As with our 2015 Mississippi River trip, this journey began inauspiciously. Bruce lost his new wraparound sunglasses before we even left. Then when trying to adjust the enormous load on his bike, he suddenly and very painfully realized he was standing on a fire ant home. They were on his ankles and hands, and biting away. One bite became infected several hours later.
But, really, the enormous load. As we expected, it took a loooong time to get all our gear on our bikes. After several days of loading and unloading the bikes, we become really adept at the job, but initially, it is so hard. Add to that an intense St. Augustine sun, and just like that~we’re 45 minutes later than we anticipated.
Of the many challenges a feat like this poses, one of the most daunting in the early days is just keeping up with all our gear. When you are carrying all your clothing, toiletries, food and camping gear on your bike, the
number of pockets and locations where you can stuff things (although ultimately helpful), is frustrating at first. In addition, things have a way of
bouncing off the bike onto the road or path, And if you’re not diligent, they will never be seen again.
Once we got loaded and on our way, things went fairly smoothly. We stopped to get new sunglasses for Bruce, and were quickly on rural roads that often followed the St. John’s River. We arrived in Palatka just before a light storm.
After the storm, we went to Ravine Gardens State Park to do some hiking. As soon as we got there there was another’s brief shower. It didn’t last long, and we were able to do some of the trails. It rained again as we were riding back to the hotel~thank goodness it was only 2 miles!
Cycling miles 47
Hiking miles 4