For years now I had been looking at Google maps to see which other areas in Florida might be worth exploring by bicycle. One beautiful tour was the 2021 "Sea-2-Key" ride from Ormond Beach on the Atlantic Coast to Cedar Key on the Gulf Coast. It's a 200 mile organized and supported group ride which showed us the beauty of the rolling hills and expansive forests around Ocala. Further to the Northwest, up in the Big Bend area, there is the Apalachicola National Forest. Here is the loop I settled on during my planning:
While it is a long approach drive (400 mile one-way), once there I was sure it would be very nice scenery, especially given that the last quarter or so would be following along the shores of the Gulf waters. With the weather being exceptionally nice in March 2025, I had already done 3 other long rides that month, but still decided to execute on the plan. It is one full day of driving to get up there (25-Mar), staying at a hotel, then a full day of cycling (26-Mar), followed by another night and then the third day (27-Mar) to drive home.
On the way up I took my time to stop at a few places, including the fishing village of Steinhatchee. I had brought my drone, both for those places but also for the actual bike ride. This is a beautiful coastal area; however, the aerial view also still shows lots of the devastation wrought by hurricane Helene just half a year earlier (26-Sep-2024): It reached peak intensity as cat-4 hurricane with sustained winds of 140mph and came ashore in Steinhatchee with a 10 foot storm surge. One can still see boats and entire houses washed up in the grasses and along the river banks. From a look at the map I thought I'd park in the lot of a restaurant right at the Bay. The parking lot is still there, but the restaurant building had been washed away with only the concrete foundation remaining.
It was the first time I brought the drone in a little backpack along for a long bike ride. I thought it would provide some nice impressions of the entire trip. Especially towards the end of the day, there was beautiful evening light and with the crossing of the East-West facing Ochlockonee Bay some spectacular sunset scenery:
And indeed, while it is quite tedious to film while cycling, the efforts in this case were well worth it. Check out the video trip report on YouTube:
Here are now the routes I have cycled in Florida as of March 2025:
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