kjc9640

Today’s ride:
Left the house at 7:00 AM this morning and took the Seminole Wekiva Trail to Panera Bread for breakfast. The temp was already in the low 90s when we got back. Rode to a couple of bike shops to look at some helmets. I broke mine last Sunday when my bike fell over and cracked it in several places. David’s World Cycle gave me a good discount on a Bontrager Phase which seems to be a good helmet. If the weather holds I could have a 1,000 mile month which would exceed last month’s record of 965 miles.

Statistics for: 05/25/2011
Miles today: 35+
Mileage this month May: 802+
Mileage this year: 3772+ (over half way to my goal)
Percent of 2011 goal achieved: 53%
Over/under riding days 2011 vs. 2010: +6
Over/under miles 2011 vs. 2010: +978 miles
Average miles per ride this year: 39+
Average miles per ride this month: 44+
Miles needed to hit my 2011 goal of 7,000: 3227, and an 8,500 mile year (would be my best ever) is not out of reach.

Tomorrow will be a long ride….

RonH

Left home around 10 AM with the Specialized. Had to make it a quick ride as we were going to see my wife's cousin and the 10 day old twins after the ride so only did 28 miles. The first 12 or so miles were harder than I expected. Don't know why.
Half way home a woman rode up beside me and said, "Nice looking bike." I looked over and she had the women's model of my bike. We rode together and talked for the next 5 miles before I got to where I turn for home. Nice having someone to ride with.

zzOtherlandzz

Yep... It is nice... Both of the guys that have been riding with me have went AWOL at the same time. Usually its one or the other that goes AWOL, but not both at the same time.... lol

kjc9640

Today’s ride:
Left the house at 7:00 AM this morning and met Jim and Dick at the trail head. We took the Seminole Wekiva Trail to Panera Bread for breakfast as usual. From there we went north through Heathrow and Sylvan Lake Reserve. From there we turned west to the northern trail head for another break. On the return trip we made a 6 mile loop through Wingfield Reserve. The temp was already in the low 90s when we got back. If the weather holds I could have a 1,000 mile month which would exceed last month’s record of 965 miles.

Statistics for: 05/26/2011
Miles today: 52+
Mileage this month May: 854+
Mileage this year: 3825+ (54 % of my 2011 goal)
Over/under riding days 2011 vs. 2010: +6
Over/under miles 2011 vs. 2010: +1000 miles
Average miles per ride this year: 39.8+
Average miles per ride this month: 44.9+
Miles needed to hit my 2011 goal of 7,000: 3174, and an 8,500 mile year (would be my best ever) is not out of reach.

Tomorrow will be a bike cleaning day….

zzOtherlandzz

Yep, Ride with a kid half my age.... doh! Took the mountain bikes to the G.ville Hawthorne trail and rode some of the un-paved trails. I think the loop is about 4 miles long almost all in the shade. So it was like 20deg cooler than it was out in the sun, even at 5pm or so when we got there. The trail was awesome, dry hardly any sand.. Lots of roots on the trail though. But no huge ones you could not ride over. I really enjoyed the the trail. We did almost 3 loops on the trail and then decided to head towards the G.ville end on the paved trail where all of the hills are. We climbed the big hill & went down the other side turned around and climbed it again as we headed back to the van. The kid I was riding with will never admit it but he was pretty gassed when we got back to the van .. hahaha I pretty much ride my own pace.... so told him at one point to "ride on" if you want. So he did and it took me about a mile to catch back up with him. Then it was all he could do to keep on my wheel back to the van... Made me feel good Ended up riding about 12.5 miles on the un-paved part... and about 6 miles on the paved part.. 18.5 total..

GREAT RIDE!! ....

1st pic... Creek that runs through the area, the on spur of the trail ends there. The water was pretty low.

2nd pic... Just a shot of the trail where it goes under a palm & tree across the trail.

