March 1, 2015
Day 27: Auburndale to Mabel Trailhead to Homosassa: with b-Assist!
No rain this morning! The thunderstorms are only forecast for 2 p.m. Our plan is to be off the trail by then. Ed and Nancy Schultz contacted us on the Guestbook, and have kindly offered to scoop us up and truck us to see manatees at Homosassa. We had planned to meet them today at Mabel (the end of the Van Fleet Trail). But the rain stopped us short yesterday. That's why we are here already typing, before 6 a.m., in McDonalds. We still plan to be where we planned!
The Van Fleet trail for practical purposes begins in Auburndale with the "Auburndale - Teco" trail. This merges directly with the Van Fleet at Polk City. So that gives a nice day's ride. Once you get to the start of the first trail, it's all off road, for over 50 km.
The combined trail is really pleasant. There are restrooms and covered picnic tables at three trailheads, and the trail passes once more for us through a Cypress swamp (not seen since the Everglades), always good for some evocative photos. There are also covered benches all along, plus the object of intense study by us - places to wild camp.
Last year we arrived at Polk City near dusk and found there is no camping and no motel there. That made wild camping on the trail essential, but the trail is designated dawn to dusk only. There was a patrol car stationed at the trailhead, so this made a big impression on our psyches. We waited that time until the car left, went down the trail and camped in the bush just a little bit in to a marked "nature trail" that departs from the bike trail.
This time we planned to either camp at our spot just into the nature trail or at a screened shelter we had noticed somewhere further down. Of course, circumstance put us in a motel in Auburndale, but Van Fleet wild camping remains a hot topic for us. We particularly wanted to be more aware of just where our possible spots are.
For anyone who ends up also doing this route, and for ourselves for future reference, the nature trail is 5.6 km from the Polk City trailhead, the screened shelter is 18.3, and there is a covered platform at 23.1 km, from Polk City.
Of course camping at one of these spots is also dependent on not getting thrown out. So we were very interested to meet the Polk City sheriff's patrol, while we were innocently picnicking at the Green Pond trail head. We learned that Polk County heavily patrols the trail, but Lake County further north does not. The Polk people have to turn around at a white line in the road denoting the county boundaries. Unfortunately, we found the line at 19.4 km from Polk City, so that puts the screened shelter (18.4km out) in more heavily patrolled territory. Ok, enough. Probably not too high a proportion of readers are planning a wild camp in Polk County, Florida (anytime soon).
During the ride down this lovely and easy path, Dodie was unaccountably struggling. This was not much due to knees (which have been doing quite well, with only minimal use of the drugs and braces) but to general exhaustion. Maybe it was just the cumulative effect of three days of wind and/or rain. Anyway, we had told Ed we would appear at the end of the trail at 2 p.m., and with no cell signal there was no way to adjust that. So we kept looking at our (dropping) speed, and estimating when or if we would make it.
Finally I had an idea. I put my hand on Dodie's shoulder, forming a flexible link between us. Then I turned on a little of the power long pent up by trailing behind, and zoom, we took off. Our speed doubled instantly, and the formerly distant looking goal became more like just down the way.
eAssist is a no no on Crazyguy, but we were using b, or bio Assist! It was the same thing, Dodie was still pedalling but just getting a percentage boost. We zipped to our goal in plenty of time. Cool. The only drawback of this system is that you need a wide path, for riding side by side.
Before the end of the trail we started to spot whaf we at first thought were turtles. As we approached them they hurriedly disappeared into holes in the ground. We finally got a shot of one, and think we have identified them as "Gopher Tortoises".
At the end of the trail we found Ed Schultz waiting for us. Ed has cycled the TransAm and other routes, and is planning a Southern Tier for the Fall. Ed always goes over to talk when he runs into a long distance cyclist, and he likes to follow blogs on Crazyguy. Ed has offered to take us on a manatee oriented day off. This is just the ticket right now!
Ed was organized with an excellent bike rack, and it was easy to load up our stuff. We headed west in the car, to where Ed and Nancy (who are from Michigan) have a rented house.
The garage featured Ed's Tour Easy two wheeled recumbent, which as soon joined by our Fridays and all our gear. Ed said it now looked more like a proper one, stuffed with bikes.
About then I noticed that Dodie's rear tire was flat! How could that happen on the beautiful trail? Well at least we now had a nice garage for dealing with it. The problem turned out to be another of those wires from truck tires. Clearly, the much advertised Rhinodillos liner can not handle these. It's Dodie's second flat this trip from one of these, right through the liner!
The house had more than a garage. It also had the proverbial Warm Shower, and oh did we need it! Nancy also is a good and enthusiastic cook, and she put out two sorts of pork tenderloin, a beautiful salad, and other kinds of foods dear to a cyclist's (or anyone's) heart. Thanks Nancy! We need to absorb as much of this brief rest as possible, and Ed and Nancy are are making it easy.
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Today's ride: 61 km (38 miles)
Total: 1,392 km (864 miles)
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