Okefenokee Ride 2014

Once again, Karlos and his friends have come up with something fun to ride.  The ideas are limitless from this guy.  Lots of good riding on each of his routes, for sure!

This time it was around the perimeter of the Okefenokee.

Five of us packed up and ready to go.  Bobby was on his first off road bikepacking trip.  Karlos, Jeff, Shey and I had old dirty gear and brand new reflective triangles!

Karlos has these big triangle reflectors for sale.  Very cool and I keep it on my backpack for all hiking and riding now.  http://www.ebay.com/itm/Safety-Triangle-Cycling-Jogging-Singletrack-Samurai-/191448222719?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c93340bff

Photo by Jeff Tomassetti

We planned on roughly 150 miles of jeep track with a little pavement.  Shey and I brought lights in case we decided to ride through the night, but planned to camp out with the group and visit.

During the two days, we saw alligators in the water and on the road.  A bobcat crossed our path.  Bear tracks and scat everywhere.  The temperature was perfect and the sun stayed behind the clouds for most of the ride.

Photo by Jeff Tomassetti

Just before we reached the area where we planned to camp, the other three guys who were supposed to be on the ride with us, showed up on the road with promises of pizza and beer.  Yea!  Trail magic at it's finest!  Pizza never tasted so good.

We brought hammocks, but the place where the group decided to camp didn't have easily accessible trees and the ground was sandy and soft, so we hit the ground like the old days.  Dinner was curry chicken with cashews and rice.  Yum.

Another group of three guys met up with us to camp and would ride a few miles with us the next morning.  They made a fire and put up Christmas lights.

The mosquitoes were the size of pterodactyls and there were many.   I finally sprayed myself with deet and the bugs still landed on me, then melted into the bug spray and I had to peel them off.   To sleep, we pulled our beanies down and our jacket up, so only our eyes were showing.  (Bugs were only a problem when we stopped for the night.)

It started to drizzle a little, so we put our ground cover over us and snuggled in.  I don't sleep unless I am super tired, so I laid awake listening to everyone make night noises and watched the moon rise and set.  It was a beautiful night and I couldn't have asked for better scenery and company.

Riding in pajamas?  Why not?

We came across some hunters along the way and Shey and I decided to take a detour and move away from them.  Though they wouldn't be shooting in our direction and we had orange on, it just seemed like a good idea to move on.  We came to a little town with a store that was a grocery store, laundromat, deer processing plant, gas station, and gathering place for the towns folk.  It was entertaining.  After salt and sweets, we hit the road again and got back to the car in enough time to make the 3 1/2 hour drive home before bedtime.

**

I  hadn't been on the bike in months and it showed.  The miles of running and hiking just don't translate to the bike, unfortunately, and it's hard to be slow.  After so many years of putting 10-15 hours in base miles on the bike and riding 6 days a week, I have been so happy to get back to my hiking/running roots, but I'm reminded of that change each time I ride.  Shey was understanding and helped a ton.  The other guys kept the pace slow and happy and the landscape was AMAZING!

Photo by Jeff Tomassetti


Another GREAT ONE from Karlos @ singletracksamurai!  Thanks!!