3rd pic.. You can either ride under this one or go around... Just looks cool!!

zzOtherlandzz

Yep, I had to meet somebody at the Hawthorne trail head to look at my Sugar 3 mtd bike that I had listed on Craigslist.. I live in the sticks and it was listed on the G.ville Craigslist, so I met them half way. Figured I could ride the trail if nothing else. Young guy ended up buying the bike... He took it for a short ride and REALLY liked it.... So I think my bike is going to a good home LOL. I got about a mile into my ride and started to get sprinkled on... Stopped put my wallet, phone & camera in the ziplock back. Good thing because about 5 minutes later I got soaked... It poured down rain for about 20 minutes. I ended up riding 20 miles and some change. About 2 miles of that was on the un-paved trail. Great ride rain cooled me down for sure. I even cleaned my bike up when I got home....

zzOtherlandzz

Yep, Just a lil short ride to the post office of about 6.5 miles on the 29'er. I had plans to ride further, go hit the trail for a bit... but just NOT feeling well today. So back home I went. Maybe if I feel better I'll take a ride just before dark tonight.

kjc9640

Today’s ride:
Left the house at 7:00 AM this morning and met Jim and Dick at the trail head. We took the Seminole Wekiva Trail to Panera Bread for breakfast as usual. From there we went north through Heathrow and out to Deer Path. We were just about at the turning point when I spotted 4 deer off to my right. From there we turned around and headed back to Sylvan Lake Road then west to the northern trail head for another break. On the return trip we made another stop at Panera Bread to refill out water bottles then headed for home. The temp was already in the mid 80s when we got back. If the weather holds it looks like I will have a 1,000 mile month which would exceed last month’s record of 965 miles.

Statistics for: 05/28/2011
Miles today: 60+
Mileage this month May: 915+
Mileage this year: 3885+ (55.5 % of my 2011 goal)
Over/under riding days 2011 vs. 2010: +7
Over/under miles 2011 vs. 2010: +1060 miles
Average miles per ride this year: 40+
Average miles per ride this month: 45.7+
Miles needed to hit my 2011 goal of 7,000: 3114, and an 8,500 mile year (would be my best ever) is not out of reach.

Tomorrow will be a shorter bike ride day….

RonH

Did my usual ride to Stone Mountain today. Very light traffic because of the holiday weekend. Got to Stone Mountain and found out why. Everyone was already there -- walkers, newbie cyclists walking their bikes up the hills, pedestrians, and too many cars driving around the mountain. Because of the "traffic" I only did one lap around the mountain.
Ran into John Marsh, the owner of RoadBikeRider.com. Seems I run into him at least once a week out there.

kjc9640

Today’s ride:
Left the house at 7:00 AM this morning and rode solo to Panera Bread for my breakfast as usual. From there we went north on International Parkway to SR 46A and then west to Orange Ave then north to Deer Path. From I turned around and headed back to Sylvan Lake Road then west to the northern trail head for another break. The county had just put the top coat of black top on a new half mile extension to the trail so I rode it out and back. On the return trip I ran into one of my riding friends so I turned around and rode with him back to the trail head then headed for home. The temp was already in the mid 80s when I got back. If the weather holds it looks like I will have a 1,000 mile month which would exceed last month’s record of 965 miles. I only need 37 miles.

Statistics for: 05/29/2011
Miles today: 48+
Mileage this month May: 963+
Mileage this year: 3933+ (56 % of my 2011 goal)
Over/under riding days 2011 vs. 2010: +7
Over/under miles 2011 vs. 2010: +1079 miles
Average miles per ride this year: 40+
Average miles per ride this month: 45.8+
Miles needed to hit my 2011 goal of 7,000: 3066, and an 8,500 mile year (would be my best ever) is not out of reach.

Tomorrow will be at least a 35 mile ride to get me to 1,000 miles this month….

Here are some photos of the new tunnel construction going under Lake Mary Blvd and the trail extension at the north end trail head. This extension makes the trail 14 miles from end to end and is one of the better trails in Florida. IMO

zzOtherlandzz

Coool pics SloSpoke...

