December 2020 Bicycle Tour in Florida: Sarasota to Key West

In an effort to get out and have an adventure, I flew to Pat's house in Sarasota and we rode east to Ft Lauderdale and then headed south to Key West.  The red dots below show the basic route. 

The following pictures are in reverse order - that's how they imported into Blogger and I was too lazy to fix it. 

The "southernmost point in the USA" marker in Key West. The line to get a selfie was around the block, so we just rolled by and took a snapshot. 

We had all of our camping gear but never camped. The campsites were either full, closed, or just a bunch of concrete slabs like the one below. We stayed in cheap hotels instead. We had a great tailwind this day, as you can see from the trees. 

Seven mile bridge.  The shoulder of the road is nice and wide, so biking wasn't pleasant but it wasn't unsafe either. 

Scene from the Florida keys. This is the old abandoned bridge that parallels the newer 7-Mile bridge. Tomorrow, we get to Key West and rent a car to drive back to Sarasota.

Florida be all classy like this:

Conch Ceviche from the local gas station makes for a nice lunch. 

Castaway meets Waterworld. I especially like the camper top with the deck chair. Only in Florida.

A bunch of cruise ships lined up at the dock, mothballed due to Covid. 

Lunch in downtown Miami. 

Miles and miles and miles of this in Florida. Not the best state for bike touring. 

Two more riding days to Key West.

Bicycle touring with the rich and famous. Here is the view from our hotel last night. We were biking through "big sugar" territory and this is a hotel mostly used by migrant workers. The Jamaican shack up the street, however, made spectacular oxtail and goat.

The bus is here to pick up the migrant workers to take them to the sugar fields.

I hit a patch of dirt going around a corner. 

Breakfast beers in the orange groves.

Breakfast beers on Spanish moss and large rambling trees.

The bike, all loaded up and ready to head out. 

Pat's front yard in Sarasota. 

 

Butte to Pinedale Trip Summary

 

All of the photos from the trip are here.

The three of us survived the trip from Butte to Pinedale with no injuries or serious mishap. Doug's recounting of the trip is on his blog (July thru September 2020 postings). Dave is off hiking in Isle Royale and I'm back in Boulder. 

Here are some random Facebook posts from the trip:

Other junk:

I met Karen and Allen from Durango on the next-to-last day. I am the "Mike from Boulder" in the last paragraph of this blog post. 

Document with the trip planning information

Doug's photo album

What would I do differently?

I was pretty cold at night, so I would definitely bring a warmer bag and a jacket with a hood. Since I was sleeping under a tarp, I should have brought a slightly warmer bag anyway. Also, a thicker sleeping pad would have given me more sleep and warmth. I would also trade out my relative tough and heavy pants for a pair of lightweight wind pants and a pair of warm tights. I really didn't like the bike shoes I had - they were heavy and took a long time to dry out. Next time, I'll use standard clip-in pedals and more breathable mountain biking shoes. 

I didn't really appreciate how many bags, straps and technology end up on or around the handlebar stem. Mine was really short causing a traffic jam. I'll put in a longer stem next time. 

My clothing was fine, but there were times I would have liked a windbreaker. I could have put on my rain jacket, but it is dark in color (not very safe for riding) and isn't very breathable. Next time, I'll either add a light vest or windbreaker or I'll get a brightly colored, very breathable rain jacket. 

All the Junk I Sent Home

 As it turns out, bikepacking bags are pretty small. The morning of day one, I was stuffing as hard as I could to get everything to fit. The bags were bulging and the bike was kinda heavy. After just one day of riding, camping and eating, we came across a post office in Wise River so I packed some unnecessary stuff into a box. I had already lost one of my sandals so, for no apparent reason, I put the remaining one into the box. I had brought two phones, one loaded with podcasts and music. I realized that I didn't really need it, or the second book that I had packed. My primary phone looked like it would last five days on a charge, so I decided to just rely on my battery pack for the rest of the trip, allowing me to send home the phone charger. I pulled the coverings from my tool kit and Leatherman, and sent home two of the four masks that I had along with some straps. Not sure why I had two spoons and two cups, but those went home too. This wasn't a big load of stuff, but it did free up some of the precious space in the bags. 

