Friday, February 20, 2009

Santos Trails again

We said goodbye to our new Elderhostel friends and drove to the Ocala Mountain Bike Association's trails in the Ocala National Forest. This was Ellen's 3rd ride here and my 8th, and we keep returning because it is the finest non-mountain mountain bike venue I have found.

As we reached the trail beginning, I noticed 2 fellows loading bikes on a car with Illinois plates, and also noticed the dealer's sticker said "Gurnee." I stopped and asked, "Did you come all the way from Illinois to bike these trails?" They chuckled and replied they had, to which I said, "So did I, neighbors," because they live only a dozen or so miles from my house. Small world, especially when the conversation revealed one was also a retired teacher and cross-country coach, like me. We had even coached opposing teams several times at large meets.

Ellen and I then enjoyed the magnificent forest scenery and perfect sunny 60 degree temperature for two hours as we pedaled trails like this...



Signs indicated there was a big race being held here tomorrow, thus preventing our planned return to bike here prior to driving to Gainesville. This also happened to us several weeks ago as we drove south into central Florida. So tomorrow we'll drive a bit west and pick up another section of the trail away from the race course.

1 comment:

whalechaser said...

Hey Chuck,
You make this sound so nice. I notice you did NOT say anything about the two (who know HOW MANY MORE) snakes that scurried in front of me while I was riding. If you want to attract people here you should be upfront about what they are likely to find.

I also see you said NOTHING about the DEATH VALLEY mountain biking trails into the sink that is also located here. You always keep the best stuff to yourself!
Ellen