PowerCycle

Who would have thought my first day touring around Lake Okeechobee would involve a police stop.  Started off in Clewiston and headed North.  I’d called ahead and asked the people at the Clewiston Inn if I could leave my truck there for a couple days.  No problem.  I’d booked Friday night there so I could clean up before heading home.  The first 13 miles was on a paved bike path.  The wind was at my back which I wasn’t expecting until tomorrow.   Cruised along at 15 mph or so.  The trail ended at a lock so I had to ride down into Moore Haven and onto US-27 in order to cross the canal.  Riding up and back down the bridge was rather exciting.  Going up was a little tougher than I thought.  That’s what I get for having almost 140 pounds of bike/gear and being fat.  The bridge was pretty high so going down was fast.  Clocked the high speed of the day at 23.9 mph.  Could have gone faster but the walkway was very narrow and one wrong move would have been end of story.

So I get into town and spot a Burger King.  Polished off a burger and took off again.   To get back on the dike I was supposed to go back to the bridge and follow the road along the canal back to the lake.   Well I get to an RV park and sure enough I’d missed the trail (twice because I missed it leaving the RV park too).   So I went back to the highway thinking I would hook back up with the trail further along US-27.  This is where the police come in.  Apparently riding through a “bad” neighborhood is probable cause for the police to harass you.  I guess he’d spotted me leaving the area since I hadn’t seen one single person or car the entire time I was riding through it.  A little before that a younger guy in dreads on a BMX saw me and yelled, “You tired yet?”.   I laughed but probably shouldn’t have seeing as how I was in such extreme danger the entire time (/sarcasm).

I ended up at a gas station on US-27 again and had just pulled into some shade under 2 lone palm trees about 20 feet from the gas station.   The GPS was out and I was looking to see how far I had to go when an unmarked sedan pulled up.  The guy introduced himself as someone from the sheriff’s office and asked for my ID (Baker–I found out his name later).  I could have said no since I wasn’t driving and you don’t have to show ID unless there’s probable cause but I gave him my DL anyway since I was already annoyed for missing the trail and just wanted to leave. He then asked me where I was coming from (Clewiston), where I was going (Clewiston), where I was born and a bunch of other stupid questions.   He even said I was acting suspicious because I was, and I’m not making this up, “hiding out under the trees”.  Haha.  2 palm trees 5 feet from the parking lot was my sweet hideout.   Turns out he’d pulled over another guy on a bike a while ago and found 10 crack rocks on him.  At this point another officer showed up.   Then he asked if I’d consent to a search. Now I was getting pissed.  I said no to the search so Baker tells me he’s going to call in a K-9 unit.    I think he got mad when I laughed at him.   I guess they get a lot of guys from out of town riding up to Moore Haven from Clewiston on fully loaded European touring bikes to buy crack.  I thought it was pretty funny.  At least the other cop wasn’t an idiot.   He was asking about my bike and seemed pretty interested in my trip around the lake.

Well Super Cop hears back that I’m not wanted in 15 states and says I can leave.   No K-9 pictures for me today.  I was going to take a picture of him but he’d probably throw me in jail or taze me.  He also warned me that area I’d ridden through was extremely dangerous.  People walking around covered in blood and ready to rob you at a moments notice.  No wonder he’s scared back there.  The one person I saw was laughing and cracking a joke.  Officer #2 told me how to get back to the lake so I left.

Now the fun part begins.  No more paved bike path.  Now I’m on a very overgrown, very rough stretch to Buckhead Ridge.  I did manage to see 3 young bobcats which was cool.   The trail was completely overgrown and with loaded panniers on both sides it was not fun (tall grass on both sides and deep grass underneath).  Finally I made it to another lock.  The guy working in it even hooked me up with some water which I really needed at that point.  A couple miles later I had to head down to the highway again to cross a canal.  One thing I was worried about was having to ride on the highway.  Truckers are pretty cool though and they all gave me plenty of room.   It’s a bit unnerving having a dump truck blow past you for the first time though.

I cheated since it was getting late so I found a motel and forked over $69.  Had a nice shower, made some stew for dinner and here I am typing away.  No phone in the room and no internet (paid or otherwise) so I’ll post this when I can.  I really wanted to camp tonight but I’ll splurge since it’s my first 100+ mile trip.  The primitive campsites along the trail were nowhere to be found but I could have missed them while I was weaving through the grass.  Oh and my Suunto Core watch decided to break when I was setting the timer.  Hopefully its just a battery but I doubt it [Update: it was].  The Eee PC held up which made me very happy.  My average speed for the day ended up being 9.4 mph.  35.5 miles total.  Not as far as I’d like but the grass killed me.  At one point I was teetering along under 5 mph.