Today I rode (and Ellen drove) from Rodman Campground to Clearwater Lake Campground at the bottom of Ocala National Forest. It was the most boring ride ever—53 miles of pure tedium, just me, roadkill and circling vultures. Ellen did it in about an hour, leaving Rodman after me and passing me at about five miles into my ride. Even she thought it a boring drive.
View Rodman Campground to Clearwater Lake in a larger map
View Rodman Campground to Clearwater Lake in a larger map
Don't get me wrong, Ocala National Forest is a great place to visit, good campgrounds, springs to swim in, trails to hike, OHV and motorcycle trails to ride, rivers to paddle and lots of back forest dirt roads. Route 19 through the forest is a couple of straight lines with a curve or two with wide unpaved shoulders. Although bordered by trees, the roadway has no shade, a seemingly endless corridor of green. The only thing going for it is that it isn't perfectly flat.
There are two National Forest Service Visitor Centers on the road, one at each end of the forest. To take a break, I stopped at both. The first, at Salt Springs, was about 15 miles into the ride and a welcome respite. It was staffed by a Canadian volunteer about my age, also a cyclist and a Roadtrek owner. He had started his volunteer post only a couple of weeks ago, having come to Florida from Ontario in the Roadtrek for a winter vacation. One of his first stops was Salt Springs Campground. While chatting with the campground host, he mentioned that he had hosted at parks as well. The host suggested that he volunteer here, as Ocala is in need of volunteers. He inquired and they accepted him on the spot. He now staffs the visitor center four days a week and has free camping for the winter. Not a bad gig.
After leaving Salt Springs, I plodded along for another 25 miles to Alexander Springs. It was noon at that point. There was a stone wall to lean against and a shady tree, so it seemed a good stop for lunch. Ellen had packed me PB&J, accompanied by carrots and a pear. I'd gone off the last three days without lunch, expecting that I'd get to the next campground by early afternoon. It was certainly not going to happen today. While I was eating, a mockingbird flew up, perched on a nearby wire and watched me eat my lunch. It was one of the few birds, other than vultures and crows, that I saw on the ride.
After lunch it was a slow ride with many short stops to take a drink or munch a snack (M&Ms and datil pepper spiced peanuts), as I was rather weary. At about 35 miles, I pulled into a trailhead parking lot to refill my Camelback from my extra water bottle. There was a group of hikers sitting around a small trailer, seemingly getting ready for a backpacking trip. They were rather unfriendly. Even without speaking to them, it was if I'd bothered them by pulling into the parking lot. I just refilled the Camelback and left.
With 10 miles to go, I staggered into the second visitor center, also staffed by volunteer seniors. This couple was from Illinois and they have been volunteers at this visitor center for the past four years. They are camp hosts each summer at an Illinois state park, then come down to Florida each winter to volunteer here. He said that he had worked in Chicago all his life and once he retired he didn't want to see the city again. We talked a bit about bears. They have a sizable population of black bears in the national forest. I'd seen a warning sign earlier but no bears. They told me that the bears are rarely seen along the highway, but they had seen four so far this season on the forest back roads.
From here it was out of the forest and on to Altoona, or at least the first major intersection in Altoona. At the edge of town, I slowed down for a stopped school bus. It was at the end of the line and a young teenage boy got off the bus and slowly trudged up his driveway. I figured it was just teenage boy activity, but noticed, as I passed the school a couple of miles further, a billboard announcing that report cards were going home today.
Finally, a left turn onto the county road and only six more miles to go. This turned out to be the most interesting part of the ride, even though I was really flagging. There were actually farms now, with cattle, and views. About half way to the campground, there was a woman and her son waiting at the end of an unpaved forest road. They asked if I had any extra water. It turned out that they were headed to a street in Altoona and followed the directions of their GPS, which routed them down the unpaved forest road. She was driving a Prius and it quickly got hung up on a high spot and stuck in sand. They'd been waiting for AAA since noon. It was now nearly 5 PM and 85 degrees. I gave them what water I had left as my destination was only a few miles away and wished them luck.
GPS routing seems particularly weird in this area. I think that the map databases do not have good information and don't know what roads are unpaved. This woman really wasn't expecting a dirt road; she was from Colorado. My eTrex routing has been particularly bad, trying to route down sections of forest road only to reappear on the main route a mile or so on, probably saving a 100 feet. Even Ellen got mis-routed by the Zumo today, it indicated a short cut from Rt 19 to the county road but it didn't actually go through and she ended up at a dead end.
The last interesting event was saving a turtle, actually a Gopher Tortoise. As I was approaching the campground, I could see something slowly crossing the road ahead. It was getting closer and closer to the center line as traffic in my direction flew past. When I reached it, it was still moving but into my traffic lane. It was a pretty big one, about 18 inches long, but I stopped and slid it off the road in the direction it was going. It popped back out of its shell and continued on, as I did, finally turning into the Clearwater Lake campground, where Ellen was patiently waiting.
At 53 miles and seven hours of riding, it was good to stop. By the time I collapsed, unloaded the bike, and took a shower, it was dinner time. Then it was time for a fight with technology to download my ride data and do some route planning. A 50+ mile ride seems too far for me on a regular basis. I really had to struggle today. I didn't really expect this, but should have, since on my previous tours, I usually rode about 30-35 miles, with only an occasionally longer day.
The original plan for next five days are all rides over 50 miles. I don't think I can really do it and enjoy it, if today was any indication. We may take a day off tomorrow, or try a different destination and split the ride into smaller chunks. There is problem with that. As we get get further south, there are fewer places to overnight with less than a 50-mile ride. There are fewer road choices and not much out there. Another possibility is to start out early, let Ellen leave an hour or so later, and she can pick me up as she drives past. This would give me an hour or two of riding and we can just skip over the empty sections. As a friend once said, if you are not having fun, why do it?
No comments:
Post a Comment