhead Parkway Blairsville, GA 30512 Lake Burton Fish Hatchery Debbie: “I took a little stop after taking all the twisties and the curves! WOW! This is the Lake Burton Fish Hatchery. Say hello to John Lee Thompson, state trout stocking coordinator! This place is something to see on your sightseeing here in Georgia.”
John: “We’re at Lake Burton Fish Hatchery and grow trout here to be stocked in over 100 different places here in Georgia. This is one of four fish hatcheries in Georgia and does about 350,000 catchables a year. “Right now we’ve got mostly little fish in the hatchery. These fish will stay here and be stocked out next year. The big fish in the hatchery will go out between now and Labor Day. Georgia DNR with cooperation with the US Fish and Wildlife Service stock over one million trout in Georgia each year.” Ron: “How important is that to the economy or fishing? What does it impact?” John: “Well, it’s highly economically driven. We want people to
come to Georgia to go trout fishing. You have to buy a special, not only in addition to a state license, but a special trout stamp to fish in trout waters in Georgia. We want people to come in and come up here and stay in our parks—like Moccasin Creek Park— right next door, buy gas, ice and tackle. “In order to get people to come to Georgia from Florida, we have to have a nice fishing product here in Georgia. We have native and wild trout populations here in Georgia. They just don’t grow really fast. We want to sustain the amount of fishing pressure and have quality fishing here in Georgia, so we kinda need to be putting these fish out.” Ron: “Are the trout in all the lakes here in Georgia? Where do
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Call Michelle and she’ll make sure you have a great stay at Copperhead Lodge. 706-835-RIDE
Special Thanks to Harley-Davidson速 Tampa for the 2015 Classics that we rode. Debbie Galletti