My South Florida Adventure

I recently got a chance to take a week off and head down to my old stomping grounds in South Florida.  It was a solo trip without the family.  The weather was great with temperatures in the low 80's everyday except the day I departed back home.

Everyday was spent either heading to the beach,  riding mountain bike trails, going kayaking or both.

Down on Miami Beach they were filming a Orbitz commercial.  It is amazing what an artist can build out of sand. 

I headed out to the Amelia Earnhart Mounatin Bike trails. These trails are very popular for good reason.  There must have been over a 100 people out riding.  No race, no event just riding.  Very popular indeed.

It has been over 15 years since I last rode/raced at Amelia.   The entire trails system has been revamped. I thought the Golden Gate Trail was very cool.  


Back in 1999 the Sandblaster series was very popular.  I enjoyed those event a lot back then. Man have the trails changed. 

Some really cool features have been added and the maintain the trail system very well.  One thing I really like about all of the trails down in South Florida is that they are directional.   It makes riding really safe especially when there are so many riders.

You never know what you will find riding down in the middle of Miami, Florida.  I found this and a few other gems including a boat.

Every park I went to had a bike wash area.  South Florida riders like to keep their equipment clean.

I headed North to kayak the Arthur Marshall Loxahatchee Wildlife Refuge.  The lady who owns this canoe/kayak rental place has been there for close to 25 years.  It is a small family business.  Today here nephew was running the place.  One day I would like to have a business like this.

The Everglades are full of all kinds of wildlife.  This little guy paid me a visit while I was getting ready to head out for the days adventure. 

I had the entire Canoe Trail to myself.  When Carolynn and I go we usually do only one lap but I decided to try two laps today for about 12 miles.  The going was tough at times do to the Nymphaeaceae (Lily Pads). I had to take several brakes to complete my journey.

There is a business for everything down in Florida.  It appears that the residents are so overworked that they can not even clean there own BBQ grills.  Actually when I think about what a pain it is to clean a grill I wonder if I should open up a franchise here in KC?

I rode at Quite Waters several times because my parents live only about 5 miles from the park.  Quite Waters used to be the main trail system that I would ride on when we lived in Coconut Creek.   This park was flattened by hurricane Wilma back in 2005. 

The entire trail system at Quite Waters had to be rebuilt.   For a small area that got a lot of trails with most of them double back along each other. 

This little island brought back some memories.  Back in the early 80's before Quite Waters was even built this area was used by 4x4's and ATC's (yes I said ATC.  ATV's as we know them today were not yet made).   I used to swim out to it.  Funny how things looked so large when you were a kid.

Overall I think they did a good job of rebuilding the Quite Waters trail system.  It has  rocky base in most areas as the terrain was drudged up from the Quite Waters lake years ago.

On my last day I visited Markam Park in Ft. Lauderdale.  This trail system as also changed over the years with many new miles of trails.

The soil on many of the trails were a nice black rich soil.  It was very fun to fly along through the trail system with all the traction you could possible ask for.

Of all the parks I think enjoyed Markam Park the most.  They variety of trails there is overwhelming. 

I about killed myself riding down this section.  It might have been because I was riding a bike that was to small for me.  After this near death experience I realized why the park makes you watch a safety video and sign a waiver before you ride.  I never did watch that video and sneaked in on the backside of each course.  Funny all those old places that I used to ride into the park are still there.

It was a good week down in South Florida.  I enjoyed myself and even got a little tan.