By Carrie Moritz, Gazette

            Carrie Bonine has a passion. And her enthusiasm for it is infectious.

            She loves riding her bicycle along the "scenic routes", which keep her on gravel roads and off the heavily traveled corridors.

            "I really like how you feel immersed in the area that you're navigating through when you're on bike, because you get all the senses," she said with passion in her voice, "of hearing, like birds and dogs, and the cows or tractors, and then you just have all these different scents. Spring is always really nice, because you've got the lilac bushes everywhere in bloom."

            By day, Bonine works with Community Education in Sioux Falls, coordinating schedules and logistics. But by nights and early mornings, you can find her pedaling away around Garretson, enjoying the immersion of the outdoors. She has always loved cycling, but fell out of it during college at Dakota State University.

            "I kind of stopped riding my bike, but then the pandemic came, and I just fully went back onto a bike," she said. She discovered gravel cycling during that time, a sport where cyclists stay off paved roads and pursue the paths less traveled, whether that's mountain trails or gravel roads. It was a huge lifeline for her, she said, because it was such a stressful time.

            "Just being out on that bike, it just... all that would just wash away," she said. "So, it also kind of became an addiction that way. I guess I was always excited to get back on the bike and just kind of, you know, let the world just kind of sit back and just not worry about everything."

Already have an account? Log In: