February 17, 2025
Day 3: Palatka to Gainesville
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
I went to bed early, so despite an hour of wakefulness I felt pretty rested. I got up just before 6 so I could eat breakfast when the hotel breakfast area opened. I ate scrambled eggs, a waffle, and yogurt. I was hungry even after all that. I packed a PBJ sandwich, 2 slices of cheese, a Clementine and some carrots.
The front that came in last night brought cold weather. It was 45F this morning at departure time. I wore leg warmers, a long-sleeve Canari jersey and my Perlizumi jacket, wool Sock Guy socks, and put toe covers on my shoes. I wore the same shorts I did yesterday. I was going to use my vest but changed at the last moment. I would have been fine with the vest. I wore my medium weight Perlizumi gloves and brought my full-finger gloves in case I got cold. I warmed up after a while and rode without the jacket. I couldn't stuff the jacket in my jersey so tied it around my waste.
The route started out on Reid St in Palatka, which was pretty busy. The directions to the Palatka-Lake Butler trail didn't seem correct, so we stayed on the road until we found an entrance. The trail was really nice. I rode parts of it a couple weeks ago. It is shaded and goes through hammocks and swamps. I rode mostly with BW. We went through Florahome and then Putnam Hall, where we left the trail. We rode on FL Highway 20. It had lane departure warnings embedded in the white lines. It made it hard to find a good place to ride. After about 6.5 miles we turned onto a more pleasant rode. After that we rode on US-301 for a while. The shoulder was wide and had junk in it, but it wasn't bad. That took us to Hawthorne. The ride with GPS directions were a little off and we had to climb a small berm to get to the trail. We ate lunch in the park at the trailhead in the sun, which felt nice. The Gainesville Hawthorne is really nice. We did it a couple weeks ago 3 times. We rode with Stan and stopped for him to eat lunch. We also stopped at a boardwalk, but the only thing there were some young guys fishing. We left the trail about a mile from the end and it was about 2.5 miles from there to the end.
Tonight we are camping in the yard of some people (Tom and Martha) who host many groups on the Southern Tier. We are the first going east to west. They have a nice house on 5 acres. We can camp in the yard. They have 3 showers, including one outside. I decided to use that one. They are making dinner for us. Martha made appetizers that included home made crackers and 3 dips. There was a roasted carrot dip that was especially good.
My tent went up easily even though I haven't set it up since last fall. I'm not sure the electric pump I have is worth it, but I used it anyway.
Today's ride: 52 miles (84 km)
Total: 96 miles (154 km)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 4 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |