This winter’s bikepacking trip was a continuation of my “Different East Coast Greenway” (Annapolis to CT / CT to Boston), a more interesting and off the beaten path version of the official East Coast Greenway. This trip traversed almost the entire state of Florida north to south, but instead of the typical route down A1A along the coast, this route went through much more remote areas in the east central part of the state. I’ve now crossed the state in both directions.

The stars aligned well this year for a long “A to B” bikepacking trip. We ended up leaving the van in Ft Lauderdale between the Snipe Midwinters in February and the Bacardi Invitational in early March because they were too close to drive back and forth and Lisa had to fly back for work. With her Southwest companion pass, it made sense for me to go with her. Couple that with cheap fares and bikes on Amtrak to Florida, the plan to ride from Jacksonville to Ft Lauderdale was hatched.

Even before those stars aligned, I have been scouting and planning this route for some time, really since I found the central part of the state so interesting on the Coast to Coast trip a few years ago. I nominally started with the path of the Florida Trail as well as some routes I purchased from the Single Track Samurai but those typically are only suitable for bikes with 2.5″ MTB tires mostly because of the sandy/soggy terrain. So I started altering the route to find more gravel friendly dirt. The tradeoff was a bit more road riding, but in the boonies of central Florida there’s really not any traffic to speak of. The route ended up being 435 miles with about 20% unpaved. I broke it up into the usual 60 +/- mile days, a comfortable distance with my fully loaded rig, realizing there would be some longer and some shorter days to make the available campsites work. Of course full service campsites are nice but I’m ok with “primitive” sites (meaning no water or electricity, but usually pit toilets); they just require a little more forethought so you have enough water and can find a close spot to purchase your “step 2” (the Camping With Steve reference I’ve made before). In the end it was seven riding days and six nights (two primitive and three full service campgrounds and one hotel room).

There were a number of highlights of the route: Etoniah Creek State Forest north east of Palatka, Ocala National Forest/Alexander Springs Recreation Area, the lakes region including Eustis and Lake Apopka’s north shore, Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area and Everglades and Francis S. Taylor/Loxahatchee Wildlife Management Area between Lake Okeechobee and the Ft Lauderdale metro area. Since I had ridden around Lake Okeechobee last year, that was all familiar ground.

As I’ve mentioned before, 7 days is kind of an awkward trip length. It’s long enough to get you into the rhythm of long distance bikepacking, but it’s the hardest part as your body gets used to the daily stress. I’ve found that after about a week, everything settles in and stops hurting, so just about the time you’ve adapted, it’s over. That certainly was the case on this trip. Regardless, after slogging into a 20 kt headwind the last day through the Loxahatchee Wildlife Refuge, the last major piece to the Ft Lauderdale metro area, I was pretty beat and had I been continuing on, a rest day would have been in order. I did get that rest day, but only to jump into the Snipe for a tough day of 15-20+ breeze in the Bacardi Invitational.

All in all it was an interesting trip and I’m glad I was able pull it off. It would have been more fun to have a companion, something I am feeling more and more, but while that might be preferable, it’s not a deal killer. Spending many hours a day on the bike alone gives you a lot of time to think about things and I really do enjoy that time and I do my best thinking on the bike. It’s basically my version of Todd Bickling’s Shower Buddha.

On the technical side, everything on the bike worked very well. I switched up where I put things, opting to swap the cooking equipment to the front and the tent to the back to keep the small back panniers lighter and balanced. I very much liked this change. I also got a new tubeless tire repair tool Dynaplug Dynaplugger Tubeless Tire Repair Kit, which works very well. I had a chance to test it coming into the city of Okeechobee when it hit something in the road that caused a hole that wouldn’t self seal. I even needed two plugs to seal it, but it was quick and easy and I had no problems with the plug(s) for the last two days of the trip. Another new thing is I purchased the Silca Chain Waxing System, mostly for my mountain bike to keep the chain clean. But since I have it, I’ve done all my bikes and for this trip it was PERFECT. I didn’t have to do any lubing and it was very clean after the seven days despite the sandy conditions. I’m very glad I did this.

Oh and just for fun to illustrate how cheap this is a way to adventure, my total cost including Amtrak, campsites, an overpriced hotel room, several restaurants, and a lot of overpriced convenience store/gas station food was $557.56. Of course this does not include the cost of the bike and equipment, but I use those a lot so the amortized cost is pretty low.

