The Fifty

I had done something similar to this route in July of last year but only ended up with 40 miles. I really wanted to see how 50 would hurt and I HATE riding around in circles. So I got on Google Earth and mapped out a mostly off road ride in the Apalachicola National Forest. Since this isn't B's type of ride I coaxed him out of the notion of going by talking about all the sand and long graded roads this ride would have; in truth, I kind of wanted to do this alone anyway.

After our mountain trip I had taken Stumpy to the shop to solve a squeak that had been driving me crazy (they call it Normanizing). Unfortunately they came back with the dreaded "couldn't duplicate the problem" so within a mile of me leaving the St. Marks trail head at 7:30 am, of course, it started squeaking again. What? I have to listen to this for the next 5 hours? I tried to remain calm and convince myself this was all part of the mental test. So I plugged in my MP3, turned up the volume and continued down Munson.

I had filled my Camelback, plus a bottle of water, and had planned on filling up at the Trout Pond trail head. Two Stinger Waffles, a pack of gel, two packs of Shot Blocks, and a Cliff bar was all the food I took. Since I'm planning on doing Fools Gold in a couple of weeks I thought I would see how much I needed to eat over the 4-5 hours I'd be pedaling and I assumed this would be plenty.

After riding a portion of Munson, I took a FS road across the Crawfordville highway, and stayed on that until I came to a power line I recognized from my moto days. There I picked up an old Enduro trail which even after not being used for at least 5 years I was still able to follow. In fact, it looked like it had recently been marked and some of the downfall cleared. It was sort of single track, not soft at all, and was headed in the general direction I wanted to go. After a little bushwacking I popped out on LL Wallace Rd., turned east, crossed Springhill Rd., picked up Tom Roberts Rd. and started wiggling south toward the old Helen Guard work center. Here I started noticing how soft the roads felt, even on the little downhills I had to pedal to maintain forward momentum. It looked like it had rained on this section the night before so dry sand wasn't a problem but wet sand was another issue.

At the south end of the Trout Pond trail, at a place we used to call Brown House, I ran into a couple of my old moto buddies getting ready to ride. The USFS has been particularly crappy to motorized users lately and they have been forced onto less and less trail. To add insult to that they couldn't even get on at their regular trail head due to a bunch of horses unloading that morning. Why the horsey people go to a moto trail head to ride is beyond me. Anyhoo I left them trying to get a two stroke 250 started (no I don't miss it) and turned up the brand new, fully paved, aluminum barriered, Trout Pond hiking and biking trail. This trail is an excellent example of how the USFS wastes tax payer dollars but I don't feel like hashing that out right now. At the trail head there were new bathrooms, covered picnic tables, paved parking, a traffic survey, but no people. I ate my Stingers, checked my map, but didn't think I needed to refill my water. You do know that was a mistake don't you?

Once I started heading west it started getting hot. No shade, soft roads, and a sore butt were making me a little ill. My water in my Camelback was bath water hot by now and it seemed like all the roads were up hill. This was about 2.5 hours into the ride so I made a mental note to expect a little wall at about that time and hoped it would get better.

I rounded the northern most section near Silver Lake at 3.5 hours. I was averaging better than 11 miles per hour which I know is slow but hey, I'm old ya know. Anyway, it was hard to set a faster pace by myself. At 4 hours I was hungry. I had eaten everything except the Cliff bar, drained my Camelback, and started on my water bottle (which was also hot). I sat on the side of the road and stared at that Cliff bar, then at my water bottle. It's not like I was going to starve to death so I figured it would take more water to get the bar down than it was worth.

I went east along the same path I had started out on. When I got back to the Munson trail I continued around till I got to the Tall Pine cutoff. I had 48 miles by this time, I was hot, and out of water. I took the shortcut.

When I got back to my truck I had 50.16 miles on my Garmin, had ridden 4:28, and averaged 11.2 mph. Not that much of an adventure but something different.

I learned:

That whether you feel good or bad it will pass.

I need more food and more water for that amount of time on the bike in 97 degree weather.

I like these kind of rides.

50 miles in the mountains is going to be very difficult for me.

I got cleaned up, went by the shop, and dropped Stumpy off (it was the shock squeaking I think). There I grabbed a Monster energy drink and sat on the couch. After I figured I had tortured them enough I headed over to Tijuana Fats for a couple of tacos and then home. The rest of the day was spent in that pleasant haze of having done something (for me anyway) that was kind of hard.

I'd like to take more folks with me next time if anybody would like to go. Or maybe you know a route in the ANF? I know the scenery's not great and the single track isn't challenging but there's not much traffic and it's almost all on dirt. What do ya think?