Awesome Nature Ride Yesterday!

So DH and I have been on vacation this week and trying to log bike miles. We recently purchased a Topline Unigrip bike carrying system for our truck and that opened up some traveling with our bikes to other parts of the state. We drove south to Myakka River State Park - a 30,000 acre wildlife park that has an amazing scenic drive through it with stately old oak trees and various wildlife habitats. They rent bikes there so we knew it was bike friendly. After a lunch of peanut and banana sandwiches we loaded our camera gear into our panniers and started pedaling. Since it was a weekday, there were only about four other people in the park so we had the roads to ourselves. The wildlife there is used to seeing people on bikes so we saw a nice variety of animals: turkey vultures, wild, feral pigs, numerous deer - one doe with twin fawns - adorable!, red-shouldered hawks, ibis, egrets, raccoon and the ever-present alligators. The nice thing about peddling through Myakka is that wildlife can appear just around the corner - I nearly ran into a deer - literally - she came out of the woods right in my path! I stopped and she posed for several pics before ambling across the road. I had my trusty old Canon film camera busy, but here are some pics we took with our small digital (our trusty steeds, me and Spirit and our truck, etc. Note: the panniers came in very handy for carrying extra water, camera gear, rain ponchos, etc. We were heading back towards the truck when a thunderstorm came up - glad we had those ponchoes on board! If you live in Florida or are visiting, I would encourage you to sample “Real Florida!”

Beautiful pictures!! Thanks for sharing!

CA

That first photo is beautiful!! And it's great "meeting" you.

Nice pictures and ride report, Wildhawk...

Thx for sharing!
Always interesting to read about what other cyclists see..even flora and fauna varies alot in North America. ie. alligators..gee. But then wildhawk, I guess you would have experience accidentally meeting a wild bear or bighorn mountain sheep by surprise on the road in our neck of the "woods" up north. :)

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Originally Posted by wildhawk

If you live in Florida or are visiting, I would encourage you to sample “Real Florida!”

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Does fighting off mosquitoes while camping in the Everglades count?
I should add we had no tent.
The trip was not what you'd call well planned.

Hopefully, yours was ;)

LOL Zen! We were down at Collier one time and the mosquitos in South Florida are like killer bees - you can’t hide from them and they seek you out with a vengeance!! Actually we were prepared with our 8 hour expedition spray at Myakka, but amazingly enough we did not see one single mosquito until we started the truck back up. Apparently several of the little buggers had decided to sneak in the cab when we were loading our bike gear. I swatted them all the way back up I-75 and finally nailed the last one outside St. Pete! We could hear them buzzing around in stereo - that is how I located them.

Ahhhh the photo with the Spanish Moss made me homesick for my childhood in Florida.

Great photos. I'm coveting your panniers.

Great photos! Last year I finally saw some Florida other than Disneyworld by exploring the Ponce Inlet area. Still touristy but definitely not the theme park. Next time we want to get even further off the beaten path.

Nice truck, Dodge? We are on our second (wrecked the first) and are big fans of ours even if the gas pump hurts.

Thanks for the nice comments everyone! We had so much fun on that ride! I will get my film developed tomorrow and will post some wildlife pics on this thread.

Pardes: Glad you like our panniers - there are so many different ones out there right now - they sure come in handy!! And we actually ran into rain on the way back to the truck and my hubby was worried about the panniers getting soaked, but everything inside was nice and dry - good thing too - our extra shirts were in there!

Aggie: Let us know when you will be visiting Florida again - we are learning lots about bike trails and off the beaten path areas - that is also our favorite areas too. Now I have to rethink as a biker - I already knew most of the best hiking trails!

And yea, that is a 2006 Dodge Ram - my DH always wanted a truck and he loves it! We usually do most of our errands via bike or my car, but the truck is coming in real handy for hauling - especially our bikes!! Glad you like trucks too! If you haul your bike in your truck, check out the Topline Uni-grip bike system. We can load up to four bikes now. And they are rock solid - we drove through a thunderstorm across the Sunshine Skyway Bridge (huge bridge - known for high winds) and our babies were nice and comfy beneath their tarp. Best part is that we do not have to remove any wheels - they stay locked and upright in the bed of the truck.

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Originally Posted by wildhawk

Aggie: Let us know when you will be visiting Florida again - we are learning lots about bike trails and off the beaten path areas - that is also our favorite areas too. Now I have to rethink as a biker - I already knew most of the best hiking trails!

And yea, that is a 2006 Dodge Ram - my DH always wanted a truck and he loves it! We usually do most of our errands via bike or my car, but the truck is coming in real handy for hauling - especially our bikes!! Glad you like trucks too! If you haul your bike in your truck, check out the Topline Uni-grip bike system. We can load up to four bikes now. And they are rock solid - we drove through a thunderstorm across the Sunshine Skyway Bridge (huge bridge - known for high winds) and our babies were nice and comfy beneath their tarp. Best part is that we do not have to remove any wheels - they stay locked and upright in the bed of the truck.

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Yup, my car gets most of the miles too. Many weeks the truck only goes out 1-2 days. Would never get rid of it though, too practical to have one. We couldn't go camping for an extended time with my car but the truck is up to the challenge. We have Yakima BedHeads on ours because they were the ones we found back on the old truck that locked, now we have 4 of them it looks a little silly but functional. Although your system sounds pretty great, I hate taking off the wheels. We already invested money in all those Yakimas. Not very green but everyone needs a truck IMO.