After a night in Wesser, NC, we climbed UP the mountains.
Looking back to Wesser, we got this view.
A drop in elevation got us to Stecoah Gap as seen in the topo from 1941.
Today, using Google Street View, we get these shots of the trail crossing. But from my memory, I think they were paving and grading the road through the Gap in 1974. Both pics are from June 2016.
The air photo from 1976 seems to confirm the construction we saw.