Jacksonville-Baldwin Trail

What good news! Not only was the trail full of folks enjoying a perfect Spring day, but lots of them were children! It was really inspiring to see so many kids outside. Pedalling, walking, giggling, running, kicking rocks, making plans... not watching TV!

Blooms, blossums, sprouts were beginning to show as small birds darted everywhere. We also ran into our friends from Jacksonville, Jim & Melissa, who are still enjoying my old Rocket. Photos are posted in the gallery.

Don't forget, the 2007 Feet First Spring Tour is coming right up, so get your days off lined up and come ride with us. The schedule is firming up and ride locations and launch times are now posted on the calendar.

Looking forward to our first visit to the General James A. Van Fleet State Trail for next Saturday. Yall Come!

Trail Condition: Excellent
Facilities: Excellent
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Withlacoochee Trail - 3rd Catrike Rally

Since our ride was rained out, I decided to join the folks from the 3rd Annual Catrike Rally for their lunch ride on the Withlacoochee Trail. They were starting at Hampton's Edge bike shop and heading north at noon, so I started from Inverness and headed south at 11 AM.
On an absolutely gorgeous day, I met up with the group of over a dozen trikes at the 17 mile marker, so I turned around. We had a very pleasant ride into Inverness. The impact of the 15 colorful trikes parked in front of the pub on local passers by provided great entertainment as we enjoyed each other's company and a fine lunch at Coach's Pub before calling it a day.

Looking forward to the Jacksonville-Baldwin Trail for next Saturday. Yall Come!

Trail Condition: Excellent
Facilities: Excellent
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Gainesville-Hawthorne Trail

Deanne, Gary and I made up the entire group today. Winter seemed to have "left the building" for this ride, leaving behind what was very nearly a perfect Spring day! A nice cool start with a light SE breeze that matured into a helpful little tail wind on the return trip.
Nearly as present as the small birds darting from side to side, were the number of recumbents sighted. A good sized group, we think from the central Florida area, included some out of state visitors on tandem recumbents, who brightened the scene with their colors. Photos are posted in the gallery.

While Gary had to rush on back, Deanne and I stopped in at Sonny's in Hawthorne for refueling and rest. They had replaced the tired, old, picnic table style furniture with new traditional tables and chairs which gave the dining room a much more spacious feel and, no doubt, enhanced the serving experience.

There were quite a few folks out on the trail, cyclists, rollerbladers, walkers, even employees offering information and taking care of maintenance tasks as well. Also, our late start amplified the number of oncoming cyclists we encountered, a couple of which turned out to be other Feet First members riding on their own schedule.

Looking forward to the Jacksonville-Baldwin Trail for next Saturday. Yall Come!

Trail Condition: Very good
Facilities: Environmentally friendly
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Nature Coast Trail

Saturday morning in north central Florida was full of surprises starting with a record-breaking low temperature that approached the teens. Gary and I agreed when we met up at the Trenton trailhead that our sanity was in question, but we had planned to be there and it was a beautiful day, so we visited the Foodway for some breakfast and allowed the morning to warm up slightly, since it was still in the thirties.

It was now ride time, though there were no other attendees. At least sunscreen was easily conserved today as precious little remained exposed after suiting up. The forecast of a high in the mid 60s encouraged us to proceed and it was just above 40 as we started out. None of this discouraged the bird population, especially robins, they were everywhere and quite busy it seemed.

As we were about to cross the Suwannee River, a walker and his leashed dog were coming the other way and the dog was carrying a large, slingshot shaped piece of wood in his mouth. As a friendly greeting I smiled and asked, "You got him collecting firewood for you?"

The walker, without hesitation, simply replied, "He whittles!" and kept on walking.

The river was quiet and smooth, as free of traffic as the trail had been, but on the other side there was a veritable parade of motorcycles descending into Old Town where we, too, stopped for a break.

Starting at the Old Town trailhead, we saw two other riders braving the morning. Instead of continuing on to Cross City, we decided to double back and turn south to Fanning Springs to visit the wayside park at the river there and were surprised to find a new park. Fort Fanning Historical Park is on the north side of US 19 right at the river's edge and, we were later told, will be the home of a reconstructed Fort Fanning. It has nice, brick-lined sidewalks with landscaping and benches and a lovely view of the river.
We followed the sidewalk back to the east and discovered a hidden corridor beneath huge old oaks that goes all the way back to the rail trail where there are future plans to add a restroom facility. Photos are posted in the gallery.

On the way back to Trenton, we did encounter a couple more riders and finally saw the temperature above 60. An additional surprise was finding a freshly smashed glass bottle on the asphalt, but Gary's trusty pan and brush made short work of the unusual blemish.

Looking forward to the Hawthorne Trail for next Saturday. Yall Come!

