Day 3: Auburndale FL to Mt. Dora

January 18, 2020

An awesome ride, including 35 miles on paved trails through the woods, followed by a stop at the Yalaha Bakery.

In order to ride the Van Fleet Trail, I planned this as a high mileage 80 mile day. After a nice breakfast at the motel, I hit the road at about 0830 and after a short 2. 5 miles of road cycling, I was on the TECO/Auburndale trail, which when I planned the route I hadn't even realized was a paved, off road trail connecting Lake Myrtle to Polk City and the southern terminus of the Van Fleet trail. It ran past parks, soccer fields, schools - an awesome amenity built along an abandoned rail line and some power line rights of way that I guess the power company (TECO) helps maintain.

After that six miles, I crossed a street and rode onto the Van Fleet trail for 29 miles - after Rt. 17, the pleasure of 35 miles where the loudest sound was birds chirping was awesome. I made one stop at a rest station somewhere in the middle to refill my water bottles but never took any pictures. Since it was Saturday, there were a number of people out on the trail but miles would go by without me seeing anyone.

The riding was through woods and swamps on wide and mostly smooth asphalt- a few sections needed work but on the whole just phenomenal riding. It was table top flat and just one slight bend in 29 miles. I saw one "Beware of alligators" sign and had heard wild turkeys were plentiful but the only wildlife I saw was a hawk, several white egrets (or herons) and a jillion kamikaze squirrels. I wonder if squirrels even bother burying nuts in Florida, given there is no real winter. Whatever - the squirrels were constantly busy crossing the path, most likely to get to the other side.

At the end of the trail, I stopped at a shaded picnic table, ate some more fig bars and drained/refilled my water bottles. The web sites say no water on the trail at all but there were at least two spots to refill so I abandoned my plan to detour a few miles into Center Hill and buy some more cheap Gatorade at yet another Dollar Store.

The route zigged and zagged on rural roads with decent surfaces, often around huge cleared areas of low crops or cattle farms - often lining up with the headwinds. But all in all, a pleasant 20 miles of riding along farms, a few fruit groves and many huge shallow lakes - no boats at all on them. I now know why the county is called is Lake County.

At mile 62 I reached the Yalaha Bakery, an awesome local stop featuring German food and pastries. I settled for a cheese topped pretzel roll and a pistachio cookie. To drink I asked for black tea, but forgot to say "iced" - and drank warm tea for the first time in many years. I'm sure I looked very elegant in my sweaty bike clothes as I extended my pinky, sipped my tea and thought about Megsit.

As I ate, I was serenaded by a 2 person band that spoke and sang a mixture of Spanish and Italian. Much better than the oompah music I expected at a German bakery.

It was hard to leave but I had about 16 more miles to go. The ride was mostly on well shouldered roads with mostly just car traffic but I had to get on Rt. 19 to head west and cross a .5 mile bridge over Little Lake Harris. They are building a new span, which isn't open yet and the old span was under construction. The shoulder was gone, so I had to claim the entire lane and pedal madly into the headwind while a long line of traffic built behind me and few impatient drivers narrowly passed me on the bridge.

After that, my route (which had been following Strava's "cyclist preferred" routing) made an odd left turn, followed by a right/left combo that got me right back on the same road - and the short detour made me climb a steep hill! That is when I realized the down side of using Strava's "cyclist preferred" routes: a lot of Strava types are "King of the Mountain" chasers and choose the route over the hilly bump vs. the simple flat route...

A beautiful flat ride along the north side of Lake Dora on Lakeshore Road, was followed by a slog north to my lodging for the night - the dumpy Budget Lodge in Mt. Dora, a dead ringer for the Rosebud Motel in Schitt's Creek, if you are familiar with that hilarious Netflix series. The highest ranking comment on the site said "Not as musty as it was last year" but it was the only inexpensive place walkable to restaurants. Before heading out to eat, I tried to take a shower but I think a few cups of hot tea for the owner had used up all the hot water...

Looking at the Strava data, this was a longer ride, with more elevation gain than the previous day but my average heart rate was lower and my average speed was higher. The traffic stress and the headwinds on the shorter day added more stress than the added miles and elevation did on the longer day.

After a decent bowl of fettuccine at the nearby Italian restaurant, I came back to the hotel and checked on the following day's weather. All week, the forecast for my next segment to Palatka was 20% chance of showers as the cold front finally passed through. But, that had changed...

Today's ride: 79 miles (127 km)
Total: 226 miles (364 km)

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