I believe humans get a lot done, not because we're smart, but because we have thumbs so we can make coffee. (Flash Rosenberg)

Sometimes you just need a change of scenery. Not a big vacation. Just a simple mini road trip. So we headed up to Lake Okeechobee, just a couple of hours north of home in Miami.

Lake Okeechobee covers 730 square miles and is the largest freshwater lake in Florida. In fact, it is the eighth largest in the country. Ninety years ago hurricanes made direct hits on the lake, killing thousands in the flooding caused by the overflow of the lake's waters. As a result, the state and the US Corp of Engineers designed and built levees around the lake for flood control. The Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail (the LOST) was later built atop the levees.

During the hot summer months, using the trail is a formidable undertaking. The bugs are plentiful, large, and vicious; the weeds are overgrown in unpaved sections of the trail; and the unpaved portions are often muddy. But in December, the bugs are few, the trail's pretty dry, and the weeds are under control. Of course, just to keep things interesting, the levees are currently being rebuilt and repaired, causing segments of the LOST to be inaccessible to hikers and cyclists. Meaning detours to nearby roads.

We accessed the trail from the park on the northern shore near the small city of Okeechobee. You can do a metric on paved trail heading east. We headed west. The first few miles is paved with views of the lake to your left, then you pop off the trail to cross the Kissimmee River by road, and when you pop back to the trail on the other side of the river, the trail is unpaved, somewhat rutted double track. Here you can't see the lake from the trail, just a low flood plain covered with vegetation on the left and, of course, the wide canal that surrounds the entire lake on the right. We followed the trail until we hit one of the segments under construction and were detoured down a hard packed sand street to the highway. We circled back following roads, sliding back to the trail on the east side of the Kissimmee River.

A totally satisfying ride, even if the only place for coffee was Dunkin Donuts. Not the weapons-grade caffeine we get in Miami, but it did the trick.

Of all the things I've lost I miss my mind the most. (Ozzy Osbourne)

My work continues, to return to cycling after surgery on both my feet. Time to try some gentle hills. After all, the closest thing to hills in Miami is a bridge or two.

Central Florida has hills. A nice variety of hills. And in October it has the Gainesville Cycling Festival. Saturday is a group of event rides (century, metric, gravel, family) benefiting the local Boys and Girls Club. Sunday the rides move south of Gainesville to the Ocala area and horse country. Sunday has delightfully scenic routes, assuming you love horses and all that.

Since the surgery on my feet I've had to make some changes.

1. Studded flat pedals only. No more clipping in. (But I still use stiff-soled bike shoes. They are much more comfortable.)
2. No pushing through the ball of the foot when pedaling. (I've gone back to the pedaling style I used decades ago for off road rides on my mountain bike. Keeping the foot flat on the pedal with the axle of the pedal about an inch behind the ball of the foot.)

High cadence pedaling is difficult unclipped. There's the definite possibility of wounding yourself if a studded pedal gets away from you. (Those studs are wicked.) Higher resistance and bigger gears are what I'm doing lately, while keeping a constant eye on my power meter so I don't blow myself out, especially when I'm riding with companions who are faster. (Which is all of them these days.)

Bottom line: climbing is (ahem) interesting. I wouldn't call it more difficult. But it is slow, frustrating, and demoralizing since I can remember how much faster I used to climb clipped in. I'll get a bit faster as the muscles get stronger so I can push my average power higher on climbs, but I think I'm just going to have to suck it up and accept being a turtle on climbs.

But back to the Gainesville Cycling Festival. The bigger hills were the most fun. I got left far behind by my riding companions on the way up, but (have I mentioned I love descending?) I could catch up with them as long as there was a nice descent on the other side of the climb. The highlight of my ride: my power meter readout. After the first half hour I knew my numbers to assure that I'd keep up and make it to the end of the ride in OK shape. (Three cheers for power meters! Worth every penny you spend on them!)

It was a great weekend. The Gainesville Cycling Festival is a weekend of riding that's well worth the drive to Gainesville. Lovely hills, and great routes to ride. A winner.

Attention is a limited resource, so pay attention to where you pay attention. (Howard Rheingold)

It was time to put the bikes on the car and head to a laid back bike event. A gentle introduction to riding metric centuries again. We headed north past Tampa to Inverness, Florida, and the annual Withlacoochee State Trail ride.

Years ago when I was learning another sport, they told me where to focus my attention: keep my head up and my eyes looking down the course. Where you look is where you'll go they said. Look down and you'll go down.

