Bonus century

Here's a "Run the Map" screen shot of the route.

Shelly went off for her annual Lake Tahoe trip recently so I found myself with a free day to ride! I decided to try a relatively flat century, heading heading out southwest into the Sacramento Valley, then turning north before swinging back to the east, pretty much avoiding any major climbs. Above shows my route as recorded by the Run  the Map app on my phone. The start of my ride took me across rural Loomis and through Granite Bay, eventually coming to Folsom to the American River Parkway, Sacramento's famous bike path which runs along the American River from Folsom Lake to Discovery Park.

Quiet morning on the ARP

Even though I've lived in this region for over 20 years now, you can count the number of times I've ridden on the Parkway on one hand! I'm a little too far for convenient use, plus there are plenty of rides around Loomis. Also, the stories you hear of crowded conditions and pedestrian/biker conflicts kind of turned me off. Fortunately, this Sunday morning was fairly quiet, even though I didn't start riding until after 8:00 AM.

As far as Lake Natomas, things were quiet, but it did start to pick up after that point, I'm glad I didn't start any later! Rode along for a while with another recent retiree and we chatted about retired life, etc. It was fun. I even saw a fellow on a heavily loaded Rivendell Atlantis! I complemented him on his nice looking bike, but I don't get why so many Rivendell riders go for the Wald basket thing!

I was concerned about finding my way onto the Garden Highway from the Parkway, but it actually turned out to be a piece of cake! Just before Discovery Park was a sign for Northgate Road. I took that, (northbound), crossed a bridge and immediately came to the intersection with the Garden Highway! How easy was that!

Heading up the Garden Highway.

The first stretch of this road is not so great, kind of urban jungle like, but before too long you're on the levee road running along the Sacramento River, (as pictured above).  So, all I had to do now was stay on this road until I hit Nicolaus! At first, there are a lot of eateries and bars on the Highway, but when you finally hit the I-5 overpass, you come to the end of a lot of services. There is a public boat ramp there with bathrooms and, (I think), water. I should have filled my bottles there because after that point, you have a long stretch with very few services.

At Verona.

Generally, the Garden Highway is a good road, however, the were a couple of areas after crossing the Sutter county line, where I encountered some incredibly rough road surfaces. I'm pretty sure these rough conditions led to the main mechanical problem of my ride, which I'll explain later.

Same spot in Verona, but this time looking across the highway at the Sacramento River.

The ride through this region is quite pleasant. Little traffic and nice scenery, with the rivers, (the Sacramento and after Verona, the Feather), on your left and farmland on your right. Very nice and rural, but very few services available.

For those who think California is all concrete and beaches...

Eventually, the highway brings you to Highway 99. At this point I was about out of water. Luckily, I spotted a golf course. The portion of the course next to the highway must have been the "back nine" because it was far from the clubhouse. A dirt service road ran from the highway to the course. On a hunch I dropped down that road and sure enough, saw a nice Igloo cooler mounted on a stand adjacent to the fairway. I quickly filled my bottles and scooted out of there. I don't think the golf course people would have minded, but I didn't want to wait to find out!

The little town of Nicolaus on a quiet Sunday afternoon.

Soon I was in the little village of Nicolaus and on the last leg of my ride. It was beginning to get a little warm so I started looking for a place to buy an ice cold drink. Well, no luck here! Eventually I had to make my way all the way to Lincoln to get some ice!

I think I found the source of the rattling...

As I mentioned earlier, I did have one significant mechanical problem. I mentioned the very rough roads in Sutter County. At one point I was beginning to hear more rattling than usual and pulled over to check it out. Turns out my rear fender had split at the brake bridge! I used a bit of duct tape to hold the fender together. When I got to Lincoln I pulled the loose section off and tossed it. The forward section was still firmly connected so that remained for the rest of the ride.

Here's a close-up of the break.

This isn't the first time a metal fender has broken on one of my bikes. A stainless steel VO fender snapped in almost the identical fashion on my Motobecane Jury commuter several years ago. Hmm, I'm going to have to figure how to correct that tendency! In the meantime, I've ordered a set of SKS Longboards, (in beige!), to replace the alu fenders for a change. I have used the SKS fenders on my other Mercian and they seem pretty nice, we shall see. I'm riding the Mercian with no fenders for the first time now, and it's kind of nice for a change, but it wouldn't be so nice this winter!

"Run the Map" stat page for this ride.

Finally, here are some stats for the ride from Run the Map. I was pretty happy my performance on this ride, except for a little cramping I experienced in Sutter County. I'm becoming convinced that cramping is more a result of heat than of lack of training.

So this is the second century for me this year! This is a nice and not-too-brutal route, which could be done virtually any time of year, just be sure to have plenty of water!