Monteagle Mountain

You're right mountaingote.....sometimes I do miss it....its just I've seen so many bad posts on here about that I guess my crankiness roars to the surface & probably cuz I've met too many folks that actually believe that statement and end up in one of my neighbors barns....

 

I like to quote Louis L'Amour sometimes: "A man who says he's never been scared has never been anywhere or done anything". Mister, I've been scared more than once...

 

When I get to the brake check I put it in low gear, flashers on, engine brake on, then coast down at the speed limit for trucks in the right lane. If your in a faster truck and I'm a hindrance to you, then there are several runaway truck ramps for you to aim for cause I'm doing the SPEED LIMIT. Now let's hear from the guys who always tell you about the 3 vehicle obstructing law about how I should speed up or get out of the right lane...

 

Sure. Lot's of guys "Learn how to run 'em". Problem is they tend to assume and learn based on nothing obstructing the path anywhere on the down grade. Sure, I can go down most any hill considerable faster then I normally do, IF I knew nothing was going to go wrong in front of me (closed course, cop says it's all clear). Too many heavy trucks going down major grades, assuming no issues will crop up. That's a risky assumption IMO.

I don't descend at a rate to make it to the bottom safely, I descend at a rate to come to a stop in less then a quarter mile or shortest possible vision line of sight, and assume the worst that it will be at the steepest part of the descent. Big difference. But run 'em the way you want to.

 

Before I-24 was built, Monteagle was really challenging. You can still travel the old road going west from the top of the mountain. Traveling on the old 64 off the mountain can also give you a taste of what it used to be like before the new road. Monteagle is much better today than before the last construction. Only a few decades ago, most any time the weather was bad, you would hear of an 18 wheeler going off the side of the mountain. Most of the time it seemed to be a load of swinging beef or a tanker. Grades seemed to be greater then than today. It is still a dangerous stretch of road, but shorter than other grades across the country. One shortcoming of the road is that the designers put runaway ramps on the left side of the road, but trucks on the right side. Not very smart. I rarely see a truck wreck going off the mountain any more. It is much different than on the old road.

 

I've heard no interstate as more than a 6% grade. Could be a myth though.

 

Vail pass is 7%, so maybe a little higher limit.

 

Cottonmouth you do a good job on those video clips however I thank the only multiple lanes like that in Johnny's days were down hill toward Atlanta. That would have been before the reconstruction G/man mentioned. All traffic both directions went on that side, I do not recall a barrier in the middle, that added a few degrees of difficultly. Keep up the good posts!

 

The most Ive seen is a 9% grade but it wasn't that bad with a jake. It was a secondary road though (two lane).