Gainesville Hawthorne State Trail

Pete Ensing and I met up this morning at Gatorland Toyota and snuck (sidewalked) our way down to the 6th Street Connector and rode out to Hawthorne this morning. Unbeatable weather prevailed, enhancing a beautiful ride even further. A deer and a coral snake chose the opportunity to cross our path and entertain us on our way. 

Forty-one miles slipped by in no time, as we solved many of the world's problems.

Silver Comet Trail

We decided on riding east this morning, pedaled through Powder Springs to Smyrna, and stopped in to visit Silver Comet Depot Bicycles. Another perfect weather day made it impossible to resist adding on a few extra miles to the west when we got back to Hiram. I tracked a total of 160 miles for the three days, but some of us did better. 

Absolutely unable to tell who enjoyed it the most. Thanks, Russ, Wayne, George, and Irwin for making this such a memorable trip for all of us!

Chief Ladiga Trail

Wayne, Russ, Irwin, George, and I covered the Chief Ladiga Trail starting from Piedmont, AL. We rode south to Anniston and then east to the Georgia state line. Beautiful scenery, a well maintained trail, perfect weather and lots of friendly people. 

Silver Comet Trail

Five of us rode trikes through glorious scenery and perfect weather from in Georgia today. Our first day could not have been prettier. Only a couple of us had seen parts of this trail before and none had started from this place. We rode from Hiram to Rockmart through some gorgeous forested hills and several tunnels and across very tall bridges. Jaw dropping scenery everywhere you looked amplified by the seasonal decoration of fall leaf color.

We had heard the usual noises about the hills, long climbs, bugs, distance between facilities, and such, we found ourselves to be anything BUT inconvenienced. Mostly I heard comments like, "Wow! Downhill both ways!!" The fact of the matter is piloting a trike through this dream was big fun!

We had lamented hearing that Frankie's had closed, but found the Slate Market Grill open for business in its place in Rockmart.

Anyway fifty miles went by easy with that much visual distraction.

Nature Coast State Trail

Six of us lit out on serious trikes this morning from the Chiefland trailhead at a fairly modest pace. Crunching our way through a light dusting of autumnal leaf fall we were already in Fanning Springs before I noticed a developing loss in tire pressure, found and removed a tiny steel splinter, and added air. More was needed before we made it to Trenton where I finally broke down and patched the tube. My friends' patience with my equipment malfunction was enhanced by the pastry wares of the Suwannee Rose Cafe and the opportunity to visit with the likes of fellow trike enthusiast George Edwards.

Re-inflated, I was doubly pleased that a tailwind escorted us now to the Suwannee River bridge where two hiking Florida natives from Tallahassee and Live Oak were kind enough to man our cellphone shutters and record this photo of Colleen, Charlie, Mary, George, myself, and Russ. We had discussed and aspired to ride all 62.5 miles, but unanimously settled for our 42 mile total. Good friends and great weather! What's not to like?

Palatka Lake Butler State Trail

Fearing the worst in terms of storm damage, I had put off visiting this trail since hurricane Mathew blew through. Today, I was delighted to find the trail clear from one end to the other. What an awesome job the maintenance folks did! In 20.5 miles, I encountered no less than 28 trees that had been laying across the trail, but were now cut up and moved aside. There was no damage to the asphalt and there is still plenty of shade, so come on back out and enjoy.

Thanks very much to the crews who handled this so promptly!

Nature Coast State Trail

Hurricane Matthew had departed our area less than twelve hours ago when I set my trike back down on a freshly swept trail surface. The good folks at Florida Greenways & Trails were out there ahead of my arrival and had things looking like there had been no storm. Several small groups of serious riders shared a "G'morning!" as we passed each other and I counted three snakes and as many gopher tortoises. Just after turning back in Cross City, I encountered this happy little box turtle warming himself on the pavement. It was nice to have the winds calm enough to ride again, since it had been an entire week.