So I RoDe My BikE to ThE EveRGLaDes....Part 2: 3 LaKeS to OkEeeChOBee

It was a long night, but I got to sleep.  I could hear Bob over there shifting around and stuff, didn't seem like he was having a good time but Bob is tough as nails so it was no big deal.  We packed up.  Mission one was to find water.  I was low, but I also knew that there was a well in the area.  Had seen it somewhere or maybe Bob told me, either way we rode a little bit of distance to these beautiful campgrounds.

I kind of looked at Bob funny, if we  had only pedaled 2 more miles last night we could of camped by water and bathrooms in this beautiful spot....Noted, but we just chuckled about it.  I used the rest room, learned about how to use the well that was located on site.  The well required me to first pour some water into it to get it to function.  I had never seen such a thing, but it was good to have Bob there to guide me through it, I really don't know if I would of figured it out by myself.

I stocked up on water and when I went to use my Leatherman, I couldn't find it.  When I am in the backwoods I tend to keep it on me, so I can have it handy.  But it was nowhere.  I searched through my memories and found a picture in my head of me unpacking it into my helmet that I hung of my hammock.  I figure it must of fell out so I pedaled back to the campsite I stayed at and after a small search I found it.  YESSSSS.... I really didn't want anymore adversity on the trip.  In fact when I drove to work Friday morning I had packed everything I needed for the trip except my shoes.  Thankfully I had my spare shoes in the car, so I had to ride this trip with shoes that feel. fine, but the Velcro straps don't work for crap.  I had managed well so far, but like I said, I didn't want anymore adversity.

Bob met me up at the road, he had gone on a bit.  It was evident our pace was different on the trip and I had told him to go ahead, he had the route loaded on his GPS as well.  But when I rolled up he was at the intersection where we had turned off to go down the road to get water.  He told me there were construction guys up there and that we could not pass.

Great I thought.

I remember the Florida trail passed thru so we decided to try using it to get across.

After wondering around and seeing alot more forest we did a huge circle ending up right where we started still on the wrong side of the forest.  I cook up the plan that we just bushwhack to the other side and  deal with the water when we get to it.

We got to the water and Bob volunteers to try and get across so we can see how deep it is.  It was marshy looking stuff and I couldn't see the bottom, but like I said, Bobs a bad ass so no sweat across he went, it never got deeper then his waist, so I grabbed my bike and waded across and so did he.  Before we knew it we were back on pristine hard pack forest road.  The riding was great up here, it was wide open, bright and HOT.  Florida summers are no joke and even though it had been only 6 miles progress forward on the route I was almost out of water after wondering around on the wrong side of the river on the Florida Trail.

I got a ways ahead of Bob, told some jeepers that rolled up about the construction.  Then stopped at a game station and restocked on water, took off most my gear and called it an early break from the Sun while I waited for Bob. It was good I had gotten in chill mode, started eating one of my subs, drinking water, soaking my head and my face, Bob looked pretty cracked when he got to me and he basically jumped into the sink with the water, bathed head to toe and laid down for a bit.  He was roasted and I could tell.  I could tell he was in trouble and a break was the only solution.

We relaxed for a long while and then got moving again in the bright white sun.  Next section was unknown to me.  I thought it might be like a private community with a guard gate.  I had told Bob if there was a guard to let me do the talking.  But as we got closer to River Ranch, we discovered it was a resort.  The first building we saw had coke machines and we were both roasting and after wrestling with our damp dollar bills, Bob Amazingly got them to work, we had several cold drinks and sat out front of the closed store in the rocking chairs.

As we got closer we saw golf carts with tourist and buffalo and horses and more buildings and stores, restaurants and a post office, it was basically a small town in the middle of nowhere.

It was an Oasis in the blistering heat and we ate, cooled our heels and spent a good part of the afternoon sleeping under the shade of the oak tree by the river.  The weather had called for Clear skies, but I saw the storm coming, we barely missed it and hid out in a store.  The storm was intense and both Bob and I had a feeling it would pass quickly, so we stocked up.  The next 32 miles would be straight into the a wilderness area called Kicco WMA, terrain Unknown. 

 

What I did know about Kicco was that it ran along the kissimmee river.  The link you see above I found way after the fact.  So I know way more know then I did then, but the route was hard packed and fast as we navigated our way along the track.  Eventually we were in huge pastures full of cows and bulls.  I got nervous about the Bulls.  So I stood up and hammered through the area trying to look big fast and intimidating.   Most Bulls trotted toward the bush line along with the cows, but some stood there ground.

Once we cleared that area, we had to hang a hard right into grassy double track and before I know it, I am pedaling through a section of deep water, beyond Hub Deep, but I kept the paddle boat moving and emerged the on the other side, wet, but not bitten by snake or gator.

 A little further along, we came up on a fence, went thru it, and then hiked and pedaled along a fire break up and over a pyramid built to get you over the fence.  We crossed it, kept going on hard packed stuff to swampy double track, zigging and zagging eventually coming up on a bob cat, and then vehicles and the river as we made Fort Kissimmee cemetary.

