This year Karlos Bernhart, route creator, realized there was a whole section of Florida not being utilized in the panhandle, so he added an additional 670 miles to the original route. This version of the route starts at the Open Pond campground in Conecuh National Forest in south Alabama, travels through the panhandle of Florida, connects to the original route, and then has an alternate ending in Key West, FL totaling around 1500 miles. Being a glutton for punishment, I decided to give it a shot knowing I'd be dealing with swamps, endless sand roads, beautiful single track, not so beautiful single track, nonexistent single track, alligators, snakes, wide open glades, very sketchy highways, trying to keep enough calories coming in, and of course, the unrelenting wind and sun.
This kind of racing involves being totally self-supported, carrying everything you need on your bike. No outside assistance, food caches, chase vehicles, or people meeting you on-route to give you food and water. All food and supplies must be purchased on route from public establishments that are available to all riders. This makes it very interesting trying to figure out when and where to resupply. Food and water weigh a lot so the trick is to figure out just how much you will need to make it to the next resupply spot. Prior route studying is oh so very important! And to make things even more interesting, the route is not marked. You only have a GPS track to follow.
As far as the gear I carried, I tried to keep it to a minimum. The less weight, the more of a fun riding bike and the more distance you can ride in a day. If it wasn't an absolute necessity, it stayed home. No tent, sleeping bag, stove, etc. I did splurge and brought an air mattress. I also brought extra shorts and socks knowing I'd be hiking through lots of nasty swamps. On the handlebars I carried my mattress, bivy, and big, fat burritos when I could get a hold of them. In the gas tank bag, I carried chamois cream, personal hygiene wipes, sunscreen, and other odds and ends. In the under the top tube bag, I carried the water filter, lights, batteries for lights and GPS, and phone and cash. In the seat bag, I carried my nano puff jacket, rain jacket, extra clothing, and leg and arm warmers. In the electronics department, I carried two GPS units, one as my primary and one for backup. This was the most important decision I made on this trip. It was strongly suggested by my wife Kim, a seasoned and very experienced bikepacker, that I take a backup GPS just in case the 'worst case scenario happened', which it did 35 miles in.
All the food I carried, including Fritos, peanut M&M's, Oreo's, chicken jerky, string cheese, went in my back jersey pockets. I carried just enough food to get me to my next resupply. There were a couple times that I underestimated the time to my next stop so I was literally down to two M&M's for 20 miles!
This is a brief summary of how my ride on the Florida Divide went and some of the crazy things that happened that could only happen on a ride like this.
Day 1....
The day before my departure, Kim and I drove down to south Alabama to Open Pond campground to where the route started. It is a beautiful campground in the middle of Conecuh National Forest that had very few campers. So we picked a campsite next to the lake and I got my bike and gear ready.
The next morning, we woke up to a very brisk 32 degrees making me wonder if my decision to forgo a sleeping bag was a wise decision. It was a thought that quickly past as I was getting very excited to start the route.
The route started with some quick, flowy trail before jumping onto miles of beautiful forest road to the Florida border and the start of the Florida trail.
So I continued on into Florida finding beautiful, remote trail through pine forest and along the Blackwater river. Occasionally I would have to get off and walk, but for the most part, everything was very rideable.
Everything was going great until the batteries in my GPS decided to die. I was trying to use up some partially drained batteries from a previous trip so, 35 miles in, they died. No big deal, I'll just put some new batteries in and we'll be on our way. Unfortunately, when I fired the GPS back up, all the track files were completely gone! In all my trips before, this has never happened! Holy crap!! Thanks to Kim and her wisdom and me listening to her for once, I brought the backup GPS. It was the first time I'd ever had my tracks erase on me and the first time I'd ever brought a backup. I guess there's always a first time for everything.
After I got everything straightened out, the rest of the Blackwater segment went great. I restocked in Crestview, rested a couple minutes, then headed into Eglin Air Force Base. After fighting, struggling, and walking through miles of deep sand roads, I decided to call it quits for the day. Day one mileage: 125 miles.
Day 2....