That was the overview of the trip. You can view a complete photo album here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/6Dnx91Fr5FBDP6uT6 or keep reading for a day to day travelog.

Day to Day Descriptions

Prologue – Washington DC to Jacksonville on Amtrak

I purchased a regular coach fare for $80 plus $20 for the bike. The published transit time was about 16 hours (1:43p – 6:25a), a bit longer than driving, but… I thought about taking the commuter bus from Annapolis to Union Station in as I like the idea of being “self sufficient” on this kind of trip, but given the weather and the departure time in the afternoon, it was just easier for Lisa to drive me to Union Station. She brought me in about noon to fit her schedule and of course the train was late and didn’t leave until about 4:30p so I just hung around Union Station and amused myself. Once we were finally boarding, I was instructed to take my bike to the baggage car, different than I’ve done in the past where the bike is in the car in the janky racks. But despite not knowing what they do with it in the baggage car after handing it up to the staff guy, it worked out fine.

I didn’t think I’d get a great night’s sleep on the train (I don’t sleep well sitting up), but at least the seats are big and do recline well. But the train stops a lot and there are other disruptions, so I was pretty tired when we hit Jacksonville at about 7am. I managed to grab a cup of coffee in the Cafe Car before arriving which amplified the anxiety induced adrenaline to the point where I didn’t feel very tired. It was a beautiful, clear and cool morning, doesn’t get any better than that.

Day 1 – Jacksonville to Etoniah Creek State Forest

I kitted up at the Amtrak station and set out. The station is on the northwest side of Jacksonville inside the I-295 beltaway. The first ten miles out of Jacksonville sucked as it was on a major arterial but at least there was a bike lane and a good Wawa for a breakfast sandwich. Once outside the I-295 beltway it was a mix of nice burbs, a few trails, long deserted two lane roads and about ten miles of hardpack sand/dirt, just enough to make it spicy. The weather was spectacular as it warmed up to the upper 70s, sunny and just a gentle breeze. Through the dirt sections there was a nice smell of pine which reminds me of Cape Cod or the Pine Barron’s in NJ. I had a late lunch sandwich, stocked up on supplies (water and a beer) at a gas station about 5 miles before Etoniah Creek State Forest. It’s a really nice primitive camp spot (meaning no water or electricity) at $10 booked online and I was the only person there. I set up camp and cleaned up, had a beer, chilled for a bit and had my favorite freeze dried chicken fajita bowl meal (Mountain House brand). By this point I was feeling the lack of sleep and struggled to stay away until dark but fell asleep quickly and slept almost 12 hours!

64 miles and 5h pedaling and a whopping 800′ vertical, pretty easy. Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13735583568

Day 2 – Etoniah Creek State Forest to Alexander Springs Recreation Area

I woke rested and ready to roll and took a little detour out of Etoniah to avoid some hike-a-bike soft sand. I headed back down to the Palatka to Lake Butler Trail and headed east towards Palatka, but turned south to head towards Ocala National Forest. I crossed the Marjorie Harris Carr barge canal into the forest. There was 25 miles of Forest Road 11, about half was hardpack dirt/gravel and half paved. Then I weaved east to get south of Lake George. I saw almost no one in the northern section, but did see a few off roaders in the southern part. With the little detour at the start it ended up being a bit longer day than anticipated at 75 miles, but overall the work I put into the route has paid off. Ocala National Forest is beautiful.

Alexander Springs is a really nice full service National Park campground. I wish I had had more time to scope out the springs which are evidently very nice to swim in. Definitely worth the higher price at $50. There was a really rural country store a few miles from the campground that I got supplies and beer. I always feel soooo awkward in my spandex in those kinds of places. But what can you do?

75 miles and 5h30m pedaling with 1800′ vertical due to rollers in Ocala. Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13744994810

Day 3 – Alexander Springs to Orlando

I left Alexander Springs and proceeded to hit the first dirt of the leg. I had scoped it out on the way in – it’s called Paisley Rd – and it looked OK, but as I got less than a mile in, it became obvious it was a no go. Very loose sand and I was sliding around with bad traction. I called an audible and backtracked out to the road and back to US 19 and took that south to rejoin the route in Eustis. I stopped at a ranger station on US 19 and chatted with a volunteer ranger for a bit and he confirmed my choice as it was very sandy all the way to the town of Paisley which would have been 8 miles. That would have been a LONG hike-a-bike. It did make the day a little shorter but that gave the chance to stop in Eustis and have a sit down lunch. Eustis is a cool “old Florida” town on the shores of Lake Eustis.

