beauty to burn

[lazygood4nothinbum]

about 25 minutes from home is access to the arthur r. marshall loxahatchee national wildlife refuge, a great place of beauty to burn off some extra pounds. the double track trail that runs ontop the berm is smooth enough for some good sprints. best to go a few days after some rain so the sand packs in and the dust stays down. also just humidity (or the lack of it in winter) makes big difference in road condition. i can use the trail with no bug spray nov/dec to april/may. during the week i'm the only person on the trail. mile after mile of me and the alligators, dragon flies, grasshoppers, butterflies, herons & egrets, i saw a few.

today i played with two big gators. tried to get their pic but they are very shy & wouldn't let me near them. then i came across a cute baby gator (about 2 or 3 feet long) but just as i was about to take the picture he scooted into the water. there were two great white egrets and two great blue herons including one great big great blue who honks indignantly everytime i ride by.

here's some shots of my morning/afternoon on levee 40 today. where near you do you go to enjoy the beauty of the place while you burn a few calories?


here is the everglades, site of the most expensive ecological restoration program in the world. i estimate i am standing at about 12 feet above water level. though it is so peaceful here, i couldn't help but to consider the restoration in light of global warming. i suppose you just push on and hope for the best.

flying road hogs. don't know what these guys are. from a distance i thought they were turkey vultures. but they didn't fly off even as i passed within a few feet of them. i even stopped and checked them out for a while. they had beautiful faces, not buzzard-like at all. and very brave to hold their ground the way they did.

lunch on the trail

the trail. it's a long way to nowhere.

 

[dex]

Thanks for reminding us about why we chose the RE path.

 

[FinanceDude]

Beautiful scenery....nice bike!!

I lived in Port Charlotte for a year about 20 years ago, but the summer killed me with humidity, and I moved back to the Midwest............

 

[Sandy]

Looks a lot like the levees up in the northern part of the state in St. Marks national wildlife refuge. Sure wish I was there today. Thanks for the RE incentive

 

[Sarah in SC]

Cool place, Lazy! I love going out into the wildlife management areas around our state. Great places to enjoy nature and get some exercise.
Here's the Donnelly WMA, which has several flooded rice fields full of gators and the berms like in your place. The other shot is a James Island salt marsh.
Sarah

 

[TromboneAl]

Thanks LGFNB, I think I'll go on a bike ride today and take a lunch.

Keep working on getting close to the gators and let us know how it goes. Ha ha.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

Thanks for reminding us about why we chose the RE path.

you got it dex. this is what it's all about.

Beautiful scenery....nice bike!!

I lived in Port Charlotte for a year about 20 years ago, but the summer killed me with humidity, and I moved back to the Midwest............

ya. summers here are harder to take the older i get. i don't do the everglades in summer. two hot and buggy. but the coasts are tolerable to exercise some. mostly in summer i exercise at night. gotta great light system for my roadie. i ride very late and night or early in morning when few cars on out yet. either that or take the car down the the hall of fame and swim laps there. there's always ways to beat the heat.

love that bike. really good engineering. got best bike award year i got it. it's overkill for double track trails but still way fun to ride. also great for urban assaults. i originally got it to ride technical single tracks. i still ride but not nearly as aggressive as when i started or since that last set of endovers. so now on single track i button up in protective gear which makes me look like darth vader.

Looks a lot like the levees up in the northern part of the state in St. Marks national wildlife refuge. Sure wish I was there today. Thanks for the RE incentive

hadn't heard of st. marks. looks real nice. i was thinking of taking a summer road trip just in florida biking through all the state, national, local parks from the panhandle down. there's supposed to be some nice ones on west coast, one in everglades and one that runs an old rail line through a bunch of towns. also i think they built or are building a trail along that canal that was supposed to cut through the state, i think from the st. johns river heading westsouthwest.

Cool place, Lazy! I love going out into the wildlife management areas around our state. Great places to enjoy nature and get some exercise.
Here's the Donnelly WMA, which has several flooded rice fields full of gators and the berms like in your place. The other shot is a James Island salt marsh.
Sarah

beautiful pics sarah. i've heard the south carolina coast is really pretty. meant to check it out after i did leaf peeping on the blueridge parkway last autumn but as i was heading east and saw i-95 this voice kept calling to me "go home. your own bed. go home. your own food. go home. so i went home."

i'll check out your coast another time. looking forward to it.

Thanks LGFNB, I think I'll go on a bike ride today and take a lunch.

Keep working on getting close to the gators and let us know how it goes. Ha ha.

and take some pictures. make us jealous.

those gators aren't too bad. i have no idea how two people got eaten last year. one time i was in a canoe just 3 feet off the raised bank where was lounging a 15-16 footer (seriously about the same size as the canoe). he looked pretty well fed. didn't look like he needed to eat me. maybe i was being stoopid but i actually felt completely safe. there are amazing creatures. so ancient. i love'm.