Whats harder, Riding your bike into the mountains, ascending for miles and then descending for miles. OR. Riding
100 plus miles of flat terrain? Riding the Flat is WAY harder and I will tell you why. When your riding in the mountains. You may spend several hours going uphill, and the entire time your pedaling and pedaling. But when you get to that 5 or 6 or even 10 mile downhill, your doing nothing but coasting. When your riding Flat Terrain for miles and miles, there is no break and the pedaling is constant. Everyone constantly says the phrase, "This is the hardest thing I have ever done on a bike," And I have to say for the moment, it was for me. I totally underestimated the magnitude of this ride. I totally underestimated how time consuming the dirt portion would be. Totally underestimated and miscalculated what would happen if we got lost in terms of rationing my supplies and my water. So ya, it was an enlightening experience for myself. I learned a lot about self supported touring and most important, I learned a lot about me. Lets Just say this, first mistake of the day for me, 3 hours of sleep is not sufficient rest for an undertaking of this magnitude.
Being a person who values his Indigenous beliefs. When I started the day with a sighting of the Thunderbird, I knew it was an Ominous Omen. Lil did I know what laid ahead.
My weapon of choice, the beautiful Salsa Mamasita, equipped with very skinny road touring tires. That would be my second mistake of the day, I underestimated how rough the dirt roads would be and the tires were translating every rock and pebble and crevice into my frame and my body. Not so Fun. :O(
Dave Snow's Dos Niner. Sweet ride, great paint job.
Congrats to Dave who finished 3rd overall in his class for the Florida State Championship series. He was showing his XC skills at the start and he was hauling some serious butt. Eventually, I had to tell him to go on without me and call me when he finished, because, the lack of sleep thing started to get to me eventually.
This was the common view on the clockwise route towards the lake. Not much to see, everywhere you looked you could see for miles and miles. It was a little daunting to say the least.
More vastness to look at.
I don't know what was worst of the off road portion of the ride. The rocky parts or the grassy parts. One section would rob you of momentum, the other one would rattle me needlessly. At this point I was regretting my tire choice.
I started practicing my rolling self portraits, here is me, early in to the 40 miles of dirt roads.
And more, doesn't look so bad and I bet it wouldn't be if I would of had some fatties.
Here is a shot, check out the skinny road/touring tire, just feeding me suffering on the dirt roads.
Yea, sweating is good. Cause at one point, I had to ride without water for close to ten miles. When I finally met up with Dave again, I was drinking water from a trailer park water faucet as if I had been traversing the desert. Pretty funny.
Dave Snow and his Snowy cranes. These birds would fly, then land, and he would approach and they would get up and fly some more, it was pretty funny.
The Cranes again.
Just look. It goes on into the horizon. Eventually, it was mentally exhausting for me to try and wrap my mind around the magnitude of the ride. It helped to break it down into section by section which turned out to be my saving grace in the end.
Wicked dead woods on the left.
Eventually, after Dave took off. I straight up laid write on the pavement you see here and took a well needed 20 minute map. Lets just say after miles and miles of dirt, you then had miles and miles of relentless headwind. The Nap, helped and I started rolling and feeling good. Even though I was fighting a head wind or a cross wind I was enjoying myself, Finally.
There is my favorite riding partner. He is the only one that cant out ride me and never leaves.
More self portrait shots.
And even more.
I took a picture of this for one reason only. This was the Stank Swamp. It smelled like rotten baby poo and it would come and go, for miles. AWFUL!
Finally, a refuge, I made it to Clewiston and I was pretty happy. I restocked on water and took a picture of the map.
Followed up by a shot of me feeling good, with the self timer. Check out my nashbar handlebar bag. I had to modify it on the fly, and I wasn't even able to use it thru the dirt sections cause if I activated the shock it would rub the front tire. Eventually I strapped it to my back till I got back on the pavement. Thank God I had electrical tape, cause I was able to use it to reinforce the stretchy strap and pull it over my stem to keep it off my front tire. Not long after this, I got tired of fighting the wind and laid down and took another 20 minute nap. I must of looked like some weird hobo laying on the ground. But except for the occasional passing boat, there was no one around to see.
Sunset. I strapped on the light and readied myself for the night. Applied the bug spray and got ready for any possible cold. The cold never came. About 10 miles after this, I turned towards the north and the wind that had been just crushing me turned into the sweetest Tailwind EVER. For nearly 30 miles or so I averaged anywhere between 14 to 16 mph.
The bridge at the Miami canal, straight hauling ass.
And even better shot.
The night riding was the saving grace of the ride. It was the best, it was beautiful and poetic. Seeing the lights in the distance of the cities, seeing the views of the big lake finally, it was just splendid. The speed, the sights the sounds, were poetic. Eventually after Pahokee, I had to get off the trail and take the road, which was nice, till we turned out of town towards Port Mayaca which was a nasty rough road. On this road, it was pitch black and I got chased by not one set of pit bulls, but two. It almost killed me to go that fast after riding 90 miles. I eventually got worried about Dave and thought he would have called me a long time ago. So I placed a call around 830 and he was 20 or so miles up the road and he had finally finished. Not wanting him to sit and wait for 1.5 hours or more for me to finish, I told him to come on down and get me. In retrospect I know I could of finished it, I had the strength the speed and the determination. There were times I wanted to quit, but I had no choice to push on. Now, will I ever do it again, Yes, cause I want to complete what I started, but, this time, I think I will start in the dark, sleep till the morning on the trail somewhere and then ride out into the morning.
Laters...
Well, after some long road rides on my Mamasita and the discovery that those tires I used on the Okechobe ride where a Lil too soft (i.e. a flat from a staple, and a flat from a tiny piece of glass) I decided to trash em and put the fatties back on. Looks so NICE!!!
I have been trying real hard to ignore road riding. But since, you know, everyone touts the benefits of it, I decided to set my cross check up again for road riding. One of the best cycling related decisions I made in 2007 was to get wobble naughted. The fit, is awesome. And although I love it I cant afford to get all my bikes fitted. So, I did some experimenting took some measurements from my Mamasita and applied it to my cross check. Just like on my Mamasita, I could go longer and lower on the front, but all in due time. Cant wait to test it to see how I did. 
