December 26, 2014
The Route
We started our Southern Tier last year in Key West. With over 4000 km ultimately to go, we could not dilly dally too much at any point along the way. Still, we were mightily impressed with the blue ocean, turtles, pelicans and such in the Florida Keys, and with the alligators and gar and birds in the Everglades. On top of that, we regretted not having passed through the historic town of St. Augustine, in the north east.
Finally, although we did more or less accidentally hit the 46 km Van Fleet rail trail, we missed the 74 km Withlacoochee Trail. We adore rail trails (flat, no cars!).
So, having "used up" the little island of Hawaii and still looking for somewhere to cycle another 2000+ km, prior to going off on some kind of a "real" tour (needs to be over 4000 km to qualify!) later in the year, we chose to go back to Florida for a closer look.
What we are looking for in Florida is those four things already mentioned: The Keys, the Everglades, the Withlacoochee, and St. Augustine. To this we add the east coast. Last year we got a number of Guestbook messages from Marilyn Dennison, suggesting that the east coast was not to be missed. We contacted Marilyn with the "news" that we are therefore coming to Fort Lauderdale. She has graciously agreed to pick us up at the airport and put us up until we wobble off to hit our now five things!
Florida is arranged a little inconveniently when it comes to drawing a line that hits five things scattered around its peninsular form. One big problem is that Key West is hung out in the Gulf of Mexico, 90 miles from Cuba. Once you go down there, the only way out is to back out, unless you take the ferry to Fort Meyers.
Nancy Wright already pointed out the ferry possibility in the Guestbook. Here is how we explained not going for it:
"At first we were counting on the ferry, despite the charge of $89 for each of us and $17 for each bicycle. For 225km. that's over 15% of what United is charging to carry us from Seattle to Fort Lauderdale to Montreal to Seattle, a distance of over 12,000 km! Km for km, that's 8x too expensive.
But what scotched it was when we phoned them and found that not only did they want us to reserve two weeks in advance, but they wanted the bikes unloaded and then we would need to pay an extra $10 per pannier. (This is after we had to explain to them what a pannier is). The bikes would be strapped in the spray at the rear of the boat, and we would arrive in Fort Meyers in the dark, at 10 p.m. or so.
So we said, fine then, we'll just pedal ourselves back out!"
The next "dead end" is the Everglades. Last year we skirted through its northern section by zooming along the Tamiami Trail. But surely the "real" everglades are in Everglades National Park. The road into the park dead ends at the Gulf of Mexico, meaning that you will want to back out. In fact, if you just type "Everglades National Park" into Google Maps, this is what you get:
Actually, that's a bit unfair. Can't blame Google for going to the geographic centre of the park. On the other hand, the actual road does not look all that much less remote:
In truth, the road is only 75 km each way. But it seems there is lots to do at the two visitor centres along the way, so we will stay down in there for a while.
Once we reverse back out of the Everglades Park, we will continue along the Tamiami Trail. This is where we also saw lots of birds and alligators last year. Just to make sure, this time, we will nip down the Shark Valley loop, which runs 24km south of Tamiami to a lookout and back.
Before leaving the Everglades, we need to check out the Fakahatchee Strand. We missed it last time because I was sick and we headed straight to Naples for antibiotics. This time we will go into the Fakahatchee, and oh yes, have to back out again. There is a naturalist lead tram tour that we hope to get on, rather than going in with the bikes.
We have to go into the Fakahatchee, of course, because it is famous from the book The Orchid Thief which concerned the White Ghost Orchid. The Friends of the Fakahatchee know that, of course, and that is why they call their tram the Ghost Rider.
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From Fakahatcheee we will finally head north, and eventually pick up the Van Fleet Trail and then the Withlacoochee before heading through Gainesville and to St. Augustine. Then its down the east coast (beaches!) and back to Fort Lauderdale.
Overall, it looks like this (about 2200 km):
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1 year ago