The bikes are packed and ready for their official test run before we Tour the Divide. Uncle Jeff has decided that we should test all the gear on the Santos Trail. We stop for breakfast at Everybody's. Excellent service and food. Grits, eggs, bacon, biscuits, and sausage all the calories and food anyone could ask for to prepare for a long ride. Decided for a quick stop at Greenway Bicycles, a small shop located literally across the street from the Santos Trailhead. Its funny how some people can just re energize your reason for riding. Donald (Donnie) Harries, a mechanic at the store, is such a person. We showed our bikes, packs and explained our divide adventure to him and he was ecstatic! You could feel his energy about riding just bursting from the seams and we could tell how he just wanted to go out and "bikepack." We parked at Santos and prepared our bikes and gear. Right as we were about to leave, Donnie shows up just to wish us good luck as we ride away into the forest. What a great guy!
-Santos Trail-
A network of off-road trails, containing miles of perfectly maintained single track for mountain biking. Our bikes weigh 50+ lbs with food, water, and gear. The bike handles like an 18 wheeler. It is a bear to accelerate and takes turns super wide. We arrive at the first highway crossing (7 miles) and I realize my smiley face button has fallen off the seatbag of my bicycle. Gear is not safe to attach to the outside of the bags because sooner or later it is going to fall off. Its still early in the ride so we turn back and look for the button. We get all the way to the start with no luck. The smiley face button is gone, hopefully with someone as a souvenir and not laying under some leaves rusting away. At this point I'm running low on water. The bikes carry 3 liters and the Osprey Talon 22 bags carry a 3 liter camelback. I drink 1 liter of water an hour and the detour trip to the start looking for the button is the perfect opportunity to replenish my supplies. I fill up my backpack and the two (smart water) bottles on my front fork. I should be able to travel past 5 hours with the water I have. We arrive at the Land Bridge, one of the only overgrown human overpasses. Its kinda cool to pass over the cars and the breeze is a gift! Its terrible hot! We reach a huge sign that says Land Bridge and take a break to take some pictures. I dump some water on my head cause I need to cool off and I'm carrying to much of it anyways. Now we have a decision, there is a fork in the road and we have to decide where to go. The map appears to be going straight so we take that direction. WRONG! Half a mile into the trail, we have walked our bikes most of the way and the path is getting worse because the sand is torn up by horse tracks. Yup, we had to turn around and take a half mile walk back to the cross roads. The actual path was on the lime rock trail. The lime rock trail is typically what we expect to be riding on the Divide, its wide, a little bumpy, and continuous rolling hills. We are traveling rather quickly on these trails, its not very technical and there seems to be longer down hills than uphills (hope that doesn't get us on the way home tomorrow). Around 2 o'clock the sky the clouds in the sky turn grey, build up, and get darker. It begins to drizzle a little bit (oh gosh its gonna rain). We quickly get off the bikes and throw on our backpack covers, they are easy to setup and wrap around the bag. Right as we do that, the sky opens up and starts pouring water on top of us. This truly is a gift for us. The entire day we are steamed by the suns rays and now in the wooded lime rock trail it rains to cools us off. I don't know what it is about rain but, I feel re-energized and I get my second wind, flying to the end of the trail.
-Rainbow Springs-
After exiting the lime rock trail, we travel right on S.R. 200 and stop at the gas station on the right. The rain has stopped and our gear is all dry, especially the backpacks because they had the pack covers on them. I stuff my cover away Uncle Jeff leaves his on to dry while riding. In the gas station we do what all hungry scavengers do, Eat. Ice cream was the first snack, then cookies, and of course some chocolate milk. Later, we eat some of the food in our packs. We ask the people in the gas station how far rainbow springs is from here and they tell us that from the road its only 7 miles. Woohoo! Less than an hour of riding and we will be swimming in the springs! We set out on the road to Rainbow Springs, there is a strong headwind but not to bad if we only have to go 7 miles. Uncle Jeff and I draft alot in this wind. His pack cover he has left to dry is acting like a kite in this wind. I would tell him that but as we get closer to 7 miles I am becoming more exhausted. Mile 7, maybe they are just a little off or my speedometer is a little bit fast. Mile 8 okay, its gotta be close. Mile 9 I'm dieing back here, this wind is killer and Uncle Jeff is still just cranking away like there is nothing to it. Mile 10 I always wonder how people who do not ride bikes can never gauge the distances. Mile 11 We cross a bridge, ("Look Rainbow Springs," says Uncle Jeff. In my exhaustion I look up and say, "I'm Hungry."). On the River is a restaurant called Gruffs. It has its own dock to the springs and it seems people drift down the river and go into the restaurant. We pulled our bathing suits out of our bags and a change of clothes and sat down to a table. I went into the restroom, changed and cleaned myself up so I didn't stick out in my riding gear. I have this feeling that on our divide trip we are going to be changing like this at many of the places that we visit. We ordered salads thinking there were going to be small and they are huge! We chow down on them and go and jump in the river. The water is like 70 degrees! Its so cold! Uncle Jeff is in the water with his soap and cleaning off. We return to our table and change. Finally rolling off to Inverness our destination for the night.-Inverness-
The best bike route to Inverness is through the rail trail. It is 20+ miles of long empty road with little distraction except for the fox just sitting near the trail. We arrive at Fort Cooper, pay the entrance fee and decide to stay the night. Fort Cooper is an eerie place, no rangers, no campers, no cars, just me and my uncle. We set up camp; tents, sleeping bags, and air mattresses. The picnic tables are a luxury and allow us to spread our gear and make sure we have all we need for the night. We have our own personal outdoor showers and the entire state park to ourselves. Its difficult now a days to find such a place. The night sky has streaks of lightning and in fear of a rain storm we set up the weather guards on our tents. We finally get some rest after a long 64+ miles of riding.
-The way home-
The ride home began with a stop at McDonalds. It is Father's day and since my uncle walked in with me they gave him a free meal for being a "father." We refilled our packs and bottles and left McDonalds. As I was traveling down hill to return to the rail trail the hose to my camel back slipped off and spilled all the water I was carrying down my back. What an unfortunate event! I have to make sure to zip tie the hose next time so I don't lose all my water that way again. The rail trail held up to its name on the way home. We soared at 17 to 20mph with three avid bikers out for their father's day rides. They were impressed that even with our big tires and gear we were able to keep up with them. They got us down the road 15 miles much faster than we would had ourselves. We turned off at S.R. 200 to skip Dunnellon and get back to the trails as quickly as possible. The ride home was quick and not very tiring. I feel strong on the limestone trails and pull away from my uncle yet, I still struggle to keep up my speed on the roads. This trip is a perfect setup for the Divide. I am ready, excited and cannot wait to get out to Banff, Canada!
(added a few features to the site, Photos and Spot tracker on the top left for those interested in pictures and where exactly we are on our Divide trip)
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