Susan and I are on a road trip. While we have taken many road trips by flying to a location and renting a car . . . this one is a first.
We left from home in NY with our bicycles in the car. We took several days to get down to Florida, visiting various cities along the way.
In the next week we hope to ride the three big rail trails in the central western part of the state.
Today we started in Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park, just east of Port Richey. There are six to seven miles of bicycle trail in the park. The surface in the park and on the rail trail is asphalt with crushed stones embedded. The riding is flat and smooth, though not quite as smooth as 100% asphalt.
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The first and last 6.5 miles of our ride, where on this trail.
In the park, the scenery is nothing short of WOW!. It is not spectacular, but there is a strong urge to slow down and just soak in the atmosphere.
The riding is flat with mostly semi open vistas, like the one in the photo.
THE SUNCOAST TRAIL starts where the park trail ends. It runs six miles to the southor 33+ miles to the north.
The trail does run along the Sun Ccoast Toll Road…but sometimes swings off the highway for awhile. For most of this ride there was close up forest on one side and landscape (across the highway) forest on the other.
There are good stretches were you could even pace line if you wished.
We did a leisurely 30 miles along the two trails. However, you could do close to 100miles if you did the whole thing.
Sun Coast Trail – about 42 miles one way.
More tomorrow.
Glenn
#1 by Harvey Miller on December 25, 2011 - 9:46 am
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Very beautiful area, luck you guys! If your near it (just southwest of Ocala) you may want to try riding around the Lady Lake area where the roads are made for cycling. Check out mapmyride.com for one of many routes there, if you have the time…it’d be worth the ride.