Originally Posted by
CliftonGK1
1) Congratulations on your first one! Sounds like there will be many more to follow.
2) Did you stop at the Rexville Grocery? That place is awesome. Even though it's just an info control on the 3RV2 permanent, I still stopped in to get some grub.
On the Centennial trail, you can ride around most of the bollards by cutting through the gravel/dirt paths were everyone else has managed to go around them. Just be mindful that traffic has the right of way, and that's why the bollards are there. I think there's only 2 intersections where you can't cut around them. Macchias Station (along the trail) is a great place to refill water bottles and sit at a picnic table for a few minutes, and the bathrooms are clean.
I did stop at the Rexville Grocery. It was not what I expected out of a rural gas station! The beer on tap looked Really Really Good... But I stuck with refilling my water bottles and getting some potato chips (salty, yum!). I went around some of the bollards, and through some of them--didn't like them either way, as going around often entailed lots of rocks and a sudden drop off from the asphalt to the dirt. I can understand why they have them, but I rather like myself in my un-car-squished state, and actually make an effort to keep myself that way. I found they made me feel less safe crossing the street, because I had to cross more slowly in order to negotiate the bollard on the other side.
Originally Posted by
Kamala
No need to apologize! Awesome achievement in a very pretty area of the region. Can't believe Clifton hasn't suggested some rando as the next step, so I'll do it even though my rando career currently consists of a whopping two DNFs. Hope to see you out there some time!
My husband wend rando last year, and that was part of what inspired me to get a bike--on other threads I've gotten some nudges that direction, and I'm definitely interested. I was thinking of doing the SIR 200k for new riders in September, but the description was recently updated to include phrases like "gravel adventure" so I think I'll wait this year out. It sounds fun, but for where I am as a rider right now, I'd be pretty nervous/worried and don't think I'd enjoy myself.
I had to laugh when I got home and told my husband "guess what I did today"--he thought I was crazy for just going out and doing a century, and yet he's the one signed up for the SIR 300k of mountain passes, gravel roads, and elk this weekend...
Oh yeah, did I mention that cycling through farm country with roadside fruit stands was an unintended stroke of genius on my part? Perhaps the tastiest raspberries I've ever had, and I don't think that was just the ride hunger speaking...