• 30 mile out and back loop
• 44 mile with Lela Loop option
• City sreets, Highway shoulders, Asphalt county roads
• Rolling hills
• Light traffic

Description

If the weekly Saturday club ride is not Perkins, then there is a good chance that the ride is to Glencoe, a small town located northeast of Stillwater.

The formal start of the ride is at Strickland Park just south of the Perkins Family Restaurant. Most ride their bicycles to the start, but some drive and ride. There is plenty of free parking at the park. From April to October, Strickland Park is home to the Farmer's Market. This is also the location of the Skate Park. All together it makes for an interesting combination of people gathered in one place.

From Strickland Park, head north on Main Street (and Boomer Road) to Husband Street. Continue north on Husband past Stillwater High School and Boomer Lake Park. Turn east at Airport Road for about 1/2 mile, then north on Perkins Road.

Continue north on Perkins Road (Highway 177). The four-lane highway becomes two lane with shoulders just past the Armstrong plant about 1/2 mile north of Airport Road. Yost Road is three miles north of Airport Road and is just before the on ramp of the Cimarron Turnpike. Turn east on Yost Road. The large man-made hill to the right is Stillwater's landfill.

Two and one-half miles east of Perkins Road is a place called Yost. The lake was built by the railroad as a water supply for steam locomotives. A country club resort developed with summer homes on both sides of the small lake. For many years this was the place to go for swimming and spend the day.

You will cross the railroad tracks 1/2 mile east of Yost. The north-south gravel section road is Fairgrounds Road. One mile east, at Prairie Road, on the top of a steep hill, is the former Eureka School house. It is the large boarded up building near the road. Today it is part of a farm that includes two llamas, Mago and Dolly (Dolly Llama). This is a good place for a rest break. This is 10 miles from the ride start. Looking back to the southwest you have a great view of Stillwater and OSU. The white tanks due west are part of Stillwater's Water Treatment Plant.

After visiting with the llamas, keep riding east for three miles, riding past the East 51 Water District's water standpipe, the highest point on the route, and past the Glencoe cemetery. Turn north on State Highway 108, also known as Rose Road. Glencoe is two mile north.

Ride towards the water tower and you will find Glencoe's downtown, two blocks west of the highway. There is a cafe in the first building on the south side of the street. This was Gene's Smokehouse Cafe for many years and is now RT's Cafe. It has been a good place for breakfast and on winter rides it is a great place to get hot chocolate or coffee.

The alternate stop in Glencoe is the Maverick Mini Mart convenience store on Highway 108 near the Glencoe High School.

The ride back to Stillwater is either by retracing the route back to Strickland Park or continuing on what we call the Lela Loop.

LELA LOOP
The Lela Loop route begins with six sweet miles north on Highway 108 to its north end at US Highway 64 at a place on the map called Lela. The six miles from Glencoe is on a smooth asphalt highway with very light traffic, mostly downhill, and usually with a south wind pushing you along the way. Many times club members will ride as fast as they wish and meet in Lela to regroup. There may be eight houses in Lela and there is no downtown.

The Lela Loop continues about four miles west on US-64 to the town of Morrison. The Texaco on the highway is a good stop and there is a picnic table out front that we have used often. Three more miles west is Bill's Corner at the junction with US Highway 177. The convenience store here also has a picnic table out front.

The route south on US-177 to Stillwater follows the Bill Corner Route, although there are several options when riding through Stillwater, one of which is a left turn on Airport Road and then south on Husband Street back to Strickland Park.

DK