Over the past few years, I've been trying to do less travel to attend brevets, as this sort of seems antithetical to my idea of cycling. I'd much prefer to grow a local group of randonneurs that rides out our back door than travel even a couple hours to do a 200 or 300k brevet. I guess packing everything in the car for a 400 or 600k makes more sense if the route is interesting enough. However, cycling through other landscapes can be a novel experience.
This year we planned to rent an apartment in Jacksonville Beach, Florida for January, but ended up extending it through February. Reports from home told us it was icy and more snowy than usual and Gay suggested/insisted we wait it out. The property owner had a lot of vacancies and gave us a rate that made the decision a no brainer.
I'd brought my 80's Bianchi with me for the trip, hoping to get in a few weekend rides. After a few local rides around town (mostly to get pastries from Cinotti's Bakery), I decided to strike out and get my first longer rides of the year.
On New Year's Eve I rode through the Guana River Wildlife Management Area, a bit of solid ground in a salt maarch between the Tolomato and Guana Rivers just south of Palm Valley. Suffice it to say that "rivers" and "valleys" hold different meanings in Florida than they do in NY. A few people were out on decidedly wider-tired hybrids than my road tires. I rode back on NY AIA from South Ponte Vedra Beach and picked up little plastic tubs of shrimp and crab dip from Dan's Seafood for the evening celebration of yet another year gone by.
The trails in Guana River Wildlife Management Area
An 80 mile ride took me down to Fruit Cove and Orangedale on the east side of the Saint Johns River. I hung out at a pier watching locals fish in Orangedale while I ate cookies out of my little bar bag. Breem (sunfish) reportedly were pulled out of the tannic water, but I didn't see any poles bend while I was there. I headed north, hugging the river where I could, passing River Town Park, Mandarin (a winter home of Harriet Beecher Stowe, apparently), and up to San Jose before heading back to the beach. A little of what I thought was "Old Florida" seemed to exist in little towns along the river, but mostly is expensive development.
From a bridge over the Tolamato River in Palm Valley.
Fishing pier in Orangedale.
A week later, I made a run for Fort Clinch in Fernadina Beach, just a few miles away from St. Mary's, GA. The ferry ride across the mouth of the Saint Johns is a fun way to start the day and Little Talbot and Amelia Islands are just fun places to ride along and have beautiful ocean views. An occasional sports car would roar past, but didn't bother me much. Eve so, I ducked away down park roads when I could. The FOrt Clinch State Park is worth a few dollars entrance just for the quiet road covered with its live oak canopy. I took a chance riding down a service road and got lucky when a park truck exited the locked gate that gave me easy access to Old Fernadina. I stopped in town and had a coffee before heading back along Clinch Drive and Amelia Road. A tailwind pushed me back faster than I arrived, and I decided to take a "long cut" loop through Fort George Island up around the Ribault Club and Kingsley Plantation. I got home after dark.
Views like this made the "long cut" around Fort George Island worth it
Taking the Mayport Ferry across the Saint Johns River after sunset.
In mid-January, I signed up for the "Swamp Rat" 200k with the Central Florida Rando group. The club has found some 100ft bumps in the middle of the state to provide 4000 ft of climbing for the ride. Some of the rideers had ridden a 30k the day before, so I was relately fresh-legged in comparison. I found myself riding alone, but still enjoyed the horse farms near Ferndale in the southern loop of the route, then the flyby past the iconic Villages, with the elders golf carting about on their own roads. That area was full of construction as that region will likely continue to grow until the gray hair meets the sea. The route is named for a Don Garlits, the father of top fuel dragsters. There is a museum about him and his sport at the north west endof the route. The return was full of horse farms and I saw an orange orchard. I finished before I needed the lights, but waited for more riders to arrive shortly thereafter while eating potatoes and chili from Susan Gryder's crockpots in her hotel room.
Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing is a feature of the Swamp Rat 200k.
An orange grove near Lake Weir during the Swamp Rat 200k.
I once again made the run to New Smyrna Beach using the 200k RUSA perm #620, with a ride to the start and finish from Jax Beach, making the total a little more than 300k. The fog in St. Augustine prevented me from seeing the lighthouse's regular pulse as I headed south, but made a cool sight once i arrived. The fog continued as I rolled on down the coast. I rode this route twice before, each time heading south from St. Augustine along route 1 and the Old Dixie Highway and returning on A1A on the beach. This time, I reversed it and it was a much nicer ride with little traffic along A1A in the morning. I wasn't having to fight for my inch of shoulder in Flagler and Ormond Beach like I have had to in previous years. I ventured a mile past the turnaround control, somehow missing the Circle K and pedaled past the New Smyrna Airport.
An early morning shot in front of the fountain at the Ponte Vedra Club.
St. Augustine lighthouse in the fog.
The iconic Flagler Beach fishing pier.
As our plammed time in Florida was coming to a close, the weather in NY seemed to get worse and Gay and I thought about extending our stay. The owner of our VRBO offered us a lower rate to stay in what was otherwise going to be a vacant property and we quickly resigned ourselves to another month in the relative warmth.
The NE Florida Randonneurs had a brevet week during which I participated in the Chiefland 400k and Lacy's Kountry 300k in mid February. There were just 4 riders for the Chiefland 400k and I was the slow guy in the group. However, I pushed myself a bit to ride with Rick and Rob from the New England group (apparently we all wanted to escape the snow) until the Chiefland control at about mile 110. I insisted we stop at the Florida Citrus Center at the Route 75 overpass for a quick hit of orange juice. I wanted to pop off route for a quick run over to the Suwannee