For weeks I've focused my attention on my feet and pedals. That had become a bad habit. I had too narrow a focus of attention. To ride well and safely, I needed a broader one. Eyes up. Attention focused ahead and around me.

Figuring out where to focus my attention (and doing it) made everything go better. My pedaling was smoother and stronger. I kept up without feeling stressed. Best of all, I got to enjoy the scenery: oak trees draped in Spanish moss, wild flowers, lake and river views, birds, tortoises, and other critters.

I limped slightly on my way to the snack table at a rest stop...and it made me smile. I'd been paying attention to the trail and surroundings rather than the minor discomfort in my foot. I had an extra cup of trail mix to celebrate.
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Sometimes things become possible if we want them bad enough. (T.S. Eliot)

Finally. I'm riding my bikes again.

Like it or not sometimes stuff needs to be fixed. Like joints that are messed up from arthritis. This spring I had changes made to 5 joints in each foot, joints that run across the ball of the foot. Which, of course, is right where feet and bicycle pedals come together. For months I watched my bikes gathering dust, waiting for things to heal.

Starting with a puny 7 mile ride at the beginning of August, I've gradually worked my way back up to 50 mile rides. In a month, I'll increase the rides to metrics (62 miles). I'm doing it Old School: Do the miles; speed will come. 

Surgical fixes are always a trade-off. My "new feet" work really well. A big improvement. The trade-off? I'll never be able to do downward facing dog again in yoga, and I can't get a lot of force when pushing off with the the front of my feet. I'll never miss that yoga pose, but it sucked big time when I figured out acceleration on my bikes was toast, at least until I learned a new way to pedal.

Every problem has a work-around. I'm learning how to compensate. Changing how I pedal. Placing the ball of my foot in front of (rather than over) the pedal axel. Using gears just a little differently. Tweaking my riding position on the bike. And toughening up some. It takes a while to make a new style of pedaling a habit. But it is coming along. After all, I've got friends I want to ride with. And, when cooler weather comes to Florida in a few weeks, Al and I have places around the state to visit and explore by bicycle.

If you want something bad enough, things have a way of working out.

What I am looking for is a blessing not in disguise. (Jerome K. Jerome)

Since March I've been on a vacation from cycling, traveling, and running about in general. All is well, and I'll be back riding my bike in a few months.

This is my current footwear. Not highly fashionable. And not sensible for cycling. I've got arthritis, and the feet required some renovation work.

Before getting into this, I tried taping, orthotics, and bracing. I tried changing pedal systems. I finally understood that either:

• I had to give up the kind of cycling I enjoyed, or
• I could suck it up and have surgery on my feet.

I'll be back cycling in September. The surgery has renovated the front of the feet. The changes needed for the rest of the feet and ankles are going to be dealt with through orthotics and braces. (Luckily, I'll take a great bike over great shoes any day.)

The good news is that I may (may) get new cycling shoes. I have not been able to wear standard cycling shoes in decades. l plan to see if the surgery has changed that. That said, I've gotten very spoiled by my current cycling sandals, which I've found to be more comfortable in heat, humidity, and rain than any of the cycling shoes I wore years ago. But that's still a few months down the road.

So, my friends, this explains my lack of blog posts. I'll resume posts in Florida by Bicycle in September. Until then, I'm spending my time planning rides for the coming year and daydreaming about builds for my next bike. (And there's always a next bike.)

Running Away From Home on a Bicycle: Miami to Key West and Back

We take a week-long bicycle trip every year at the end of February. This year I wanted to do a leisurely tour from
Miami to Key West and back.

This is a very popular touring route. It's adaptable to a variety of different touring approaches. We've done it by ourselves a number of times, but we've done it with groups, too. Key Largo to Key West is an amazing century ride with a good tailwind. The most common approach to the ride is to do it with an overnight stop along the way. Some use sags or rental cars to return to the mainland from Key West rather than pedal back. And there is the option of taking a ferry to the west coast and taking the pleasant overland route to Miami.

What I wanted this year was a leisurely tour up and down the Keys. I was in the mood to be a tourist. 50-55 miles between motels. No hurry. Use the trail system when possible rather than riding only on the highway. Stop and explore. Enjoy the scenery.

