Originally Posted by
pdlamb
In a similar discussion a while back, someone suggested Leadville to Canon City, CO. Follow the Arkansas River downhill and downstream, there's only one significant uphill to go around Royal Gorge 10 miles out of Canon City. The terrain is beautiful, and if you need to recover a day before heading home, take the train up the gorge or a whitewater rafting trip. You might want to delay until mid-June for the rafting, though.
No. Not for an 8yr old. Hwy 24 from Leadville to Salida is a 60mph two-lane-no-shoulder puckerfest.
I get the desire to mix in different scenery --if you're gonna do a century, you should enjoy a new locale, right? That being said, is something like Malibu->San Clemente not under consideration? And if you were looking for
super flat, Palmdale to Victorville and back? But that would be boring, deserty, and boring. And it's been so long since I've been out there I dunno how traffic would be. And it'd be boring.