Ocala Mountain Biking Trails

We awoke to more cloudiness and drove to Ocala's Santos Trailhead to bike my favorite biking venue of the nearly 100 I've biked across the country over the years. With many dozens of miles of trails, all marked as to difficulty, and all twisting and turning through the lovely Ocala National Forest, this area is unsurpassed in mountain biking offerings in my opinion. The mid-50s temperatures with a little drizzle departed during our 2 hour, 14 minute, 16 mile ride and the sun broke through, raising the temperatures to a nice 62 degrees. Here Ellen pedals through an open section of forest, with sight lines extending far into the woods...




... whereas this section below is dense and closed in and you must take care as you constantly negotiate blind curves which might have a biker coming the other way.


Being Friday, though, we avoided the heavy weekend traffic. W e were going to bike this again tomorrow before leaving for Orlando, but signs were posted warning of a big race here tomorrow morning which will make the area very congested, but we will stop here again in 3 weeks as we head back north. In several sections, the trail forces you to squeeze between trees as seen here, testing your maneuvering ability -- and this is on the easy yellow trails. Rocks and roots are rampant, also testing your skills and your bike's ruggedness.




After 3 months of Chicago's winter precluding biking, it's wonderful to have biked 3 of the last 4 days here in Florida, and we look forward to more of the same the next 2 days before reporting to our 6 day Disney "behind the scenes" Elderhostel program. For more info on this area, see my webpage.