Yep, got out for a ride today.. (14 days in a row with a ride).. With the kid that is half my age again. We got to the northern trail head for the Florida Trail in Etoniah Creek State forest at about 6:15pm. Had a great ride... Well great ride as long as you don't count the flies attacking me when it got a lil bit later in the evening. It was okay as long as we kept moving but.... but we had to stop to "ford" sandy areas, logs & downed trees. And had to stop to catch our breath a few times. We rode some single track through the woods. Some single track through an area that had been cut for timber. That area was kind of slow going with clumps of grass growing in sand. Hard to describe riding on it... it wasn't all sand & it wasn't all grass. Low gear and keep grinding it out. Another area was logging roads that were sandy in parts and nice and hard packed in other parts. Not sure how far we rode because I must have bumped the bike PC .. it said error on the miles setting. But we rode for about 1hr 45 minutes. We made it past the actual ranger station trail head. The sign there said 12 miles to SR100 ... One day I want to get dropped off at the northern entrance and ride and get picked back up and the southern entrance on SR100. I think that would be about a 17 to 19 mile ride total (which is a lot on those kinds of trails ... for me anyway).

Ohhhhh yeah.... Picked off 2 ticks when I got home..... ewwwwww

Just a few shots of the trail...

gbiker

I did my first half-century today!! 55.5 miles to be exact. I'm pretty stoked -- my previous longest was 42.5 miles 2-3 weeks ago.

Edit:
Oops! I didn't notice what forum this is in and assumed it was a general thread. Let me know if I should delete my post. I just looked in the Colorado region's forum and didn't see a similar thread (what's up with that? ).

And thanks for the congrats!

RonH

Hey gbiker. Did you intend to post your ride info here? This is the Southeast subforum and I see you're from Denver.
Anyway, congrats on the ride.


I did my usual 30 miler today. Lots of people at Stone Mountain (surprise, surprise ) so only did one lap. Lots of other cyclist there. Also saw a rollerblader. She skated a long way.

Lindaosm

first off....lovin all the pictures that everyone is posting. Lots of good info on all kinds of trails. Yep, we finally got out for a half way decent ride today on the mountain bikes. Went and rode the Inglis Island Trails. They are part of the Cross Fl Greenway. (I think I've posted pictures before). Decided to start with the harder part first (stretches of sand and not much shade). Glad we did as the ride back was so much nicer. Worst part was as we were getting close to the east side of the island we noticed they had put up some bat houses near some of the primitive camping area. So, we decided to ride down and check them out. We got just a few feet away and were swarmed by mosquitos. Could not get out of there fast enough. So glad we started early and were done by noon. Just under 10 miles but for some reason on the mountain bikes, it feels like twice that sometimes.
Next Friday we are planning on taking the bikes down to Hontoon Island State Park near Deland. I understand that there is a ferry that takes you (and your bikes) out to the island that is in the middle of the St Johns River. Think I'll do a little research first. Hoping the trails are worth riding. Anyone have any experience there? Thanks in advance.

zzOtherlandzz

I agree with you..... 10 miles on the mountain bikes is like 20 on the road. If you average 16mph (which i dont) on the road and average 8mph on the trails (which I do sometimes). A 16 mile ride and and an 8 mile ride is the same Time in the saddle is the same anyway.