After freezing all night, day two started off with finishing my trip through Eglin AFB on marginally rideable sand roads. Eglin AFB is an interesting place. It is marked off in quadrants and at any given time, some of those quadrants can be closed off for military exercises. You have to get online and look at a map to see what's going to be closed for that day and what's open but that doesn't guarantee anything. Anyway, I was cruising along on one of my sand hikes and came across a closed section that the route goes right through. Errr! I had just hiked/somewhat rode some deep sand and gullies for a couple miles and wasn't about to backtrack. It was crazy that I would rather take my chances with being sniped, bombed, IED'd, or just plain kidnapped for secret government experiments than to backtrack through that deep, obnoxious sand. Fortunately, nothing exciting happened through no-man's land accept for seeing some nice bear tracks.
I finally made through Lafayette, rode a fun little mtn bike specific trail called Pine Log, rode some highway, and then entered one of the best segments of the whole route called Econfina Creek. A truly beautiful area starting off with an amazing ride through pine forest which eventually transitioned into an amazing ride along Econfina creek. By the time I got out of Econfina, it was well past dark. I decided to knock out another section of highway before stopping just before Blownstown so I could re-stock in the morning.
By the time I stopped, it was in the 30's and looking to be another cold night. I remembered watching an episode of Dual Survival where the guys buried themselves in a pile of leaves to stay warm, so I decided to give it a try. It's amazing how good an insulator a pile of pine straw is! I never really was cold again the rest of the trip. It turns out that all my reality TV watching wasn't a complete waste of time!
Day 3....
After refueling in Blownstown at my favorite breakfast spot,
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| .....and ouch!!! |
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| Ouch.... |
Sand roads that stretch for as far as the eye can see. Hardpacked sand, damp sticky sand, and the dreaded deep sugar sand that caused the occasional hike a bike.
Eventually, the sand would end and give way to a nice, mellow ride through Tallahassee to the Bull's house who were unbelievably gracious hosts! The next morning after a good night's sleep, clean clothes, and a great breakfast, I was ready to take on the amazing trails that Tallahassee has to offer!
Day 4....
Day four started with some awesome urban singletrack riding through Tom Brown park. Flowy trail was the name of the game while getting to see some amazingly old Live Oak trees.
From Tom Brown, I made my way to the even more amazing Munson trail, a purpose built mtn bike trail with berms and rollers. This was by far the funnest day of the trip!
The day ended with a brief ride along the Gulf coast near St. Marks and making it to the beginning of the Aucilla river.
Day 5....
What I can remember about day five was that it was beautiful but very brutal. The start of the day was a very dense and twisty ride along the Aucilla river. The Aucilla is very unique in the fact that it disappears and reemerges from underground. Eventually, it turns into a normal looking river until you come around a curve and, low and behold, there is a legitimate class 3 rapid!
After exiting Aucilla, there was some nice sand roads, a resupply at a truck stop, and then to the very tough Suwannee river trail. There were some nice sections with beautiful trail and nice white sand beaches but also a lot of climbing over trees and bushwhacking.
I eventually made it to White Springs at about 2 am and crashed completely destroyed. One of the hardest days on route.
Day 6....
Leaving White Springs, I finished off the Suwannee segment excited to finally finish up the panhandle stretch. For some reason, I thought the rest of the route to the junction with the original route would be nice, mellow road riding. I had a nice little swampy surprise waiting for me, though, just to keep things from getting to easy. In the middle of all that swampy goodness, I just about stepped on a Cottonmouth viper just waiting to bight an unsuspecting hiker! Thankfully, I saw him at the last second, took evasive maneuvers, and we both went on our merry ways.
I did make it out of the swamp unscathed and finished off the panhandle segment in 5 days 8 hrs. The celebration was short-lived, though, as I still had 800 more miles to go.
After a lot of road riding, I made it to the San Felasco trails just north of Gainesville. Unfortunately, I had to ride it at night and wasn't really able to enjoy the beauty of the trail like you can in the daylight.
My plan was to get through San Felasco and then make it through the rest of the Gainesville trails but a hellacious thunderstorm convinced me to grab a hotel room and a large pizza for the night.
Day 7....
After weathering the storm in Gainesville and a stop at Autozone to borrow a socket wrench to adjust my chain tension, I headed off towards Rodman dam and one of the better sections of the Florida trail. A cold front had come through after the previous nights storm so the weather was perfect and I had a nice tailwind as I headed south. Miles and miles of beautiful trail and before I knew it, the day ended in the Paisley trails, I had rolled 140 miles.
