General Notes: Route starts and ends at Red Roof Inn, cheap hotel for tight wads like me. Until St David and After Elmwood it's mostly paved, but nice country roads nonetheless. In between those two it's 90% gravel though. I did this on 700x38/40c, probably a good choice as there is some course gravel, MTB may be overkill though. It's about 10500 feet of climbing in total, which will come in the form of: long flats, steep descent followed by steep climp, rinse and repeat. I have Sprint and cell phone service was pretty decent considering how remote you are. There are lots of opportunities to cut the route short and skip sections the way it's laid out, but it will throw your mileage off on the notes below. You can always calculate points using "Mileage left to end", I'll leave that up to you though. Route Notes: Mile 6: I didn't see any private property signs here, but if I maybe missed them, just turn right on Ellory Rd, otherwise continue straight for a short adventure. And have faith, you will be back on the road soon. Mile 11: Pump track on the left, have fun on your fully loaded bike! Mile 30: (Gladsford) Casey's Mile 33: (Some swampy preserve) This goes right by the Illinois river, if water levels are high it will be flooded. Just go right on Route 9 and take one of the next 3 roads on the right Mile 38-53: This stretch was untested, my original route was shorter but the bridge I planned to cross over Copperas Creek is collapsed and will unlikely be rebuilt any time soon. The two farther upstream look to be sturdier (from Google Maps at least) so you should be fine. If you're concerned, you can stay on route 9 through Banner and Monterey but it's a pretty busy road with not much of a shoulder. Mile 62: (St David) Casey's, the fun starts here! Mile 102: (Bernadotte) Bernadotte Cafe', a really cool place with a old phone booth. Eat a sandwich here, trust me. Mile 119: (Marietta) There's a bar and a restaurant but they looked to be closed, probably due to Covid 19 Mile 131: (Babylon) Ok, this bridge is technically closed. It's an old steel bridge, with wooden surface, and guard rail barricades on both sides that you will have to lift your bike over. Also when you come out, there's a tree down and some thick bushes you have to navigate your way through. But it's passable. If you're a wimp you can continue straight at mile 127.5 to Blyton, make a left there and a right after half a mile. Oh, and the house on the left before said bridge has 2 or 3 mean dogs that will scare the crap out of you. Luckily they were on leashes. Really long leashes though. Mile 147: (Fairview) Quick half mile out and back to a convenience store for re-suply. I didn't stop here as I didn't need to, but should be there. Mile 199: (Elmwood) Casey's on the left and probably a few more things in town, it's a decent sized town. Mile 216-218: (Jubilee College State Park) I went through this at night but it looks like there's camping here, could be a good place to start/finish if you don't want to stay in Peoria. Mile 228: (Peoria) You are almost back, there will be a lot of stuff here. Hope you enjoy, feel free to email me any questions at [email protected]