Off for a ride now... will report back when done

zzOtherlandzz

Yep, Rode with the "kid" again today. Went to show him the boardwalk in the Rice Creek Conservation area. Got to the trail head around 6:15pm. The first section of the trail was recently cut not to bad to ride on. The section just before the boardwalk hadn't been cut in a LONG time. Right as we entered the woods area where the boardwalk is we encountered our first spider web across the trail. So we got a stick and cleared the way. The boardwalk is like 1400 feet I think.. and It was slow going having to clear spider webs and walking the bikes. We got to the end of the boardwalk and the spider webs and spiders got WORSE. There was NO way we were going to ride through them NO WAY!! So we had to walk that whole section of trail. Maybe two thirds of a mile.. but it seemed way longer with the yellow flies buzzing us. Slow going!! We made it the 6.5 miles to SR100. By this time it was after 7pm so we decided we would ride to Palatka and then back over to sr20 to the van. Well that would have been fine but the main road back to 20 was closed totally due to construction. So we had to ride another 2 miles towards Palatka to the next road to cut across to SR20. The ride length was not a worry, but darkness was starting to become a concern. Ended up riding/walking 14.5 miles.. 1:20 in the saddle and I dunno how long walking.. Overall it was fun..... but the spider part SUCKED!! It wasn't dark when we got back to the van, but it was getting close. I have a few pictures but forgot the camera in the van.... tooooo lazy to go get it right now... LOL

Linda.... Have you and your husband ever rode here? https://www.sjrwmd.com/recreationguid...ake/index.html A couple of weeks ago friend and I did a ride on SR26 that goes right by there and I saw the Signs but forgot to check it out until now. Looks like there might be some cool trails. Now I just have to con one of my friends into checking it out with me...

kjc9640

Today’s ride:

The only notable wildlife sighting was one road kill deer.

Left the house at 7:00 AM this morning and rode solo to Panera Bread for my breakfast as usual. From there I went north through Heathrow to SR 46A and then north on Orange Ave to Sylvan Lake Rd. then west to the northern trail head for another break. The county was putting some concrete approaches to the trail extension. The temp was already in the mid 80s when I got back. This has been my best ever mileage month 1006 miles.
Statistics for: 05/31/2011
Miles today: 43+
Mileage this month May: 1006+
Mileage this year: 3977+ (56.8 % of my 2011 goal)
Over/under riding days 2011 vs. 2010: +7
Over/under miles 2011 vs. 2010: +1092 miles
Average miles per ride this year: 40+
Average miles per ride this month: 45.7+
Number of ride days this month: 22
Number of rides over 50 miles this month: 7
Miles needed to hit my 2011 goal of 7,000: 3022, and an 8,500 mile year (would be my best ever) is not out of reach.

Tomorrow will be at least a 50 mile ride….

zzOtherlandzz

SloSpoke ... Congrats on your best month ever!!!

zzOtherlandzz

Yep, Just a lil ride to the post office. Not feeling that good today. Got half way there realized I forgot my water bottle & the head unit to my bike PC. 6.5 miles total....

Just a couple of pictures from yesterday... Can't believe that I didn't get any pictures of all the spider webs...

1st pic.. Looks kind of sandy but really wasn't that bad to ride on.
2nd pic.. The entrance to the trail (or exit in our case) off of SR100.
3rd pic.. The bridge in the background is actually on the Palatka Lake Butler trail. They redid the bridge when they did the road, which is cool. I have no clue when that section of trail is going to be paved but at least they are looking ahead to when they do pave it.
4th pic.. They are resurfacing SR100 from Palatka all the way Keystone Heights, it's not quite done yet but it is going to have a nice WIDE bike lane.... Going to be nice...

Lindaosm

Linda.... Have you and your husband ever rode here? https://www.sjrwmd.com/recreationguid...ake/index.html A couple of weeks ago friend and I did a ride on SR26 that goes right by there and I saw the Signs but forgot to check it out until now. Looks like there might be some cool trails. Now I just have to con one of my friends into checking it out with me...

zzOtherlandzz - nope, we've seen that too and I also looked it up on the water management site. Been thinkin' about it but haven't hit that one yet. We may just have to take the rv back up to Gold Branch and hit some of those trails you've been showing pictures of....at least the ones that don't have alot of sand. ;-)

kjc9640

Today’s ride:

Left the house at 7:00 AM this morning and met my friend Jim at the Seminole Wekiva Trail Head. We rode to Panera Bread for breakfast as usual. From there we went north through Heathrow to SR 46A and then north on Orange Ave. to SR 17/92. We crossed the St Johns river and turned into Lake Monroe Park where we picked up the Spring to Spring Trail. This trail is about 5 miles long and is very pretty and ends at the DeBary Mansion in Volusia County. From that point we turned around and headed back to Sylvan Lake Road then west to the SWT northern trail head for another break. About a half mile before we got to the trail head it started to rain and continued to lightly rain on us all the way home. It was still a good ride and gets me off to a good start for this month.

