Anyone ride the North Shore Century? - Some thoughts

The Evanston Cycling Club held their North Shore Century this last weekend. I originally intended to go for the full 100 mile option, but essentially undertrained all summer long, so I instead opted for the 62 (metric) or 75 mile option. I ended going for the 75 mile option, feeling like I had a lot of gas left in the tank as I was coming up to the turn off for the 62 mile option. Overall I enjoyed the experience. It was somewhat tempered by the miserable rainy weather, but a lot of the scenery was nice. I did find fault with some of the aspects of the ride however. I think, and I heard this from other riders, that the 75 mile option was not laid out very well for those who were attempting to do that route. In many instances there were no route markers on the road to indicate the 75 mile option in the beginning. Once you reached a certain rest stop (might've been Bowen Park?), you were then able to follow the route markers for the 100 mile ride all the way back in to Evanston. There were a few stretches of road that had very high vehicular traffic traveling at high speeds which I felt should have been avoided. However, not being familiar with the area I can not say where those stretches of the route could have gone that would've been safer feeling. My only other gripe was a bit of a personal one. I've done group rides in the past, but always with people I know or with a mass start. In this case you registered for the ride and left when it was convenient for you. In my case I didn't ride with anyone so for much of the trip I found myself catching up and trying to ride with either people who were A: too fast, or (more often) B: too slow. I feel like the ride would've been much more enjoyable riding with some other people who were similarly matched in skill and stamina, but that's just a case of me not really knowing any other cyclists. Overall, I had a good time and for the most part I enjoyed the course. I also feel like I mostly supported myself on this ride. I brought my own energy drink mix and some of my own food, not being sure what to expect at the rest stops. Given that the price of registration did not include a T-shirt (included in all other group rides I'd done in the past), and that the support was only evident at the rest stops (only saw the sag wagon once the whole day), I'm left wondering what I got for my money. I probably could've laid out a similar route using other folks directions from Map My Ride, and just done this solo and not wasted any money. Still, I enjoyed the experience and the knowledge that I can ride these kinds of distances with little trouble and only moderate effort. In the future though, I think I'll do a bit more research and try to find out just what a specific ride is like and maybe in the interim try to find some other people to get out and ride with.