Hindsight being 20/20 I now know that when we crossed on that pyramid we had entered the Avon Park WMA. But at the moment I was just following the track riding buff swamp hard pack swamp trail with few crossings, then some really cool shell rocky trail, good times.  Very little sand, really nice.

Eventually, it got darker, and before we knew it we were way in the middle of nowhere as the sun was setting.  We were up on a levy of sorts and we would drop down and cross water and then up and it would repeat, further and further back. AND then, the trail, the road, just ended into tall saw grass.  There was a monster fence on our right.  By far the oddest fence I had ever seen.  It was tall, then it had about a 5 foot gap in the middle, then it continued upward another 6 to 10 feet.  If I had to guess I would think the intention of the odd design was to keep deers out, since they would totally hit the top part.  Or maybe it was so they could get thru? Why else design such an odd fence.

We tried to follow the track, and were surrounded by saw grass.  Visibility was dismal, mosquito's were everywhere, to say things were getting tense, is an understatement.  When we got to the other side and looked back, the fence said, danger, Air Force base property do not trespass.  Seeing that sign and having crossed over from that side, it just added to our confusion.    After some bushwhack, Bob loses his spectacles.  Not good, we backtrack and find the actual track and discover that this was the section of the route that I had no choice but to follow the Florida trail to keep the true nature of the route intact, this was the mandatory hike section that was unavoidable.

So we muddled thru.  It was in some times what appeared to be abandoned farm land.  Then we would come up on sections where the swamp was trying to take the trail back.  Finding the blazes of Orange was complicated in the dark, and it took alot of deep breaths and team work to manage it all.  Eventually we would come up on bridges that had been built.  We were hiking in saw grass and water at times, and our legs were sliced to bits and the mosquito's were like blankets attacking from all sides, moving was the only solution.

I felt desperate at times.  I was getting impatient.  Even contemplated camping and waiting for daylight, we had enough food.  But we pushed, I figured it would only be 4 to 10 miles of this so push, push, push.  Hiking on bridges that now were off camber from the swamp destroying there flat design, taking them back into the water.

I have studied tense survival situations like this. And just stayed patient and persevered, eventually I saw a street light.  I told Bob, if there is a street light, there is a street and there is a way out.  The track even said to go in that direction so we go over the fence, discovering that we are in private property, some outdoor guide place.  We could hear dogs, we turn our lights off and haul ass.  I see dogs in pens, not worried, and I see kayaks and huge trucks and before we know it we exit the property thru an open gate and we see the trail head where we could have hiked out of eventually skipping this peace of the route.

Looking back, I will try and find away around this hike a bike.  Maybe the property owners will give us permission to pedal thru.  Or maybe we backtrack from fort kissimmee cemetery thru Avon Park WMA.  At this time I don't know.  Maybe hiking 8 to 10  miles is the way it should stay???

Regardless, once on pavement we had alot of miles left to Okeechobee and we were both, tired, cut up, bit up, and beaten by the ridiculous survival hike we just did.  My Droid did the math and according to map, we still had 35 more miles to ride to get to Okee....

I cant at this time, months later describe how disappointing that news was.  It had been a difficult and intense 4 hours in the swamp.  But we stopped at the intersection and I ate another sub, and I danced around being driven insane by the itch I could feel on my legs from the bites and the cuts.

As sad and as low as a moment that was, we both knew what we had to do and we saddled up and pedaled.  I was suddenly motivated, so I got deep into my Freddie's and hammered away.  Bob's light disappeared.  I ran out of water, and topped off.  I stopped to lay down for a minute, I was falling asleep on the bike.  The mosquito's wouldn't let me sleep, so I got up, got rolling stopping at a church, Bob and I reunited.  He got water and we kept going, eventually angry and fed up, I use the fuel to Hammer at 19+mph to town. Pulling  into a station I grab some cold drinks and sit outside and wait for Bob.

While I'm out there drinking my Dr. Pepper, I notice Okee is quite lively late at night.  Three trucks pull up, the guys are yelling at the other guys, playing around I suppose.  Young 20 something year old girls stare at me as they go inside the store.  I must be quite the sight, muddy, dirty, cut up and tired.

A guy ask me if them guys in the truck wanted to fight?
I told him, I think they are just joking around, they know each other....
He then ask me what I am doing here at 2 in the morning.
I tell him, I'm just on a ride, waiting on a friend, were gonna get a hotel....
then he tells me, O, I don't have any money...

In my head I was like WTF???

Just then the 20 something year old girls walk by and this time at least they say hi.

Bob shows up, we shop, we get our things and roll out, to the closest cheapest hotel.

I showered with my clothes on to clean them. and wring them up.  I put on my spare clothes and by the time I got out the shower Bob was sleeping.  It had been a hard and long day.  I stayed up watching TV and eating about 2000 calories worth of food, eventually falling asleep myself.

NK 2013