First Century for 2021, the Three River Ride.

 

Along the Feather River.

Time had arrived for me to attempt a Century ride. I've managed a few 100 kilometer rides recently and the weather was forecast to be favorable for an 8 hour jaunt with a high in the lower 90s, so I took the opportunity to go on my annual "3 River's Tour". The rivers being the Feather, the Sacramento and the American Rivers. Here's a screenshot of the actual route:

This year, I anticipated I'd have to add a little distance at the start of the ride to compensate for shortening the ride at the end due to recent road work on Auburn Folsom Road. In the event, the road work had been completed so my ride ended up being a little longer that usual! There was a detour off the Garden Highway which added a mile or two to the ride as well!

The extension I came up with at the start of the ride involved riding up to Sheridan then following Rioso Road and Bear River Drive to Pleasant Grove Road,  dropping down to Cornelius Road and entering East Nicolaus there. This had the added benefit of bypassing Nicolaus Road out of Lincoln, which is narrow and can have some traffic.

The ride was pretty uneventful except for the detour on the Garden Highway. After regaining my planned route I was on the American River Bikeway until reaching Beales Point on Folsom Lake. At that point I got on Auburn Folsom road and braced myself for whatever route change I would face. Happily, the work on A/F road is completed and I was able to follow my traditional route up to King Road then on King to home. Total mileage came to a little over 112 miles, so it was a good effort! 

The Mercian worked well, really no issues, not even any flats. I continue to appreciate the moustache handlebars for long distance riding.

Here are a few pictures of this year's ride:

Along McCourtney Road

On Rioso Road, looking southwest.

At sleepy little Nicolaus.

Looking out on the Feather River on the Garden Highway levee road

The old riverboat is still there, but the nearby RV Park has closed down.

My rest stop at the small park under the I-5 overpass.

Shortly past the rest stop, the Garden Highway is shut down for road work! The detour took me several miles out of my way!

Post-ride view of my Mercian. No mechanical issues at all this time, not even any flats!

Late, late Spring ride around Camp Far West

A pause at Camp Far West Reservoir.

 I decided to try the loop around Camp Far West, taking advantage of an unseasonably cool weather pattern. It was a pretty nice ride with no real issues. Camp Far West Road was not in the greatest condition with heavy washboard on a lot of it. Long Ravine was a little bumpy too. Things smoothed out somewhat on McCourtney and beyond, probably because there tends to be less traffic on those roads.

This is a repeat of a ride I discovered last year, see:  Roads north of Camp Far West. I adjusted the route just a little.

 Not much commentary this time, I'll supply some info in the captions.

On McCourtney Road, heading to Camp Far West.

Camp Far West is pretty low this year!

At the intersection of  Camp Far West Road and Long Ravine Road, looking down Long Ravine Rd.

On Long Ravine Road, the irrigated fields on the right added some greenery.

At the junction of Long Ravine Rd. and McCourtney! This end of McCourtney is cut off from the lower, (southern) section by the reservoir.

A pretty solid bridge on this stretch of McCourtney!

Coming to the intersection of McCourtney and White Oak Road. McCourtney goes straight but becomes a private road and dead-ends; You need to go left on White Oak.

This is the sign on McCourtney that's on the right side of the picture above. It also has a handy mileage indicator!

You follow White Oak for a couple of miles until you reach Perimeter Road. At this point, Perimeter is graveled but eventually becomes paved.

A view from Perimeter Road, looking west.

This year, I took MacDonald Road off of Perimeter to reach Garden Bar. Here. I'm approaching Cabrera Road, (coming in from the left), which is the route I took last year. In either case, you're on a private drive so you have to be...discreet!  

Eventually, MacDonald reaches Garden Bar and now the rest of the ride will be on pavement.

Equipment notes:

Of course I took the Ritchey for this ride. I used my new 650b wheelset, tubeless with 48mm Gravel King tires. I kept these at about 45 lbs pressure and didn't bother to lower the pressure for the gravel. The slick tires performed nicely and I only had them slip on loose stuff maybe once or twice.

Having indexed shifting is really a benefit on a ride like this where you encounter conditions that demand concentration on bike handling and not shifting! The old Ultegra bar-ends worked great with the STX rear derailleur! 

Really no issues this time. I did miss having a handlebar bag, I may look into getting a front rack and "Rando" style front bag some day.

Post-ride shot of the Ritchey, a little dusty but no worse for wear!