History lesson:

DeBary Hall was the winter retreat of a European-born wine merchant who chose the St. Johns River country for his hunting estate. Beginning in the 1870s, New Yorker Frederick DeBary acquired lands near Lake Monroe, built a large vacation house, and tried his hand at orange growing and commercial steamboating.
But above all, this Florida estate became a center of sport hunting and hospitality. Entertainment,” said one relative, “was a very simple matter at DeBary Hall. Most guests were asked because they enjoyed the out of doors, with swimming, hunting, and fishing
When DeBary’s last American heir died in 1941, the retreat had grown to more than 6,000 acres with many outbuildings. Today’s historic site is a little smaller—ten acres. But it still includes the 8,000-square-foot main house, stables and other structures, plus artifacts from a kind of working farm, even if the crops were bobwhite quail.

Statistics for: 06/01/2011
Miles today: 58+
Mileage this month May: 58+
Mileage this year: 4035+ (57.6 % of my 2011 goal)
Over/under riding days 2011 vs. 2010: +7
Over/under miles 2011 vs. 2010: +1101 miles
Average miles per ride this year: 39.7+
Average miles per ride this month: 58.8+
Number of rides over 50 miles this month: 1
Miles needed to hit my 2011 goal of 7,000: 2964, and an 8,500 mile year (would be my best ever) is not out of reach.

RonH

Did my usual 30 mile ride today. Thought about doing an additional lap around Stone Mountain but the temps were already getting up there so decided to head home before it got too hot. It was 94F when I got home.

kjc9640

Today’s ride:

Left the house at 7:00 AM this morning and met my friend Phil at the Seminole Wekiva Trail Head. We rode to Panera Bread and took a water break but no breakfast for a change. From Panera we took the trail north to the Sylvan Lake trail head for our second break then turned around and headed home.

One of the local community magazines contacted me yesterday, they plan to do a feature article on the trails here in Seminole county. They conducted an interview with me and will do some photos next week. I guess I am a celebrity now (in my own eyes at least).

Statistics for: 06/03/2011
Miles today: 41+
Mileage this month May: 100+
Mileage this year: 4077+ (58.2 % of my 2011 goal)
Over/under riding days 2011 vs. 2010: +8
Over/under miles 2011 vs. 2010: +1142 miles
Average miles per ride this year: 39.7+
Average miles per ride this month: 50+
Number of rides over 50 miles this month: 1
Miles needed to hit my 2011 goal of 7,000: 2922, and an 8,500 mile year (would be my best ever) is not out of reach.

kjc9640

Today’s ride:

Left the house at 7:00 AM this morning and met up with Jim and Dick at the Seminole Wekiva Trail Head. We rode to Panera Bread and took a water break and had some breakfast. While we were at Panera Dicks son Chris joined us. Today is Dick and his son’s birthday, one is 66 and the other is 38. From Panera we rode north to the horse farms then west to the Sylvan Lake Trail Head. After a short break we headed south and home.

Statistics for: 06/04/2011
Miles today: 53+
Mileage this month May: 153+
Mileage this year: 4131+ (59 % of my 2011 goal)
Over/under riding days 2011 vs. 2010: +7
Over/under miles 2011 vs. 2010: +1166 miles
Average miles per ride this year: 39.7+
Average miles per ride this month: 51+
Number of rides over 50 miles this month: 2
Miles needed to hit my 2011 goal of 7,000: 2869, and an 8,500 mile year (would be my best ever) is not out of reach.

RonH

Left the house around 10:00 am. Was already 84 degrees. I guess I'm going to have to start leaving a little earlier because it seemed too hot to do an extra lap around Stone Mountain (again).