From there south was pretty interesting. The roads wound along a few small lakes into Mt Dora, which seems to be a chi chi little town of grand old houses set beside the local lakes, with many shops and restaurants.

After another fairly long stretch on US 441 (another good shoulder), I got to the Lake Apopka north shore area. I had to hop a gate to get into the area – I had been a little worried about this from my online scouting – but it was easy enough and took me to the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive and eventually to the Loop Trail around the north side of the lake. I existed the trail at Magnolia Park, a really nice campground I stayed at on the Coast to Coast trip. I had intended to stay there, but since it was a Friday and I started looking too late, it was full. But I did find other site called Clarconia Horseman’s Park that was also a full service place a few miles away, literally right on the West Orange Trail.

I had no idea what to expect from something called a “horseman’s park” but it was really interesting. Basically a really nice full service campground that serviced people using the stables and competition arenas, and only $20. After setting up camp and taking a shower I wandered over the stables/arenas to check it out. It was a little deja vu with all teenage horse girls as Lexi was always an equestrian fan and was for a short while involved with that community. She appreciated the pics I sent.

Unfortunately, no step 2 as I couldn’t find anything close and besides they had a strict no alcohol policy, so I just ate the remaining half of the sandwich I bought in Eustis (basically a double sized italian sub), turned into the tent at dusk due to the bugs, read for a while and went to sleep.

50 miles, 4h pedaling with 1000′ vertical. Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13753305286

Day 4 – Orlando to Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area

The first part of the day took me into downtown Orlando. It was amusing because I started to run into closed streets due to a running race. The police let me through and after a few blocks, I ended up going right through the start/finish line! It was pretty late in the event so most people had finished, but the photographer at the line had a very perplexed look on her face, like “what the hell is that?” Pretty amusing, but that part of downtown, an older part of Orlando was really nice. On the way out of town, I ran across a big bike swap and stopped and chatted with folks. Pretty cool.

After winding through downtown Orlando, it was the tour of the hierarchical road network, everything from neighborhood streets, collector roads and STROADS; at least in Florida when they blow a crap ton of money on a STROAD they at least put in a decent bike lane. And the nice thing about STROADS is with cars going by at 50 mph, they create a nice draft so I was able to go pretty quickly. The last 20 miles was basically on a two lane country road (no shoulder though), long straight, flat with lots of ranches and farms either side but at least I had a decent tailwind. Once out of Orlando I didn’t take many pictures because it just wasn’t that interesting; we all know what arterial strip malls, Wawas and Florida suburban subdivisions look like.

I had no idea what the spot at Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area would be like. I sort of figured it would be very primitive with maybe only a small clearing in the trees. Turns out it is a very large and popular “free” camping/RV spot. There was a lot of open space with just about any kind of situation you could imagine, RVs, trailers, cars, and tents, some looking like they have not moved it a long time. Turns out you pay on the honor system for only a few dollars a night; they do theoretically limit how long people stay there but didn’t seem like there were any enforcers around. I chatted with a few people and I got the sense it’s pretty relaxed. Most of the folks there are either hunters (which is allowed on the 62k acres – mostly wild pigs according to one hunter I chatted with), lower budget snowbirds or in the case of a sedan with OK plates, who knows? But it was a quiet and open place to stop and had pit toilets. Plus, the view of a different slice of life was very interesting.

69 miles, 4h 38m pedaling, another whopping 550′ vertical. Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13762325826

Day 5 – Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area to Okeechobee

This was another road riding only day, mostly along US 441. It had a wide shoulder and mostly paralleled the Florida Turnpike so had only a very small amount of local traffic. I even saw some local roadies out for a training ride. The only thing I really stopped for was to take a few pictures in Kenansville and atop a few Florida Turnpike overpasses to illustrate how long, strait and flat it was and for lunch from at one of the few gas stations along US 441.

The last few miles into Okeechobee were kind of crappy as it got very STROADy, but again with a bike lane, albeit a very gunky one. I had to keep vigilant to avoid all the glass and weirdly many bolts that must fall off cars/trucks, but at one point I must have hit something I didn’t see as I heard the tell tale psssssss of sealant spewing all over the place. I stopped quickly got the plugger out and got two plugs in the tire to seal it. But in the minute or so I was on the grass, I felt some sharp stings… damn FIRE ANTS. I moved over to the sidewalk and got them all brushed off quickly thankfully.

