Awesome Nature Ride Yesterday!

[wildhawk]

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!”