I was up early again for Day 2. I woke at 6:30. I went to the bathroom and took care of business there. Then I made coffee with my cookstove and cookware. I ate the strawberries I’d picked up at the Starkey Market the day before.
While enjoying my breakfast at dawn, I heard rustling in the scrub. Of course there are birds. I looked around, and about 30 yards away was a deer. It watched me for what felt like a long time and finally continued on its way, out of eyesight, through the foliage beyond my campsite. Not long after another deer followed. It looked at me a long time as well before following its friend.
As I watched these two deer pass by my campsite, my heart filled with gratitude and joy. I cried with the beauty of the experience. I knew that it was good I started the trip when I did. I really needed to get away.
I started rolling at about 8:30. The weather was similar to what it had been the day before: cool and overcast.
100% of my riding that day was new-to-me territory. Even though I’d been to Starkey Park to camp, I hadn’t really ever explored it much. Often I’d ride up and then ride home the next day, and with my pace that doesn’t give a lot of time for exploring. On my way through I noticed a primitive camping site right on the trail that would be convenient if I ever wanted to cut through again. I tend to be a camper who likes a bathroom nearby, but I’m getting closer to getting over that.
I was also treated with two deer enjoying their breakfast on either side of the trail. I slowed so I wouldn’t startle them. One was right next to the left side of the trail. She ultimately crossed over to the other side after a bit. Some speedy cyclists approached from the other direction, and it seemed I didn’t have to be so careful about startling them. The deer kept on meandering and munching. Finally I wished the deer well and kept on rolling.
Once I reached the edge of the park, it was time to switch trails. And I had a date to keep. A fellow cyclist I met through a Facebook group wanted to bring me breakfast. So I took a left on the Suncoast Trail and messaged Freda to let her know where I was.
The Suncoast Trail was smooth riding, but it runs parallel to the Suncoast Parkway. Which means car noise. It’s lovely that you are set away from the noise, but there it is just the same.
After a few miles I ran into (not literally) other folks I’d met through the Florida Coast-to-Coast Trail Facebook group. They’d started from Titusville and were riding west towards their home in Palm Harbor. We chatted for a few minutes. They were struggling with the cold and rain, but still getting by. They gifted me with homemade beef jerky (which was delicious, by the way!). Then we rolled our separate ways.
I kept on riding into a headwind, knowing that my breakfast date was waiting. I finally came upon her parked near the trail. We rode/drove to a nearby Crews Lake Park and had our … well … what had become lunch. The Google led me astray on how long it would take to get there. Of course, my T-shirt said it all. It’s a sloth riding a bicycle. That’s me. If I’m averaging 10 mph on a fully loaded bike you can be assured that I have a tailwind and I’m probably going downhill.
Still, she didn’t seem to mind. And she brought me the entire breakfast menu from McDonald’s. (A joke, of course, but it was a lot of food!!) I ate my fill and wrapped up some to take with me.
She’d done a number of tours all over the place. Once she fully regains her strength from having Covid, she wants to ride the full Florida Coast-to-Coast Trail. I’m so grateful for her generosity and just to meet another kindred spirit along the trail.
The trail was pretty peaceful, even being by the highway. I saw turkeys at one point! Every now and again I’d see cows. And often there were pretty wildflowers that grew by the trail.
I passed by a tree that had a bunch of windchimes and decorations in it. I heard the tree before really seeing it. It felt magical.
I’d seen a few trees with a weird, drastic curve to them. I couldn’t help but wonder what happened to cause it, and I snapped a picture of this one.
I did have to do a little bit of road riding that day. The first challenge was to get onto Highway 50 (i.e. Cortez Blvd). There’s no offramp from the trail to the highway, and I didn’t see any signage about what road I was going to cross. So I rode up a really steep overpass. Going down the other side was curvy, so you had to take it a bit slow. Then it occurred to me that maybe what I had just crossed was Highway 50. Checked the map: yep! Is there a way to get back across without going up and over? Nope. So up I went again. Going back up didn’t feel as bad because of those built-in switchbacks.
Once I was back across I was still faced with how to get onto the highway. Remember, there’s no offramp, though they are in the process with building one. They are in the very preliminary stages of building one. So there was a lane with somewhat packed sand that will someday be a trail offramp. I figured the worst case was I’d have to walk my bike. It actually ended up being fairly packed, so I was able to ride nearly the whole thing. I just had to push the bike the last little bit to the highway.
This would not be the last time I would end up off-roading my fully-loaded touring bike.
Turning onto Hwy 50 was Ok. It was definitely traffic-y with a lot of construction. But there’s a good shoulder to ride, so I never felt truly unsafe. And cars and trucks stayed away.
To get to the next trail, Good Neighbor Trail, I eventually I had to turn off the highway. I turned onto 581 (Emerson Road). There was no shoulder there, and it was two-lane road. Only a few cars passed by though, and they all went well around me.
I then turned left onto 98. There was no shoulder there, and the amount of traffic led me to ride the sidewalk for this short bit. But I wasn’t on that road for long before turning onto the Good Neighbor Trail. It was such a pleasure to see so much green after riding on the highway for so long.
And the trail was nice. It went through wooded areas. There were also a lot of cow and horse farms along this portion of the trail. Aside from birds, I didn’t see any wildlife.
I was able to make better mileage from the time I turned off of the Suncoast Trail, because I left the headwind behind.
Eventually the Good Neighbor Trail deadends into the Withlahoochee Trail. I turned south there to ride the last couple of miles to my campsite at Cypress Glenn Campground. To get there, I had to cross the Croom-Rital Road. Just as I was wondering how I’d do that, I saw a small little path going to left of the trail and through the fence that I thought was going to block me from my final destination.
There was no one at the main gate to check me in. I looked up my campsite number and started following signs to my spot. I never did speak with anyone to check in or anything. I guess they like it mostly self-serve. The road was bumpy riding back to the Cypress Glenn portion. For any cyclists following in my path, I’d recommend getting a spot at Silver Springs if you can to avoid those last bumps. But it wasn’t anything my bike couldn’t handle, and soon enough we were there. The entry to the campsite was semi-loose gravel, and I had to push my bike part of the way in.
There was no one apparent to buy firewood from, so I had a candlelight fire that night. I ate the rest of my McDonald’s, courtesy of Freda, for my dinner that night. It started raining at some point, so I hunkered down in my tent, wrote, and then went to sleep to get up early for the next day.
View from top of campsite 
Candlelight journaling 
View up into campsite
I logged 53.9 miles that day and rolled into camp a little after 4:00.