Dear google,
I know you’re reading this.
So pay attention cause this is important.
We promised we’d get up at 7, but every time one person woke up, they saw everyone else asleep and went straight back to bed so we all didn’t get up until around 8. We made some eggs for breakfast and chatted with our hosts Eric and Robin while their daughter Loren tried to scare us by jumping out of hiding places (she succeeded quite a few times).
The night before, Eric and his friend Mike recommended taking The Way of the Loneliest Pine to our next destination, and although it had a huge uphill, it was also a lot prettier and had a nice downhill on the other side. Since we were only doing 40ish miles that day, we decided that the uphill wouldn’t be so bad and a prettier ride would be worth it.
So we plugged out route into google maps and set off. Devin, Erin, and I biked together in a group while Maile and Edgardo followed behind. Bill and Caralyn left for Bristol to exchange our car.
The first part was a beautiful downhill ride right next to a small river on an isolated (but well paved) road. It started to rain, but we were still okay.
We cruised along 80 and then google tells us to go up the 619.
We trusted google.
Even when there’s a sign that said that the road ended in one mile.
We trusted google.
We began to climb, and boy were these hills steep. “These must be the walls that Eric said we’d have to climb,” we thought. Someone asked me the other day what I think about going up a really steep hill. Most hills have a low enough grade that it can be a difficult ride but I don’t think of anything special. But for other steep steep hills that I need a little extra motivation to get up, I like to have a little cadence:
I am strong.
I am strong.
I am strong.
I am strong.
I am strong.
I am strong.
It’s something I would say during a difficult physical therapy session or when I’m running so I would highly recommend it.
There were a couple of breaks between hills, so Devin got a few pictures of Erin and I climbing.
We got to the top, and there were a few pine trees not just one, so we decided that the biggest one must be the loneliest one.
However, the road indeed ended. But there was a gravel road that continues straight. Google instructed us to go on it.
We trusted google.
Besides, off-roading can be fun. We continued on the gravel road. We thought that the major climb was behind us, and this gravel road was a small downhill to another larger road which would continue down off the mountain.
That was not the case. After a short downhill, the road continued to climb. The gravel consisted of larger rocks, so we couldn’t really get any traction and ended up walking our bikes up a lot of the inclines.
We never really considered turning back on this path. Even after Erin fell and got dirt all over her right side. Even after the road became less of a road and more of a path with a large grass strip in the middle of two gravel/mud tire tracks.
We trusted google.
We pressed on.
We ended up putting flowers in our hair and discovered that out of the three of us, only Devin knew how to make a daisy chain. At a couple of points we carried our bikes.
After about four miles on this gravel path, Google said our right turn onto a new road was coming up. We hoped that it was a real road, or at least a better gravel road.
Turn right, google said.
Turn right into this:
There was nothing. No path, let alone road and there were downed trees everywhere. We had been following power lines for a while and we figured that the path up to this point was a service “road”. But now the workers just downed all the trees in the area and closed of the road.
But google said this was the best way. And we trusted google.
I texted maile and told her to turn around and go back to 80 before she and Edgardo got too far up the gravel road.
Now we had some choices. We could turn around ourselves and go back down those 4 miles of middle gravel road to get back to 80 or we could continue on. Google said to turn right in a half mile onto a different road before turning left in another half mile onto 80.
Now we knew that 80 was a real, real road. We didn’t trust that the next turn was an actual road or not. So it looked like potentially a mile of slogging through the wilderness before we hit civilization.
We decided to risk it.
Over wet, downed tree branches -no- whole trees we climbed. Up slick moss and mud patches. We got up anyway we could. We put our bikes over our shoulders and clambered over patches of thick undergrowth or pushed our bikes through small water rivulets.
The cleats in our shoes made for slippery walking and some parts I didn’t know how to get over without my bike. And Devin even found a turtle.
We climbed on.
It was still pouring.
The angle of the hill made it look like the terrain just kept going.
The wilderness never ended.
Moral was low.
Suddenly, two walked walk by out of no where. I thought I was hallucinating. Devin thought they were deer.
“Hey, is that a trial up there?” Devin asked.
“It’s a road,” one of them said before walking on.
I turned to Erin and shouted in absolute joy, “ERIN THERE'S A ROAD!”
I turned back to where the hikers disappeared and yell, “IS IT PAVED?” They were too far gone to hear me. They probably thought we were insane. I can’t imagine what they thought seeing three college aged kids dragging bikes through heavy undergrowth.
We were a little insane.
At the road, we cleaned off our brakes a bit, and took some photos celebrating our accomplisment.
Then we finally started biking instead of hiking. We made it to the beautiful paved road that was 80.
What a beautiful paved road. A road. A real road. It was luxurious.
We biked about 12 more miles until Lebanon VA where we stopped at the wonderful establishment that is McDonalds. It’s been pouring the entire time so we decide to site outside under a pavilion. Devin and I certainly got some strange looks walking dressed in biking shorts and jerseys completely drenched and dripping water everywhere.
We ate a culinary masterpiece of a lunch (after that morning it was the best food we’ve ever had), and got updated on every else’s situation.
Caralyn and Bill were having a nightmare of a time with the rental car. They ended up needing to drive to Knoxville to see about a car and wouldn’t be back until 7pm. With the detour, Maile and Edgardo were pretty far behind. It was still pouring and we were supposed to be camping tonight.
That wasn’t happening. We decided to get a hotel room in Lebanon and the others would meet us there.
Edgardo and Maile showed up a bit later and we hung out and watched Little House on the Prairie.
A couple hours later, Caralyn and Bill came back (with all our clothes!). They had an adventure trying to exchange the car and things sort of but didn’t really work out. (We got a new car but it’s too small so we will be getting a new car soon).
We were all pretty hungry at this point, so we all biked out to a nearby buffet restaurant where Caralyn explained what why banana pudding reminded her of tunnels and sculptures made out of ground beef.
Afterwards we all headed back to the hotel where we fit too many people into too small of a room. It didn’t matter though because we all were quickly fast asleep.
So an overall adventure but we learned an important lesson.
We don’t trust you google.
Best,
Leah Yost
P.S. we still use google. we don't have better options.