We rode our slower multi-surface bikes with 1.75 inch tires. It's 162 miles from our home in Miami to Key West. I picked older, colorful tourist motels at three points along the route (Key Largo, Marathon, and Key West.) An extra night in Key West just because Key West is a lot of fun. Riding back with stops in the same areas, but different interesting tourist motels. I'd picked motels that all had a beach, dock, kayaks, paddle boards, and a pleasant waterfront tiki hut for sunset watching. Like I said, a leisurely tour.

If you are planning to do a lot of bike touring, buying special bike luggage gear makes sense. But, if you do only short trips occasionally, any bag that works is just fine. Our "travel gear" consists of two small gym duffle bags with colorful backpack rain covers to use on them just in case. I stiffened the bottoms of the gym duffle bags easily and cheaply by making a bottom insert from foam board (the stuff used to make exhibits for school projects) and covering the insert with sealing tape. Voila. Not fancy but serviceable bike luggage.

We've had bike bags of every shape and kind over the years. I try to stick to rear rack bags. I truly hate panniers. I am short. My bike frame is small. I have never had a pannier setup that didn't provoke torrents of colorful language during tours. There are excellent bikepacking seatpost bags. But, again, I am short. They just don't work for me. I weighed my bag before we left home: 9 pounds for a week's worth of traveling.

With just one road running the length of the Keys, there's always a lot of traffic on the highway. Like I said, there's a pleasant trail system that is partially in place. Slowing down and using it makes a big difference in your experience of riding through the Keys. In many places the trail has its own bridges. In other areas, the trail moves slightly inland but parallel to the highway.

Here's a sampling of the trail's views along the way to Key West:

One of the trail's bridges.

Another trail bridge, this one was once a rail bridge.

A good distance from the water, a small boat remains by the trail, a reminder of the 2017 hurricane.

A beautiful view of mangroves growing in shallow water along the trail on Summerland Key.

The trail winds under the highways close to Key West.

The Keys are filled with tourist treats. Here's our favorites:

The southernmost point is a Key West favorite. 

Our favorite part of the ride: the Seven Mile Bridge south of Marathon.

An eye-catching monster lobster in Islamorada.

Even when it's cloudy, sunsets in the Keys can be amazing.

The trip was wonderful. Good weather. Headwinds several days were balanced by tailwinds on other days. Who can ask for more?

Running Away From Home on a Bicycle: Solitude in the Keys During High Tourist Season

Overnight bicycle trips from my home in Miami get complicated in the winter high tourist season. Motel rates skyrocket. Campgrounds fill with RVs. And absolutely nothing is available without reservations made long in advance. Despite this, I wanted to take a last-minute overnight bicycle trip. I wanted to pedal down to the Keys.

First, I really wanted an ice cream cone from Mr. C's in Key Largo. It's a little ice cream shop that makes fresh waffle cones. You watch them make the waffle and shape it into a cone. Then you tell them what to flavors of ice cream to scoop into your cone.

Second, I wanted a bit of solitude in a place where I could see stars without the interference of urban lighting. I couldn't realistically afford even an "inexpensive" motel in the Keys in February. What I needed was a state park campsite that RVers or car campers couldn't use. (Wild camping just isn't a sensible option in urban South Florida.) Something as far from the Florida Keys Overseas Highway (US 1) as you can get without a boat. I knew that competition for these sites increased dramatically over weekends. Since I wanted that waffle cone from Mr. C's, and since there was a state park near Mr. C's, a plan formed.

I'd made several calls to the state park. I packed my bike and set off on a Wednesday. I appeared at the park in the late afternoon. The state parks go out of their way to find spaces for bicycle campers who show up without reservations. (That said, it isn't fair to put them on the spot more than necessary. I had called in the morning and checked that there was a decent chance they would have a spot I could use.) In my situation I actually wanted one of the out of the way spots where they send bicycle campers who arrive late in the day without reservations. I checked in. The ranger drew the route to my campsite on a park map. It was past the marina and down a footpath though the woods. The path took me to an isolated clearing designed as a group campsite. There was a fire pit with a semicircle of benches. An oversize grill. Several picnic tables. No electricity, of course.  A little farther down the path was a small older bathroom/shower building. Some solitude with the basic modern conveniences. Perfect. (Just what every scouting group or bicycle camper needs.)

The night sky was cloudless. Far from the city, the stars filled the sky with a brilliant display of twinkling lights. I decided to sleep in the open, using just my bug bivy so I could watch the night sky through the netting. I fell asleep listening to the wind in the treetops and watching the stars.

A very special and delightful running away from home on a bicycle memory.

