ShInGLe CrEeK

An Airborne Ranger learns to carry his gear and jump out of planes into dangerous often hostile areas.

Its Odd cause I am like an Off Road Architectural Airborne Ranger. Drop me anywhere and I will find the dirt and create a route.

I think it was a Friday night at the shop. Last day of my work week and I tell Geoff and Wes that I am going to create a ride coming out of the shop. Immediately I can see stuff to ride.

I let it go at that point after just a brief fleeting glance.

Monday at work I told the boss that I was pretty sure I could organize an Urban Assault type ride with a pretty unique route.

Mark's all for it and I immediately decided to just put something together. In no time at all, I was done with a preliminary route.

I immediately called Wes and told him to bring his MTB to work on Wednesday cause we were going to test out the future Bikeworks South urban assault route.

All day we were pretty amped up and I was Happy that Wes was excited about going out for the ride. I wasn't sure if he was gonna like the things we would encounter, I didn't even know what the route would be hold, after all I had just scouted it on Satellite images and had not ridden a single foot of it.

The first part of the route was sidewalk and back road, we crossed over John Young Parkway and hung a hard right into Town Loop Blvd and went behind Hunters Creek Middle school. From the images on the computer I could tell there was boardwalk and thought it may even be to a mile long. As soon as we hit it, were going over the actual Shingle creek and everything was dark green and beautiful. Before long we make a hard right down a small set of stairs (definitely adding to the urban ride effect) and we were now on creek ridge riding singletrack. SICK!

After about 1/4 mile or less we hung a left on the main access road. Hard pack shell with a neatly carved double track. As quick as we made it onto the shell packed double, we turned a hard right and started what was called East Pine Island.

The first Section rolled smooth, but as we rounded the bend things got muddy and I had to dig into my bag of shitty terrain riding skills which put me in front of my company by a minute or so. But Wes Hung tough and we came out of there Muddy, but feeling strong.

More Hard pack ensued as we approached West Pine Island Loop I saw a water crossing and figured if the east side was wet the west side might be wetter. We continue rolling along and BAM we come up on what appears to be a pond in the middle of the trail

100 thoughts or so crossed my mind. Maybe 100 is an exaggeration. But, fairly fast I wanted to finish the route and I was not afraid to cross a pond.

But, to err on the side of safety I asked Wes to watch my back as I first just took a couple of steps into it to see how deep it was. The water was cold, I thought for sure that it must be creek overflow. Since I had my bright Stella on my helmet I could see right down to the floor. It was hard shell rock. At that point, I jump on the bike and start moving across. I glance down and to my wheels and my bottom bracket to make a mental note on how deep it is.

Hub's are not submerged, bottom bracket is skimming the surface, If I increase the speed, I can break the water better and keep all my parts free from water. I make the other side fast and call out to Wes to come across.

We pedal a little more shell and come up right on a power plant. Wes suggest we Scramble left and after a little situation where he got stuck knee deep in quicksand, we ended up on a Golf Course green, turned off our lights and started riding the cement trail carved into the Golf Course hill side.

On We go. Next thing we know were at the Entrance of the hotel. Now being unsure of the parks boundaries and limits we took pavement till we saw a Duncan Donuts and took the dirt road heading off behind the building.

Were back again under the power lines keeping steady tempo and making good time.

I had mapped to eventually break right. As the terrain got tougher I waited for Wes at the turn and we rode straight into Sandy party town central spot where it was obvious cars or trucks come fairly frequently to drink and hang out.

I decide to by pass this section, knowing full well before I got there that this was a possibility. I pulled up my droid and looked at the google earth satellite picture and got us back on hard pack clay in minutes.

After a good little roll and a feeling of relief that the return to hard pack brought, we came up on fence. We circumnavigated it fairly fast and then were back on the road for a couple of turns.

Foolish me, I wasn't smart en0ugh to notice that Osceola Parkway is a toll road(what an idiot) and then we cut back to the original by pass.

There is a water management department warning to not venture forth, but we had no choice, the paved re route would of been long and boring.

On the other side we rode Combat style, no lights front or rear. After a couple of minutes our eyes adjusted, the night got brighter. We could see the parkway to our right and the cars headlights speeding along. To the front there was a big Orange nearly full moon filling the sky. Epic view.

After a quick map check, everything looked as it did from my eye in the sky route check. Everything was rolling fast and before we knew it we were on pavement and then the bike path.

It was very well used and we passed tons of water spots and places to sit and chat. As quick as we hit the path we were on grass again and then Shell rock and then back to pavement to finish up the ride.

It was awesome. Fast, beautifully scenic and challenging, all good elements for a route.

I think I may have a little something, time to tweak it just a little bit.

Take Care,

Laters,

the NaKeD InDiaN