I imagine my boss at work is annoyed by me. I spent what feels like HOURS looking at the map. I don't know but at some point I realized, after making all the routes I have made that they all have a similar pattern. You travel via mountain bike from wilderness area to wilderness area. In one side, out the other, on and on, all the way to whatever destination you choose.
I only know Florida. So, I started seeing the connections when I looked at the map. And then I started piecing altogether, and at some point I sat down and just started looking and clicking and mapping a mostly off road route, from where I was sitting at work, to and thru the Everglades and beyond.
I had hatched an elaborate plan. 7 days, 500 miles. Ride whatever pace I want, hard or soft. 80% of the trip into wilderness area after a wilderness area, a chain of green space snaking along the Kissimee river to Lake Okeechobee.
Since I started working at Bikeworks south I immediately mapped a route exploring shingle creek. Shingle Creek is known as the headwaters of the Everglades. It seemed easy to try and find the other areas of green space along this waterway.
It actually took me about 20 minutes to map the entire route, including the return trip. I then spent another 60 minutes confirming every piece of the route that I could see from street views. Eventually before I put together my final product, I went thru it one more time with a fine tooth combed, making sure that the route was solid. I picked my dates, bought my train ticket for the return trip home and set out on a 200$ budget no less.
I am really blessed to have Edith in my life who believes in me spiritually and mentally. Encourages me to be my best and even more, she is that stoke to my fire and passion for what I do. I also find myself lucky to have friends to ride with and who will still join me when I get a wild hair to do something just a little crazy.
Bob Capers was the only one who stepped up to join me. His plan was to ride with me to Okeechobee and then ride to Jupiter to meet up with The Queen of Florida Off Road Ultras, Lynne Daniels. Again, I felt blessed to have someone along, even if it was only for 120 miles of the 500 mile voyage. I didn't want to miss any work, or waste any vacation time so I decided to leave Friday after work and ride off into the dark heading towards Holopaw. It was going to be a mostly pavement/bike path shred out of town.
The First part of the ride was fine, but Kissimmee, was like a different country. We pedaled thru it with no issue, but the traffic was crazy and the drivers were aggressive, it was a wild ride.
Once we hit the bike path sections, I remembered why I had picked that route, very pretty and scenic stuff, we were riding in the dark by this point, but it was the middle of summer and riding at night is choice. Bob, kept reminding me that my current route was technically taking us in the wrong direction and that we would be backtracking a bit, but that was the first time I shared my Number one rule when I am scouting a track that I have only known by drawing at home.... Always follow the track.... So we stayed on track and made our first stop, first at a seven eleven to shop, where I bought a pair of subs and a bag of chips for the first leg of our trip, and then we stopped again, in Holopaw, before venturing deeper into the forest where there would be no supplies for an expected 80 miles.
I don't remember how long we had been on the bike at this point, but I ate dinner and got a super deal on skinned potato wedges and chicken crisp. I took my time eating my chicken and potatoes and bought some chocolate for the road. I prefer to eat chocolate or some sort of chocolate mix when I am pedaling, but that's the catch about a Florida summer, chocolate turns to hot liquid and its not appetizing at all. In fact if you eat it, its cause you have no choice, not cause you would enjoy it. Since it was dark, though, I stocked up and spent the rest of the night eating chocolate making sure by the time the sun came up, that it would be all gone.
After riding along pavement for awhile and being passed by huge semi trucks, we entered our first dirt section, ,. It was pretty shitty. But since I am used to riding shitty, I pedaled and drifted on top of the sand so quick that I disappeared from Bob. Eventually we met up on this perfectly hard packed dirt road. Once I got there I pulled out my phone and saw that had we stayed on the paved road just a little longer we could have rode hard packed pristine forest road instead of the sand trap I just spun thru. Lesson learned and noted.....
Bob is such a good person to have along though that the first thing he said to me, was "Hey, I know this road, we could have taken pavement a little further and connected with...". He was right, but it was too late, onward we pushed.
NK2013
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