zzOtherlandzz

There really isn't a whole lot of info for this trail yet. But here is a google maps link to where the paved part of the trail starts in Grandin almost at the intersection of SR100 & CR315 .. It mostly follows SR100 from there to the other side of Keystone Heights where the paved part of the trail ends. I think about a month ago you mentioned doing a ride from Palatka to Keystone (on SR100) and back up SR21. Just a heads up there is a LOT of road construction from Palatka almost all the way to Keystone right now... They are re-paving it. Anyway here is the google maps link (the satellite view is old and does not show the paved trail yet). https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...03406&t=h&z=19 On the map you can see the trail just below the Grandin Railroad Road....

The Twin Lakes trail head mentioned in your second link above is about 5.6 miles from Grandin (5.6 miles on the trail that is).

I have ridden the un-paved part of the trail from Palatka to Grandin a few times (on the MTB). One of these days I'm going to ride the un-paved part north of Keystone....

abracapocus

This weekend, I"m at Lake Oconee for a wedding. So I took the opportunity to get in a ride on country roads this morning. Did about 30 miles from the lake house to Madison and back. Also cruised around Madison a bit looking at all the old homes. Lovely! It was a damn shame that I only saw one other cyclist the whole time. Y'all are missing out!

First stop by the lake. Too early for pretty leaves.



The shoulder was decent and smooth pretty much the whole way. About 1.5-2' wide. Most of my route was this 55 mph road. Thankfully everyone gave me room, even the giant logging trucks. For some reason the faster traffic didn't bother me. And the logging trucks left a lovely pine scent in their wake.



Smoking Gun BBQ, of course.



Madison. Cute little town.



The empty road ahead.



I took a water break with a cow.



She got a little spooked and stood up. No soft cow nose petting for me. :-(



Me by the lake on the way back, after 20ish miles.



The road the lake house is on is like a rollercoaster. I wasn't thrilled with the cold climb out of there this morning, but the ride back in was fun, even with the climbing.



Also, this destination is quite motivating. :-)



No idea how fast I did the trip. Mapmyride would've burned up my phone battery and I wanted to have it available for emergencies. Didn't really take a big break, just little ones for water and pictures. I haven't mastered drinking while riding yet. I think I need to level up before I get that skill.

More pics here.

zzOtherlandzz

abracapocus... You really do have a knack for taking pictures. Very cool pics... The one of the cow standing up kinda scares me though.

No ride today..... wrong thread but what they heck

I think...... I'm going to try my first metric century this coming week... I have a plan in the works... I think I'm ready. In the past 10 weeks or so I have ridden 40+miles 4 times.... and quite a few rides of 30+ miles... And tons of 20-30 mile rides.... Over the past 6 or 7 years since I really started riding I have rode a lot of miles.... But not really any longer rides.... (rides over 40 miles)..

FunkyStickman

FINALLY got the bike finished and put back together!!! It's late, so no pics tonight, but I will give it a shakedown ride tomorrow. It's been 5 days since I rode. I'm about to go nuts!

Abracapocus, I love those pics... riding country roads really is fun, and it's always nice when the people around you aren't in a hurry. Looks like a fantastic trip!

abracapocus

Thanks zzOtherlandzz and FunkyStickman! Glad to see you're able to roll around again, Funky. That'd drive me nuts too. Heck, I've got some work meetings coming up that'll cause me to miss a few commute days and it's already starting to make me twitchy. I suppose I should've been a little more concerned about doing that ride alone, but I guess I'm the adventurous sort.

droobieinop

Distance:81.40 mi
Time:03:47:10 h:m:s
Avg Speed:21.5 mph
Avg HR:134 bpm
Avg Bike Cadence:84 rpm
Avg Power:--
Elevation Gain:1,204 ft
Calories:1,866 C
Max Speed:35.6 mph
Max HR:179 bpm
Max Bike Cadence:123 rpm

Did a little group ride this am out to Keystone Heights and back again. This time we turned onto 315 and headed towards twin lakes to a gas station next to the PLB trail. It was a nice and wide, a little restrictive for a group of 20-30 "racers" though, that's why we normally stick to the roads. I didn't care for the sidewalk portion near 21 in Keystone, wouldn't like to ride that on a regular basis. I'll tell you what though, that whole Green Way idea would be nice for a meander round the state or country. Everyone should really get behind it, yet realize that there is still a portion of the cycling community for which even this would be inadaquite.

