| Ride Stats |
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Distance:
120.88 miles
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Altitude Gain:
2,085 ft
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Avg Speed:
14.69 mph
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Route:
Lost Trail Okeechobee
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Avg Grade: 0 %
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Max Grade: 0 %
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Max HR: 0 bpm
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Avg HR: 0 bpm
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Terrain: Road: Hills
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Bike: Look 585 Carbon Road
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Club: Schuyler County Cycling Club |
| Weather Conditions: Cloudy 71 F Light variable wind |
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Had a short night at work and had the night off tonight and decided to celebrate by a loop of Lake Okeechobee. Weather looked favorable with a cool fifty odd degree start and rising through the day into the low seventies. Even better was the wind prediction which called for light south winds throughout the day. That was a welcome prediction as my last loop of the lake involved a rather unpleasant seventeen mile an hour north wind. Had planned on heading out at eight AM ensuring that I would have ample time to complete the ride before dark but a restless night and a sour stomach provided me with enough excuse to move the ride back until near nine. I saw a rider decked out in the proper fast guy apparel pass the motel as I headed out of the parking lot and made an effort to catch up to him as he headed up onto the trail. I had to struggle a bit to maintain my gap on him and was doing much more early work than I intended for what would be a long ride. I was able to catch up when he passed through one of the traffic gates but he turned off after that and I continued on alone, and that was alright with me as I didn't think I would be able to keep the high pace for much longer. Continued to the end of the trail at Buckhead Ridge then headed out onto the road to Lakeport where I picked up the trail again. Traffic and wind were light but ride wasn't very pleasant as I was still battling a sour stomach. The section between Lakeport and Moore Haven was uneventful and was relieved when the bridge at Moore Haven came into view. Made an error in route selection when I transitioned from trail to the canal crossing and ended up adding four or five miles to the ride when I got on the wrong side of a smaller canal that had no local crossing. Once out of Moore Haven it was into the cane fields. Many of the cane fields had been recently harvested and burned and a few had been replanted so it was not nearly as creepy as my first trip through the then tall cane. Found the turnoff that gave me an option of going back on the trail rather than heading out onto the four lane as I had done on my last two circumnavigations. Unfortunately there was an ominous homemade sign at the turn advertising Uncle Joe's Campground. I thought that there was a pretty good chance that the area would be infested with cannibal in-breeds and weighed the options of banjo music versus riding in traffic. I saw a couple of cars coming out of the road and figured it was not a certain one way trip and pedaled on. I passed through the camp unmolested and made my way back up on the dike trail. This section between the cannibal camp and Clewiston turned out to be the best riding of the day. There was a massive area of dead flooded forest on one side and a critter filled canal section on the other. Observed many water birds, alligators and snakes on the canal side and buzzards roosting appropriately in the dead forest. Stopped at a park in Clewiston and had a bite to eat and removed a layer of clothing. Had to navigate through town to cross a canal before returning to the trail. Rode a few more miles on the trail until coming upon a construction fence that effectively sealed off the trail. Didn't really want to pedal back to a trailhead and instead did a portage down the side of the dike and across a small ditch that was fortunately dry enough to jump and lacking any snakes or quicksand. A couple of guardrail vaults and a sprint across the four lane got me back on the road in the a forward direction. The highway section went quickly which turned out to be a bad thing as I now had a strong tailwind. I normally like and encourage tailwinds but in this case it wasn't welcome as I had been pushing a cross or headwind for seventy five miles, and as I was approaching the southernmost point in the route and was counting on a tailwind to carry me the final forty-five miles home. Only got a couple more miles of the tailwind as I turned and headed north in Belle Grade. The remaining miles of the ride were difficult and painful. I hoped that the wind would shift again but it never did. It almost felt like divine punishment as the upper level winds were still from the south as I could see in the huge smoke clouds from the burning cane, but the local ground level wind was from the north and unrelenting. I went into survival mode and slowly cranked off the miles and routinely adding teeth on the gears to keep the cadence even moderate. Tried to distract myself by counting palm trees along the main drag of Pahokee, but that even felt taxing after awhile. It turns out there are three hundred and nine on the right side of the avenue. Pahokee was unexpectantly calm today as the last two times I've ridden through, it has looked like an episode of Cops. Made it through Canal Point and crossed the suspension bridge Port Mayaca to the start of the final leg of my journey. The last section was on the trail and very familiar. Developed some rather nasty saddle sores and ended up doing a series of out of the saddle pedal and coasts to finish off the last twenty miles. Not one of my best days on the bike, but I did get one hundred and twenty miles in.
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