Your stock gearing is the same as I have on my older Novarra Randonee, essentially 1:1. I cycled the Northern Tier route last summer, across some steep terrain in the North Cascades, Rockies, Mississippi bluffs, Adirondacks and Appalachians and coastal Maine, and used the granny gear a grand total of one time while on pavement, about 100' up a steep ravine in Maine. And a few short dirt drives at campsites. I could easily have done without the granny altogether and walked those few feet, mainly because of a light load and being a decent climber. My point is you may not need to change a thing and the bike might be just fine for you and your riding style.

I wore out the middle ring and had to change it after the ride. I shopped around and found one for $25 and it was a snap, so if you want to play around with a different small ring, it's not very expensive (assuming you have the tools to pull the crank).