Flamingo!

 Today is a short one, we skip the ride around Okeechobee, stop at Whole Foods and go directly to Flamingo Campground at the south end of Everglades National Park.

• Summary


• The Map


• The Rationale


• To Flamingo

The Map

TBD

The Rationale

After writing yesterday's journal, I took some time to figure out what part of the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail I could ride and meet up with Ellen in South Bay, where there is a county park. I started by accessing the Corps of Engineers pages on the LOST and several online ride descriptions. While the trail goes around the lake, less than half of it is paved. Descriptions of riding the unpaved sections indicate that it is pretty rough and anything but a mountain bike would be painful.

This left out the east side of the lake as the last 30 miles of the trail to South Bay are unpaved. It is also closed at the moment as the dike on which the trail sits is being rebuilt.

The last 30 miles of west side of the trail going to South Bay looked more promising. It is paved and the access point to it is not far from the road from Fishesting Creek to South Bay, good old US 27. But it was not to be. Several sections making up about two-thirds of that route are also closed. This would mean that I would have to ride a bit, get off the trail, go back out to 27, ride on the highway, then go back to the trail and repeat until I got to South Bay. This didn't make much sense.

So, in the spirit of "Is this going to be fun?",  I decided to punt the last segment of the trip and do the Okeechobee circumnavigation at some later date when the trail is paved

To Flamingo

Bright and early this morning, we packed the bike onto Speedy, disconnected from electricity and water and said farewell to Fisheating Creek WMA. It was back onto US 27 South for a quick push to the Everglades, with a stop for more food. When we reached I-75, we abandoned US 27 and took the interstates east to the Whole Foods in Plantation, FL, where bought even more food. Flamingo is about 50 miles from the nearest market, so we wanted to be stocked.

It was back to I-75, south to Florida's Turnpike and on to the end at Florida City and into the park.  After a stop at the visitor center to have lunch and pick up a map and bird list, we drove the last 48 miles to Flamingo Campground. It is surprisingly full.  We had no trouble finding a site in Loop A, the one closest to the water, but the loop is now nearly full for the night. 

Our site is on the edge of the loop nearest Florida Bay. We can't quite see the water, but there is no one behind us or tto the right of  us and the site to the left is about thirty yards away. It is nicely private, but has no shade. But we brought our own shade this time in the form of an REI Alcove shelter. It fits over the site's picnic table and provides shade.

The couple next to us were in this site and were moving as we drove by. They have been here a week so far, and the next site over has a tree to give a bit more shade. They are from Bedford, MA and he is a fairly avid birder. He said to keep an eye out for an owl that flies through the field just behind our sites at dusk. Sure enough, as we were sitting at the table having dinner, the resident Barn Owl made a couple of passes through  the field and even caught something. 

That's the news for now, but this will not get posted for a few days as there is no Internet or Verizon wireless access at Flamingo.