FunkyStickman

I did 20 miles this morning on the "new" commuter, and man, I wish I had brought my camera! The weather was nice, the scenery was nicer. I will do this ride again soon, and I'll try to remember to bring the camera next time. I did a group ride with 7 other riders, and we had a great time.

zzOtherlandzz

droobieinop... Yep.... I can see where 20-30 riders in a group would not really want to ride trails for sure. But for somebody like me .... I like them a lot. And your right, the part near keystone Isn't the greatest for riding, to many roads and driveways crossing the trail. And I agree the more people that use the trails, the faster they will get the rest paved (maybe). At the end of the trail today in Grandin there were 5 cars parked!!! That's a GREAT sign the trail is being used and noticed

Anyway.... Yep I got a ride in today..... Although it didn't really turn out the way I thought It was going to.... Coming back from the Waldo flea market I got dropped off a couple of miles west of Melrose on SR26. The plan was to ride sr26 to sr100 and the PLB trail and get some more miles in on the trail and eventually get picked back up in Grandin. Well I stopped about 5 miles into my ride to tighten the lil nut on the valve stem (cus the noise was driving me NUTZ). It was then that I realized I forgot my phone and wallet in the van when I was dropped off. Soooooo NO way to call for a ride when I got to the end of the trail. My house is 9 miles from the trail head in Grandin, but I don't normally ride CR315 because there is NO shoulder and lots of curves. But I figured its a Sunday NO log trucks and stuff so I would be ok. LOTS of hills on cr315... the most hills in the area.... It turned out to be really fun and challenging taking on the hills!! Got home and my mom is off looking for me panicking... She came back looking for me when she realized my phone was still in the van...... I HAVE NO CLUE how she missed me but she did.... GREAT RIDE though..... only 21.07 miles (including the walk down my road in the sand).

Just a few pics of the rolling hills...

ScreenShot094..jpgScreenShot095..jpgScreenShot096..jpg

droobieinop

That brings up the main problem that I have with sch MUPs. They should, in my opinion, by used not as a destination but, as an alternative roadway. I don't know if it was out of the ordinary for the motorists to seem so kind but there were no problems at the side street crossings. Maybe it was roadie freakshow or mob intimidation.

What section of 315 were you on? We rode down 21 to 315 (C?) to 100, back to the trail and east to 21 and back to OP.

Those hills were surprisingly fun, I agree, 2 guys went off the front and we let them go. I was near the front at the steepest hill and was passing people while coasting, so I decided to try to bridge up and another guy went with me. We caught up and then brought them back, then we had a sprint just before or to the trail crossing.

btw, its not your fault that pictures never do justice to hills, especially those in Fla.

kjc9640

I sure wish these were my numbers

Distance:81.40 mi
Time:03:47:10 h:m:s
Avg Speed:21.5 mph
Avg HR:134 bpm
Avg Bike Cadence:84 rpm
Avg Power:--
Elevation Gain:1,204 ft
Calories:1,866 C
Max Speed:35.6 mph
Max HR:179 bpm
Max Bike Cadence:123 rpm

zzOtherlandzz

I sure wish these were my numbers

LOL...... I wish I could even come close to yours or his numbers.... I'm a sad case.... Here I am talking about attempting my first metric century... Doh!!

