Ask two of the Gliders' ride leaders about their favorite places to ride, and you'll get two different answers.
Tim Strauser says he's quite partial to the areas around Micanopy, McIntosh, Williston and Archer. And in particular he enjoys some of the roads in northern Marion County that are part of the annual Horse Farm Hundred route.
"If you haven't ridden the Horse Farm route, those are really nice roads," he says. "It's hilly, it's challenging and it's just a bit different scenery than you might be used to riding in Gainesville."
Barry says he enjoyed a recent 50 mile ride that combined about an equal mix of Hawthorne State Trail and the roads and highways between Gainesville, Melrose and Hawthorne.
The ride began at the Boulware Springs trail head and went east on the trail, crossing through Payne's Prairie to the section where the trail intersects Angle Road (County Road 234). Instead of continuing on the trail, Gibbons suggests taking a left and following CR 234 to Rochelle, crossing State Road 20 going through Windsor over to State Road 26, where he turned east (right) and taking that all the way into Melrose. [Use extreme caution on SR 26, heavy traffic. Or turn right in Windsor onto CR 1474 and then left on CR 219A to avoid SR 26. Ed.]
"Melrose is about the halfway point," he says.
At the light in Melrose, he turned south (right) on State Road 21 and followed it until the intersection of SR 20, where he turned west (right) and came back to Hawthorne, where he jumped on the Hawthorne State Trail at its eastern trail head and pedaled it all the way home. [Turn left onto Gordon Chapel Road and follow it onto Holden Park Road to avoid most of SR 20 (heavy traffic). Ed.]