Kevin Bilbrey

Long time listener. First time caller. Lol. Kinda. I’ve done this route a lot. I think this effort was my 2nd or 3rd Death March this year. Heck I cant remember. Anyway. I have never submitted it to Tennessee Gravel until now. No particular reason. This was my fastest one yet though, but still bummed I didn’t get under 9 hours. Ha ha.

3 a.m wake up, Shooting for a 5:45 start. Rolled out at 5:45. Forgot phone so had to go back and start over. Ha ha. So, 5:50 a.m. start. I started at P3 parking. I live pretty far southwest from here, so P3 parking is my closest start point.

Headed out around the “little loop” and up Tater Patch. Nothing to note really. Just a big ol climb and a little bit of mashing, trying to keep the rev limiter at bay. From Tater Patch to Thunder Rock was pretty smooth sailing. Felt real good. Ha ha. The usual. ( I also noticed my computer facing awkwardly upwards along with my brake levers. Ha. So, small pit stop to rotate and tighten things up, here).

Coming out of Thunder Rock, the real fun begins. I call this section the chunky nasty, and it lived up to its name. It seemed like this area had gotten a lot of rain recently, and I definitely could tell it had gotten a lot of traffic from the mudding folks. The mud holes were as wide as the road in quite a few spots. Felt like putting a little salt and pepper on my big ol full course meal I was partaking in. lol. Heck yeh, definitely need to spice things up a bit…

Finally out of the chunky nasty, I was in more familiar territory. Highway 2, P zero and Mountaintown. Ah. Refreshing. I think I was around hour 7 around Jack’s River Campground. The wheels started falling off. My stomach started twisting in knots. I knew from last weekend, I needed straight water from here on out. I filled up at a familiar water pipe past the camp ground. I started feeling better around 3 forks thankfully, and was able to climb a little better back up to Tater Patch, thank God.

Time to send it on back to the car. 6 mile downhill, lets go! Well except, I was so beat up, I felt like an old skeleton clanking together, coming down the mountain. My hole body hurt. Ha ha. Just hang on to the bucking bronco and let’er rip. Made the turn down at the bottom to pass by Mulberry Gap, to make the short climb back to the car. While on this climb, a couple of buddies magicaly appear in a jeep. They tell me I look like sh!# and that I’m slower than last time. Haha. I tell them I’ll see them at MBG (Mulberry Gap) in a few minutes. I honestly needed that little kick. I was feeling a little sorry for myself. I jetted up and over the hill. Covered from head to toe in mud, much later than hoped, but glad to be done.

Bike: Lynskey Ridgeline SS 32-22. 120mm fork. Race king 29x 2.2’s
100 oz sugary salty mix
50 oz water
10 gels