I wandered through the City of Okeechobee to the Travelodge, a “Wyndam” property (by name only, not quality) which was pretty basic and a bit overpriced at $150, but I was able to do some needed laundry, take a shower and not have to set up camp, a nice change. I rode my bike a mile to a sports bar for my Step 2 (x2!), a local IPA and had my first real food in a number of days. What a luxury!

63 miles, 3h 45m pedaling, even less vertical 187′. Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13772017002

Day 6 – Okeechobee to Torry Island Campground

It was an easy day and was well trodden ground from last year so need to recap that. See The Big O for details of what riding around Lake Okeechobee is like. The only difference from last year was staying at Torry Island Campground. This is a rather large, long term RV park, but they have a number of tent sites that are only $25 and nice bathrooms as well as a bait store just outside the grounds that sells, yes you guessed it, beer. After setting up camp, a guy walked up and plopped his backpack in the site next to me. We struck up a conversation and he is through hiking the Florida Trail south to north and then continuing on to the AT. He had just gotten out of the Marine Corps and was looking for some adventure. From the description of his hike so far through the mud in Big Cyprus, it sounds like he got what he was looking for. I bought him a beer from the bait store and we chatted for a couple of hours before eating and turning in for an early rise for the long last day. The wind was blowing all night from the southeast, an omen for the last day.

50 miles, 3h 38m pedaling, 289′ vertical mostly getting on and of the trail! Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13780706101

Day 7 – Torry Island Campground to Ft Lauderdale

I woke before dawn, and started to get my stuff together. Once the sun was up, I ate breakfast (the standard oatmeal/bran buds and coffee), packed up and rolled out at 7:30a after bidding my new friend Cameron the best on the rest of his hike.

I stopped in Belle Glade to get supplies for the long day as once you leave Belle Glade, there is nothing – literally nothing – until Ft Lauderdale. Belle Glade is basically a farm town as there is tons of local agriculture in the rich dark soil, but it looks a bit downtrodden even though there was lots of morning activity. I got a Subway sandwich for later as well as a gallon of water and two bottles of Gatorade. I was loaded, but I ended up using it all! The first 25 miles were on a paved road with lots of dump trucks, but other than that not much traffic and they gave me a wide berth. As anticipated, there was a strong headwind so every truck pass gave me a few seconds rest in the draft. My route had me crossing over a canal and onto the gravel, but I ended up staying an extra 10 miles on the pavement after scouting it on Google Maps. I was worried that I’d get to the end of the pavement and not be able to cross the canal as that is where all the dump trucks were headed for some canal work. Fortunately I was easily able to cross over despite so many no trespassing signs. I think these are really meant to keep knuckleheads in 2/4 wheel motor vehicles out.

Once over the canal and onto the gravel it was all part of the Loxahatchee Wildlife Refuge as I would eventually see on the signs at the other end. I was really surprised when I saw a group of rather recreational looking cyclists coming the other way. I sure hope they were planning on being picked up after a one way downwind trip because the headwinds were howling and on one five mile section that turned ESE I was only able to manage 5mph into the wind. At the end of that section the route turned due south and was a lot easier. I ate my lunch before heading south on the Conservation Levee Greenway for another 15 miles, essentially the urban growth boundary between the Everglades and the sprawling Ft Lauderdale metro area. The last 15 miles of the day was through the metro area south of the city to Park By The Ports south of the airport where Van*tastic was parked. A bunch of it was on the New River Greenway Trail which was pleasant (except for a number of STROAD crossings) although it was directly into that howling wind. After that, it was just winding through some burbs and STROADs.

It rained on and off during the day, but never long enough for me to keep my jacket on. Just passing squalls with the breeze and that kept it from being really hot. Amazingly, this was the only rain of the trip. I know it was low humidity because my lips and skin were all chapped!

I was really happy to get back to the van. I changed, cleaned up, aired out my tent which I had packed up wet in the morning, then headed immediately to the nearest Mexican restaurant as I had been jonsin’ for that all day. I let the traffic abate and headed down to Miami for the night and picked Lisa up in the morning at the airport for the Bacardi Invitational, the next thing on the agenda!

75 miles, 6h 50m pedaling, 671′ vertical. Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13790701784