Trail Condition: Excellent
Facilities: Excellent
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O'Leno to Ichetucknee

It had been nearly a month since I last rode, so I thought I had best get out there and make the best of the break in the weather. The most energy efficient ride for me is the quick 4 mile drive up to Fort White, so that was my decision. I headed west out to the Ichetucknee River and then back to town before pedaling toward O'Leno State Park.

About half way to O'Leno, I met an oncoming cyclist, whom I had seen before. I waved and spoke to the gentleman only slightly younger than myself and continued on my way, dodging the debris of the still unmaintained trail. A crew had, at least, removed the large trees that were across the trail the last time I rode it, but it continues to be free of any sweeping or edging activity.

At the entrance to O'Leno, I turned about and began the trip back to Fort White. It is a little hilly on that end of the trail and as I came over what feels like the highest point, there in front of the the old Tanner place, I was surprised to see this scene.

I couldn't quite figure what on Earth could have happened here, where there are no intersections and such. Moving on down the slope, it soon became clear that the incident involved a cyclist. It was the fellow I had greeted before! On his return trip, he had apparently blacked out and taken a tumble. A deputy told me that a motorist had called in his misfortune and as we talked the paramedics arrived and began questioning the cyclist about his condition.

The paramedics, guided by the patient's response and evidence of a solid blow to the forehead, began making arrangements to airlift him to Gainesville. There appeared to be no equipment failure as I looked over his bicycle; tires were inflated, nothing looked damaged or out of place. The deputy loaded it up from transporting to the station in Fort White and the ambulance pulled away.

On my way back to my car, I began to hear the sounds of a helicopter approaching in the distance. Nice to know folks can get the help they need out here in the hinterland, but this neighbor I had seen before, surely had enjoyed better days.

Trail Condition: Navigable, yet not maintained
Facilities: Not provided
Emergency Services Response: Excellent
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Jacksonville-Baldwin Trail

Mark, Deanne and I met up early at Everybody's Restaurant in Baldwin for our usual country style breakfast and dose of local color and were elevated by our server to the stature of "Darlin's" while she made sure we had everything we desired. Then off to the trailhead, a few blocks north, where Sandra joined us.
This was one of those days that sees a range of temperatures, starting off a little cooler than expected and warming rather rapidly. It was accompanied by a thin layer of clouds that overcast our experience with less than direct sunlight but was unable to mask the natural beauty of this trail. In north Florida, among the paved tails, the Gainesville-Hawthorne Trail State Park is this trail's only rival in that department.
It's quite easy to forget to notice the trail surface itself, mostly because the surrounding forest is so beautiful, but also due to its well maintained condition. I was somewhat surprised to see so many people enjoying the trail this time, so I guess the secret is out. There were families, cycling and roller-blading, walkers, runners and horsemen... not crowded, but well used.
At the half-way point, where we are used to visiting the facilities, we were drawn off to the side to another trailhead that had been opened since our last visit. The Harvey House appears to be the central feature, though it has parking, a long, elevated boardwalk nature trail running through a dense pine forest, many acres with specimen Live Oaks planted, and connects via concrete trails to the trailside rest stop. We spent a few minutes there talking with folks and met another recumbent trike rider, John Landress, from Jacksonville.
At the east end, the Imeson Road Trailhead had a nearly full parking lot, unlike our launch in Baldwin which was almost empty.
Photos are posted in the gallery.

Trail Condition: Excellent, facilities clean and available.
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Nature Coast Trail

Sandra and Mark were waiting for me when I drove up to the sight of Mark's brand new Rans Stratus, parked and ready. After I took a quick spin on a very quiet, light-weight, new bicycle with superbly stable handling, I slid back onto my tricycle and we were off. There was no difficulty in staying focused on the cold as it was only 49 degrees and hadn't been that cool in quite a while. The idea of shopping for socks crossed my mind a few times, but the wind was light and allowed the sun to peek through a fair amount.

We stopped for a break in Fanning Springs and found some fellas actually doing some welding work on the gas pump island. Considering the concept for just a few moments seemed to hasten our departure... something just didn't seem right about that. There were a few other trail users out this morning, one was particularly interested in our strange craft, but mostly we had the trail to ourselves. In Chiefland, we simply turned about and headed back, but noticing it was still feeling rather chilly at 61 degrees, we began to discuss the warmth we suspected would be associated with that little barbeque joint in Fanning Springs. In less time than the return trip took, it became apparent we would stop there for lunch and that turned out to be a very fine idea, indeed. They even had fried green tomatoes on the menu and do a particularly fine job of not over cooking the collards.

After lunch, it was mostly a back to the barn run. We weren't really pushing it, but didn't dawdle either, finishing up the last of the 36 miles happy to see our warm cars waiting.

Photos are posted in the gallery. I'll be out of pocket this coming weekend, but look forward to the weather at last permitting us to ride the Jacksonville-Baldwin Trail the next weekend.

Trail Condition: Always Excellent, facilities clean and available.
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