Day four in Lima and it was time to really unload a bunch of stuff. After four nights camping, I had a better idea of what I needed and didn't need and it was time to get serious. I decided that I only needed one pair of bike shorts and one spare tube. None of us had had a single flat tire, and I could rinse my shorts every night. It is so arid out west, everything was dry by morning. I wasn't using my spices because the freeze-dried food was sufficiently spiced already. It hadn't been cold enough for gloves I had sent myself too much food, so I sent some back. The blue cotton T-shirt for sleeping turned out to be an unnecessary luxury. A few other odds and ends made up the rest of the box. 

With all of this stuff sent home, packing the bike became much quicker and easier. Everything could fit without sweating and swearing. 

What to Take on a Bikepacking Trip

I am about to ride for 13 days from Butte Montana heading south on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. I normally ride on paved roads through more populated places, but this trip will be more remote and it will be on dirt roads where pushing the bike or carrying it over obstacles is a real probability. Bikepacking is like biking and backpacking mixed together, so the gear list leans towards lightweight like backpacking. I find it helpful to take a list of everything I plan to bring and compare it to what I come home with. 

The bike will look something like this when everything is packed on it

Missing from these photos are:

• Water bottles which are on the bike
• A small cooking pot which I shipped out already 
• Stuff sack full of food

This is what I am going to be wearing on the plane. This will all come along with me on the trip. A long-sleeved red synthetic top, a simple cotton t-shirt for sleeping and for in-town wear, a pair of nylon "Prana Stretch Zion" pants, underwear and a hat. 

This is my handlebar pouch, so it will have maps, phone+battery+charger, earbuds, a rain shell, a water purifier, sunscreen, two buff/facemask things and a spoon. Basically, things I will probably need several times a day. 

The orange stuff sack and blue backpack are very lightweight and will be used when I have to carry a lot of food. As the food gets eaten, they disappear into the other packs. There are also two small bags that fit on the handlebars that hold a water bottle, phone, snacks, sunglasses, and other small items that should be readily available.  

This is my sleeping stuff. It all fits into the black bag shown in the photo which will be mounted on one of the bike forks. Clockwise from top right is a ground cloth, a green tarp, a hammock and the yellow inflatable sleeping pad. In the center is a yellow inflatable pillow and two poles for pitching the tarp. In nice weather, I can sleep in the hammock. The poles are from my hiking poles with the handle section removed. Turns out that they are the perfect length for pitching a tarp. The poles and the food bag will be held in front of the handlebars. 

The sleeping stuff also includes a headlamp, ear plugs, an eye shade (it is just a headband) and a sleeping bag. It all fits into the blue bag which goes on one of the bike forks. 

This is an odd assortment of items. From top left, there is a bag with repair items and first aid stuff, then a piece of aluminum to be used as a wind shield for the stove, four orange clothespins and some string, a propane canister, toiletries including a washcloth and a tube of chamois cream. Next is the spice kit with a few spices a fork and a lighter, a blue cup and a very small MSR "Pocket Rocket" stove (the silver and red thing). Tent stakes and a spoon round out the list. 

For clothing, I have a red merino wool t-shirt, a blue puffy jacket, some camp shoes, socks, underwear, two bike shorts, a hat and gloves, one bike jersey and a compression stuff sack that holds it all. All of this and the airplane clothes will join the cooking pot in the big bag that goes under my saddle. 

In the black frame bag, I will have tubes and chain lube, a repair kit, a leatherman, some zip ties and extra batteries. The frame bag looks a bit empty but it will get filled up with things like the spice kit, toiletries, the hammock and other items.