Well, today was the big day, the one we were most concerned about - close to 70 miles and across the ‘gap’ (the very busy Route 50 unfinished part of the trail). Went from the eastern edge of Clermont to Brooksville.
We’ve been working off two gpx files on Komoot. The entire C2C route and an Alternative to cover what’s known as the SR 50 Gap which is an unfinished section starting at Groveland and running west for 25 miles. Unfinished meaning no trail and no bike lane in that section with traffic whizzing past at 55 mph - ugh. The Alternative reduces the amount of time spent on SR 50 to about 4 miles. It’s a bit longer, but totally worth it!
Up early and out of the hotel, heading to downtown Clermont along the shores of Lake Mineola. Had a nice eggs and roll ups brekkie - turned out better than several of the restaurant breakfasts. Ran into loads of cyclists on the 8 mile run into town. No smiling or waving, very serious. Turns out there was a bike run, the Horrible Hundred from Clermont. So that’s why we couldn’t find a hotel in town! We did find coffee though! Then off into the countryside to avoid that SR 50 gap.
Once we got back on 50 after the Alternative, it was an easy trail alongside the (busy) road. We did take a detour to visit the Richloam Country Store, been run by the same family since 1922. In keeping with the nostalgic theme, had a Grape Nehi.
Made it through the Gap and got on the Withlacoochee Trail, from there it was only 15 miles to Brooksville. Good provisions during the day - meat and cheese roll ups, orange slices and Lindt chocolate - hit the spot! Needed plenty of water, got warm after 50 miles - the chocolate at the end got us through the last 5 miles.
Staying at the Arendale B&B tonight, an antique Florida house - wooden floors, antique furniture, cosy. Nice change from the hotels / motels we’ve stayed at. Managed to find a Sunday night dinner (these can be scarce, everything else in town was closed!) at the Florida Cracker Kitchen - beef brisket for me and ribs for Steve. Just what we needed at the end of a long day!
Good day today, we were wheels turning by 7 am and it was all done by 2 pm. There are still two days to do but tomorrow we are back in familiar territory and much of the remaining route we have ridden before. One thing that this tour has taught me I think is the scale of the difference between “Urban America” (Starbucks, manicured lawns, restaurants at every turn, quite densely populated, high end European Cars) and “Rural America” ( manufactured homes, very sparsely populated, older american trucks, virtually no restaurants, unbelievable number of churches!!). Like two different worlds and, as we have seen recently, two different philosophies.
ReplyDeleteI think another 50 + miles tomorrow which is day 4 of 5. Bring it on !!