Unfortunately, because of the cold front that had come through, it had gotten back down into the low 30's that night. Instead of trying to stay warm with pine straw, I decided to build a fire.
I built a nice fire pit, built the fire, and fell asleep nice and warm. Sometime during the night I had a nightmare I'd caught the woods on fire. Waking up, I quickly realized that I was on fire! An ember had jumped out of the fire and landed on my bivy and, POOF!!! It burnt a huge hole through my bivy, rain jacket, and air mattress. Not only now did I have an air-conditioned bivy and rain jacket, I had no mattress. I was so mad at my stupid mistake, I packed up and just started riding on two hours sleep. Nothing else I could do but be thankful that I was still intact.
Day 8....
After catching myself on fire, I rode a lot of miles I just can't remember through Lake Mary and Oveido. I remember Little Econ being way drier and much more rideable than last year. The wetlands in Orlando wetlands was basically the drylands in contrast to what last year was like. Tosohatchee was somewhat of a pain in the rear end with it's areas of swamp and marginal trail.
And then there was Bull creek, my biggest nightmare of the trip. Swamps, nearly non-existent trail, palm fronds that kept trying to blow out my spokes, and lots of alligators, all at night! I kept having this joke about Florida trail building running through my head about how they build trails by just painting blazes on trees and hoping a trail will magically appear. After getting lost several times trying to find the trail, I finally found a nice campsite and called it quits for day.
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| Contemplating life at my Bull creek campsite |
Day 9....
I finally finished Bull creek with some swamp hiking and no food. I made it through beautiful Three Lakes, rode some terrifying highway full of big trucks to Yeehaw Junction for a wonderful resupply.. Due to my lack of food for a lot miles, I was a bit light-headed and wobbly and had some close calls with traffic. From here on out, the riding would be wide open highways and levies. This is the area where the wind will make or break you. Completely frustrated with the traffic and wind, I limped into the town of Okeechobee and got a room, 40 miles short of my goal of getting to Clewiston. This decision would eventually cause me to not be able to make my goal of finishing in under eleven days.
Day 10....
Day ten would be my biggest mileage day of the ride at 190 miles. My biggest hurdle was being totally exposed to the sun and 25 mph sustained headwinds. One of the highlights was going into Big Cypress after dark and hearing the nonstop bellowing from the hundreds of alligators and seeing all their beady little red eyes. It was more than enough motivation to keep the wheels rolling! Eventually, I made it to Monument campground completely spent. I was so thankful I had brought a mosquito head net because the little buggers were out in full force. No cold nights down here in south Florida!
Day 11....
More highway and levy riding with super strong headwinds for day eleven. The interesting part of the day was seeing the memorial for the Valujet crash a few years ago. Very sobering and very sad.
The highlight was making it into the Keys with only 80 miles to go!
Last day!
The ride down to Key West was not exactly what I expected. Unfortunately, it happened to be spring break and the traffic was, after being in the woods alone for days, quite overwhelming. The nonstop being buzzed by traffic, just about made me quit fifty miles from the end. I had to keep stopping and giving myself pep talks to keep going. When I did finally make it to Key West, it was nonstop being bombarded by thousands of little scooters and people being crazy. It was such let down. No elation or happiness for having just ridden 1500 miles. I just wanted more than anything to get out of there. Key West is not bikepacking to me. I bikepack for the solitude and peaceful quiet, not to be thrust into the middle of Disney world. I was supposed to take a selfie at the finish buoy but because of the huge, obnoxious crowd of spring breakers waiting to get their picture taken by the buoy, I just took a drive-by photo and like that, I was out of there in my rental car on the way home wondering what had just happened. In retrospect, I would have finished my ride at the original finish in Flamingo. It's such a beautiful, quiet, perfect place to end an epic route like the Florida Divide in contrast to the, in your face, craziness of Key West.
In the end, I rode 1510 miles in 11 days, 6 hrs, and 15 mins. The route was brutal, raw, exhilarating, intense, and after having a couple weeks to digest it, an amazing, awesome experience!
People often ask me if I have fun riding these long routes. It's a different kind of fun than what most people are accustomed to. There are so many highs and lows and all these highs and lows, in the end, combine to make an incredible life experience! It only takes a few days after the trip is over to forgot most of the negative stuff and what you have left is the amazing feeling of having accomplished something huge and amazing, and that's why I continue to do this amazing sport!
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