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:
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| One of the trail's bridges. |
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| Another trail bridge, this one was once a rail bridge. |
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| A good distance from the water, a small boat remains by the trail, a reminder of the 2017 hurricane. |
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| A beautiful view of mangroves growing in shallow water along the trail on Summerland Key. |
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| The trail winds under the highways close to Key West. |
The Keys are filled with tourist treats. Here's our favorites:
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| The southernmost point is a Key West favorite. |
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| Our favorite part of the ride: the Seven Mile Bridge south of Marathon. |
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| An eye-catching monster lobster in Islamorada. |
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| 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?
