Right after we left the Balm Boyette trail, we headed around the corner to ride one of my Florida favorites, Alafia State Park. I got a chance to ride there last year with Mr. Shepherd, but Lunchbox didn’t get to go. This time though, he had no choice. He was down for it, and we got ready to ride. While at the trailhead, a helpful local rider gave us the lowdown on which route to take. We studied the map and prepared ourselves.
As soon as we hit the trail, we were in the swamp again. I looked around, but there was still no sign of the Swamp Cabbage Man. It sure smelled like he was there though. Ahhh, Florida swampland in the summer. What could be finer?
Lunchbox enjoyed his swampy surroundings, and also enjoyed this little bridge over troubled water:
Just like the last trail, there were several different loops. We came across a “very difficult” loop, so I stopped to check it out.
It was fun, but hard. The climbing there was crazy, especially for a Florida trail. The technical trail features were awesome, and so were the super fast rooty descents. The same club, SWAMP, built this trail, and again my hat goes off to them. In fact, it was so fun that I didn’t take very many pictures. Well, except for this one showing that even bad ass North Carolina mountain bikers have to walk Florida trails sometimes.
When we got back to my truck, we all relaxed a little and planned the next day’s adventures. I did have a chance to chat with a fellow mountain unicyclist, which was very surprising to me. I never thought I would see such a thing in the Sunshine State, but here he was, Bill Nye the unicycle guy:
When the day was over, we hit up the store for some refreshing hoppy beverages. Mr. Shepherd took us over to his local grocery store, and I was amazed at the beer selection. He picked out a few that were to his liking:
We headed back to the fort, and enjoyed the rest of our evening. Discussing the trails we rode, we had several of those fine beverages. The next adventure awaited us though, and it would be the place that started it all for us. See y’all tomorrow for some more possible swampy goodness.
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