Everglades National Park: Trail Picnic

Al suggested a quiet Saturday away from all the people and noise of Miami. Some quiet, some solitude, and a chance to enjoy the beauty of Everglades National Park (ENP). He liked the idea of exploring some trails there. After all, ENP is just an hour's drive south of where we live. We'd take our old mountain bikes with the 1.75 inch tires and pack a picnic lunch.

Our lunch basket.

The weather wasn't perfect. Mainly dry but with spotty light rain. Since this was to be no fuss, I just scavanged in the kitchen for the picnic makings: a few English muffins from the freezer, some slices of an interesting cheese, and some bread and butter pickle slices. A can of large smoked oysters from last year's hurricane supplies. A few mandarin oranges from the snack bowl. Al made espresso and filled our two little espresso thermos bottles. It all got bagged and tucked into one of my Arkel tail bags. Because of the weather, we decided to head to ENP's Long Pine Key area. It had paved roads, grassy trails, and rocky trails. Lots to pick from depending on how wet things might be.

The government shutdown had the left gates of ENP open, but, of course, there were no rangers in the entrance booth. We drove through and down the road a piece to Royal Palm Visitor Center. The store and restrooms there were open thanks to the private concessionaire that runs it and some volunteers. We parked our car in the almost empty parking lot, unloaded our bikes, and headed out.


We first took a quick loop of the Anhinga Trail right by the Visitor Center. It's a short paved trail with long sections of boardwalk that cuts across the hammock and into the swamp.

It's usually overrun with tourists. But since we were there at such an early hour,  we had the place to ourselves. Lots of alligators, blue herons, and anhinga.

Next we wandered down Old Ingraham Highway trail and explored some grassy trails running off of it. They were pretty wet, so we opted to head back to the Old Ingraham Highway Trail and do some of it. Then we turned around, eventually turning down Research Road, then pedaling all the way to the locked gates of the old Nike base. We turned around again, and  explored the trails that came off of Research Road.

Since we were out on damp grassy trails, we needed regular breaks to pick grass out of our rear derailleurs and cassettes. Finally we pedaled out to Main Park Road and headed south to the Long Key campground area. We'd had enough of damp and thought the campground would have a quiet dry spot for our picnic. As it turned out, the wet seemed confined to the area where we'd been. The campground was nice and dry. There was an outdoor auditorium on a little lake that seemed perfect for our picnic.

We had lunch. As we were leaving the campground area we ran into EBC member Gloria B. who was also out enjoying ENP.

The Royal Palm/Long Key area is a good choice for a bike hike and picnic:

• It has low traffic paved roads. 
• There are a variety of trails that are accessible with trail bikes or hybrids. 
• It's a pleasant alternative to Shark Valley.
• There are lots of peaceful areas where you can enjoy nature. 
• There's easy access to the bathrooms, water, and snacks at Royal Palm Visitor Center. 

It was a great place for our first 2019 bicycle micro-adventure. Easy, inexpensive fun.

Outdoor auditorium by the little lake.

The outdoor auditorium made a great picnic spot.

Espresso and a sweet mandarin orange for dessert.

If no one ever took risks, Michaelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor. (Neil Simon)

I've been spending time pouring over maps. I love maps.

Last year I made a discovery. One week I decided to pack my bike and take a solo overnight trip down to the Keys. I thought of it as running away from home on a bicycle. I had way more fun on that trip than I'd had in a long time. I realized that something got lost when Al and I moved to Miami. I felt the loss, but I couldn't pin it down. I had great bikes. I was riding a lot. We were traveling to bicycle events all over Florida. But I was, well, bored.

People ride bikes for a lot of reasons. Since the very first bike I owned as a kid, I loved riding a bicycle because of the places it could take me and the things I could see. When we moved to Miami, most of our riding became group riding. Riding with a group is fun and has a lot of advantages, but you have to accept the rules and route of the group. You can't just expect the group to stop to look at a fountain, some public art, or a garden along their route. I didn't want to give up group rides, but I did want to have more bike rides that were, well, more about seeing things.

So I got some bicycle travel gear. I got maps. And I started talking to friends. They introduced me to the term micro-adventures, adventures that are short, simple, local, and cheap. It is a term made popular by the British adventurer Alastair Humphreys. It was a perfect fit for what I wanted, a way to add solo travel to my rides rather than replace all of the group riding and bike events that Al and I do.

So I pour over my maps and make plans. Solo bicycle travel has its risks, but, after all, not much that is worthwhile in life is risk free.