I've been looking forward to Winter for a while. Not because I like the cold or anything like that, but because the winter months offer different entertainment than summer. This is the time of year that rains dry up and the back country dries out. Which in turn opens up trails through the mangroves well off the asphalt:
I'd had my eye on Stewart Road on Little Torch Key since I'd discovered it last summer while out riding my bicycle. With the advent of winter and endless days of bright sunshine and cold winds I thought it was time, so I pedalled back out there.
Stewart Road is not very big and has four or five homes along its length, each house set back and surrounded by shrubbery for maximum privacy. Mind you they are a long way out at the end of the road on Little Torch in the first place. It takes a certain commitment to get this far out from Highway One...in the land of dead end streets:
But even out here the county organizes trash pick up, and it seems some people have lots of it:
In some ways I find these rural outposts bucolic and desirable,but then again I'm not sure how well I'd do this isolated, as I rather like living upwind of the highway (no traffic noise in an east wind) yet not so far it's a trek to find a packet of milk or a gallon of gas. However the Keys, contrary to expectations, do offer isolation for those that need it.The trail is not exactly advertised:
My idea was to park the bicycle and take a stroll but I'd forgotten to bring a lock. So I stood there dicking around wondering what to do. It seemed absurd to be worried about someone stealing my bicycle in the abomination of desolation but on the other hand...
When I was out sailing I developed a way of weighing the odds on a particular line of action and it went like this. What's the worst thing that could happen? Generally I'd be trying to figure out if it was worth taking off into potentially bad weather, or if I left the dinghy on the beach while I went inland what might happen? In this case I asked myself what if I left my bicycle here and it was taken. Granted there was almost zero chance it would get stolen...but how would I feel if the unthinkable occurred? Clearly I wasn't going to be happy so I decided to ride the bike down the trail and out of sight before ditching it in a convenient bush.
However the trail, which started out bushy and overgrown...
Opened up and became a freeway through the shrubbery... 
...so instead of ditching the bike I kept riding...
...until I simply ran out of trail...
And as there was no way to go further forward, on two wheels or on foot, unless I was ready to hack out a fresh trail through the mangroves, I stopped, listened to the wind and watched the wind waves on the water in the distance.Then I turned around and started back across the wilderness.
I wasn't completely alone...
But there were no bicycles thieves in sight so I expect I could have abandoned my ride in the bushes...
The drag was that the trail itself was probably less than a mile long and by bicycle it took no time at all to get out to the end. The good news was I had a few miles to ride home and despite the lack of gradients and variety in the view I always seem to enjoy myself in the back country pedalling the main roads.
I wonder when I will get bored with buttonwoods and mangroves and empty open spaces?
My idea was to park the bicycle and take a stroll but I'd forgotten to bring a lock. So I stood there dicking around wondering what to do. It seemed absurd to be worried about someone stealing my bicycle in the abomination of desolation but on the other hand...When I was out sailing I developed a way of weighing the odds on a particular line of action and it went like this. What's the worst thing that could happen? Generally I'd be trying to figure out if it was worth taking off into potentially bad weather, or if I left the dinghy on the beach while I went inland what might happen? In this case I asked myself what if I left my bicycle here and it was taken. Granted there was almost zero chance it would get stolen...but how would I feel if the unthinkable occurred? Clearly I wasn't going to be happy so I decided to ride the bike down the trail and out of sight before ditching it in a convenient bush.However the trail, which started out bushy and overgrown...Opened up and became a freeway through the shrubbery... ...so instead of ditching the bike I kept riding......until I simply ran out of trail...And as there was no way to go further forward, on two wheels or on foot, unless I was ready to hack out a fresh trail through the mangroves, I stopped, listened to the wind and watched the wind waves on the water in the distance.Then I turned around and started back across the wilderness.I wasn't completely alone...But there were no bicycles thieves in sight so I expect I could have abandoned my ride in the bushes...The drag was that the trail itself was probably less than a mile long and by bicycle it took no time at all to get out to the end. The good news was I had a few miles to ride home and despite the lack of gradients and variety in the view I always seem to enjoy myself in the back country pedalling the main roads.I wonder when I will get bored with buttonwoods and mangroves and empty open spaces?
6 comments:
Dear Sir:
This post compelled me to try riding my own bike (bicycle) for a bit. But I have become enormously fat, and the fire department needed to the jaws of life to pull it out of my butt.
Fondest regards
Jack Riepe
Twisted Roads
If you ever get up to Key Largo and have your bicycle, there is a little known park hidden near the road to the Card Sound. I am not sure what it was at one point, but it has massive columns/front gates leading to it (they placed those removable poles to keep out cars). It is a long and winding road back there, filled with strange nooks and crannies, including an area with gazebo's and coney island-esque fake roman architecture. Clearly it was something much more elaborate in the hey day (I would say 1950's) and some how become a pedestrian park.
Does anyone know the name of the park?
Ah, it is Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park
http://www.floridastateparks.org/keylargohammock/ParkSummary.cfm
Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park
I know whereof you speak and I have been thinking about stopping off on Card Sound to check out the streets down there inclduing the park. Usually I am in a headlong flight to Miami when the thought occurs to me...
I've driven by that entrance dozens of times and always wondered what it was. I'll check it out the next time I eat at Alabama Jack's.
I used to live on sugarloaf key for 13 years until 1995 when I moved back to KW. I lived in a house that was on the street before the KOA campground across from mangrove mamas. In front of it is a yellow building called the alamo with looks like a yellow boot on top. My father and I would ride our bikes down the road that leads you to the KOA campground. Instead of turning to KOA, we kept riding one day. We peddled past a beautiful house. The street started to fade away to a corroded one and the potholes got bigger and bigger, even looked like they could swallow a car in it. At the end of the road (after I got bit up with mosquitos), was the edge of a Florida keys cliff. I realized I was very high in the air and below was a bit of land and the ocean. My father then told me that this was the old US 1 and there was a bridge there. About 20 years ago after they built the new one, they blew the bridges up and people come out to fish. I was amazed at the beauty of the keys, which was totally different from KW. In sugarloaf there is a jumping bridge on the main road across from the sugarloaf key lodge. That's one of the old remaining bridges.
You can you tube sugarloaf key bridge on you tube. I jumped off once and that current can take you down a ways a bit. I miss the keys :(
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