Mountain Biking - Combining Swimming and Cycling!

Went riding with a buddy of mine on Saturday morning. We headed over to Carter Road Park in Mulberry, FL. If you're ever down in the Tampa area, it's a fun loop. Not too difficult and some small loops can be a definite challange. Temps were in the low 60's and it was mostly sunny, but cool in the shade.

Anyways, was on the last small loop of the big loop (if that makes sense), and was riding a trail adjacent to a lake with a lot of stagnant water. Hit a rock, rolled over it, and the front tire dropped right in front of a big root. BAM! Over the bars I went right into the water! I was scrambling to get out of it as quick as possible due to the large population of alligators and snakes in and around these lakes.

I was soaked through and through. I was standing there dripping, heck, my shoes were squishing! I had water pouring off of my long sleeve jersey!!!!

Luckily, we were almost done with the big loop and headed back to the car. I had an extra jersey albeit short sleeved.

The attached pic is of me wringing out my jersey. You can't really tell, but there are a lot of water drops coming out of it. My shorts were soaked too, and I spent the rest of the day with a serious case of "turtleneck", (I know you know what I mean!).

Let me try a bigger pic:

Here's another one!

Note the beginnings of a bald spot on back of my head! YIKES! Anyone got the number for Hair Club for Men?

Here's the bike:

This is how bikes should look, all the time!

Ahhhhrrrrrgggggghhhhhh!

It won't let me post the same pic in a bigger format!

L8R

Funny storey...the whole aligator thing is a little scarey though :)

Bah... a little alligator never hurt anybody :D




Never heard of that place.. might have to ride there if I'm ever up that way.

My god I wouldent want to get in a fight with you A2!:D

Originally I thought this thread was appropriate for me since I use to ride my bike to the pool so I could swim laps.:confused:

Sounds like you had quite the spill. Most of us get cuts, bruises, a broken bone every once in a while. You get dumped into a body of water. Somehow, I find this amusing.

If it were me, I'd expect everyone to laugh too.:beer:

Originally posted by KleinMp99
My god I wouldent want to get in a fight with you A2!:D

The bigger they are, the more aligators they can feed...Or something like that.

I would have been out of that water before I even got wet...How big is the typical aligator down there?

.
How big is the typical aligator down there?

After my dip, changed jerseys, and went for another ride. As I was rounding a corner, I saw about a 5-6 footer sunning on the bank, and scarred it and it lunged for the water. That day, we probably saw 4 or 5 in the water and on the banks sunning themselves. We get all sizes down here. I've seen some over in the Myakka River State Park about 12-13 foot, but the most common ones you see are about 5-7 foot. The bigger ones must not roam around as much.

Another big concern are the Snakes. Water moccassins can be found in and around many of the lakes down here. One of my roomate's little brother was killed when waterskiing and fell into a nest of them. He was bitten over 40 times and was convulsing by the time they got him into the boat! Thoughts of that send shivers through my body when I hit the water!

L8R

So...old people drop dead from the heat down there, you can't go in the water or you will be killed by either a 12 foot alligator or a poisonous snake, sharks will kill you in the ocean...what about spiders? Got any poisonous spiders?

Sounds like a nice place to retire...

:D

Scroll down this thread to my post:

Banana Spiders (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16525&highlight=banana+spider)

Not exactly dangerous, but their bites do hurt, and they have these huge webs that go all the way across trails.

L8R

"YIKES! I simulataneously threw down my bike, brushed the thing off and started the "Hybie Gybie Dance" You know the one! "

:lol:

You should consider moving to a non-tropical clime :) nothing up here in Maine to worry about. Only thing in the woods that could kill you are black bears, and you could live in the woods your whole life and not see one. Not that they aren't there, they are just really timid/shy :)

I am constantly considering moving! But Maine is too dern cold for me! I'm thinking NC or CO!

L8R

Geez. You guys have some crazy animals to contend with. We don't have anything that dangerous, just:

Pigs- Some people call em wild boar. But they're harmless. Sometimes they won't run away until you are right next to them.
Coyotes- They run away as fast as they can.
Foxes- Same with them.
Skunks- We get away as fast as we can ;)
Salemanders- Watch out little guy!
Snakes- Western Diamondbacks are the only poisonous ones.
Flies- We call one section of our climb "Fly Hill"
HorseFlies- Had a nice bite of meat taken from my arm once.
Yellowjackets- Not too bad if you don't have food.
Idiots- They just stand in the trail as you come down. :D

I'm sorry to hear about the little brother. That's way worse than when I kicked a yellowjacket nest like a soccer ball. I only had about 20 stings...

in one of my XC races this summer i wiped out really bad on this stupid terraced downhill (it was raining and they had laid out RUBBER mats to protect the grass so it was SLICK), anyway, i wiped out huge flipping over the bars and rolling quite a ways (hurt my shoulder slighty, broke one finger and broke my deraileur hanger) and i felt like a real idiot since this was a short loop course and this was right next to the start/finish so there were hundreds of spectators.

anyway, after about 5 minutes sitting there feeling like an idiot and pissed that i could not ride since my deraileur was broken, another guy wiped out even bigger and he tumpled all the way down and flew off the course and into the lake! and with a big splash too! he was really hurt with a concussion and all so the medics stopped looking at my shoulder and finger and took this guy off in a stretcher to the hospital.