There is a yearly trip to Florida every February. I have made the trip a couple of times, but not too many. I didn't really plan on going this year, but a few things ended up happening and my winter training was lacking so I decided to join in on the trip. Previous years they had been going to Clear Water Beach area. It was a nice place that had bike lanes all the way out to Fort Desoto and back. Two years ago I was there and we had a lot of flats. The lanes had a lot of debris and the traffic was increased from previous years. That bike lane also has a lot of start and stops along the way.
This year they decided to try a new place. Jacksonville Beach was chosen and that helped talk me in to going. I always like checking out new places. This could be really good or really bad, but it would be an adventure no matter what and with the people going it was bound to be a good time. The typical plan is to ride 100 miles every day. The previous years I had only done that one or two times out of the trip. Other days I ended up cutting it a little short. Still good rides, but not the 100 miles.
I was a little concerned about this year since some of the routes didn't seem to have a good bail out point. In Clear Water we could ride out to Fort Desoto and back and would have around 80 miles. This was an easy place to stop, maybe too easy. I was there for long miles, so not having a bail out point might be good. This year the 3 main route ideas were all over 100 miles with the longest being 111. Most of our riding was going to be along the A1A or a couple other roads in certain parts. The A1A had some really nice bike lanes in some areas and others were still not that bad.
We left Tuesday night at 8:00 pm. We drove all night and pulled in to town around 8:00 am. With in 30 min. of parking at the condo we were geared up and on the bikes. We headed north and had to ride the ferry to cross the St. John's river. Then we continued north through Amelia Island and in to Main Beach Park. Then we headed back south with a small detour down another road and back. We had to ride the ferry again then headed back to Jax Beach. We did not have the 100 miles in yet, so we decided to ride south of town a few miles and back. I ended up with 101 miles on day one.
Day two's plan was to head south. We went down Ponte Verda Blvd to get south of town then back on the A1A. We followed an amazing bike lane down the A1A with the beach just to the left for the whole ride. This was a newly paved road that had no stops and a very wide bike lane. You could not as for a better road. We continued south to St. Augustine and then continued on to the Hammok Beach area. We ate lunch and then headed back to the condo. This day we ended up with 106 miles.
The next day we went south to St. Augustine, but this time we headed west. West of St. Augustine was by far our worst section of road all week. I am not sure if there was a better way or not, but it worked. We went toward Hastings but not all the way there. At one point we ended up on a bike path that was much better than the road we were on. We then went north on 13 for a little while. This is where some were getting really hungry. We were pretty deep in to the ride and no idea where lunch would be. We then rolled up to a very interested place to eat at Molasses Junction. Not exactly the healthiest place to eat, but we were starving. After taking in all that grease, we went back west toward 13 and rode along the edge of the St. John's river. This was a very scenic road to ride. We followed 13 all the way up to 152 and then headed east.
Going north from here is where this route got interesting. We might have gotten a little lost. We were definitely on some roads that were way too busy for my liking and no bike lane. It is possible that we saw the same guy cross the rode twice at two different intersections. We may have rode through the grass and in between some bushes to get to another sidewalk. We might have had one rider ready to kill over and needed to be picked up. We might have not exactly known where we were when we passed the 111 mile mark on this 111 mile ride. But, we did make it back to the condo! I had 117 miles for the 111 mile ride. That is not too bad at all considering we felt pretty lost a couple times.
The next day we went north again and over the river by ferry. This time we figured out what turn we needed to make to take a tour of Ft. Clinch State Park. After checking out where the pier used to be, we headed back south toward Jax Beach. Once again we were just a little short on the 100 miles so we continued past the condo for a little while and back to make sure we rolled over the 100 mile mark.
The last day we had a short ride planed before the long drive home. We headed south for 45 min and then turned around. We ended up with 30 miles for our last venture in Florida for the year. We packed up and headed north for the 12 ish hour drive home. Wore out from all the hours on the bike. Sore from all the hours sitting on the seat and sun burned, but still had a great trip. Weather was awesome and the roads were just as good. We all had good time, ate some good food and some of us had some Really Good Beer. I think Jax Beach will be the new ride destination for the February trips. I ended up with 454 miles and a little over 25 hours on the bike for the 4.5 day trip. Not too bad.
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