Ohhhh and btw... For me to maintain an average speed of 21.5mph I would have to be thrown out of a plane with my bike...... And well i'm only going to maintain that until i go splat ....

zzOtherlandzz

droobieinop... I do agree with this -----> That brings up the main problem that I have with sch MUPs. They should, in my opinion, be used not as a destination but, as an alternative roadway. But I also like to feel comfortable when riding... And sometimes that means driving to the trail head and riding from there. I do MOST of my riding on the roads, but I get bored and drive to a trail head mostly for a change of pace. Or if somebody is riding with me that doesn't ride much we will go to the trail. Or like today... rode on the road.... and on the trail....

That is 315C Putnam County road... I think the same road you were on (only in the other county), where you got on the trail today is where I exited the trail. I got off the trail and crossed sr100 and rode south towards Interlachen on 315.

Your right pictures from on the bike never do the hills justice.... Once in awhile you can catch a car on one of the hills to give it a bit of perspective though. But YEP it was fun on the hills today!!!

I really like the ride from Grandin to Keystone & up to Golds Head.... I ride on the road and not on the trail along side sr21 though.. WAY WAY too many driveways and road crossings when on the trail. Then ride around in the park a bit and it gives me about a 32 or 33 mile ride. Just right for me!!

droobieinop

Just hoping that I get somewhere near that at the Horrible 100

zzOtherlandzz

<sigh> The one friend that rides with me sometimes (dark long hair guy). Just biked over here and on the way had a collision with a car. He was riding on a 2 lane highway towards the edge of the road and a car made a right had turn into him. The guy was turning into a driveway. He says they were both going about the same speed at the time. He kind of jumped off the bike after braking as hard as he could... Even so he ended up breaking the guys windshield. NOBODY called the cops... And he finished riding over here.... I THINK HE IS NUTZ... but he wont listen. He has a nasty bump on his head. The bars are messed up on his bike... He has a "history" with cops and does not like to talk to them much..... ugggggggg

FunkyStickman

Okay, pics of the new bike (with all my old stuff on it): The guys on the group ride this morning couldn't believe I found this frame in the trash.

RonH

Added an extra loop around the lake in Avondale Estates to my regular ride.
The temps were in the mid-70s and low-80s today. Did 36 miles.

abracapocus

Ha! Here I am all proud of my 30 mi and first 100 mi week. :-) At least I can't tell you how embarrassingly slow I am since I don't have a proper bike computer. I will say that after leaving the lake house today in the car, I'm mighty proud of myself for tackling the hills on that road.

mrz80

Well I FINALLY got a ride in Saturday after a couple weeks of rain, more rain, problems at work, ANOTHER flat (valve stem torn again) and illness... Did 25 with Thing Two's church youth group, out and back from the Gainesville end of the Hawthorne trail. One kid flatted, had no tubes and had to bail right at the start. Laura was off the front the whole time; I never saw her 'till she passed me coming back just before I got to the turnaround point. The next Jeannie Longo I tell ya! :-)

Rear started losing air after about 18 miles, so I swapped in the spare tube, and *IT* promptly started losing air as well! GRRRRRR! After looking really closely and not finding leaks on EITHER tube, I figured it out - cheap tubes, lousy valve cores! The threaded part that the tapered screwdown lock rides on was VERY long on both valves, and got bent (and one of 'em sheared clean off) when I stuck the pump on to inflate. Trying to tighten 'em down on the bent threaded bit meant the valve was actually cocked OPEN slightly,leading to the air loss. I made it back without any more air loss on the tube with the threaded thing sheared off. Gonna have to find a better source of tubes, I guess.

Footnote: Santa Fe and Horse Farm rides coming up in what, 2 weeks? Come one come all to Gainesville! :-)

FunkyStickman

Any clue which company made those? I've had really bad luck with Kenda tubes splitting at the seams (their tires are okay, though).

mrz80

It was whatever generic Chinese tube factory product the shop was selling that week. Might've been Kenda, come to think of it. Aggravating. Anyhoo... if the tube'll hold air I'll be back on the bike after work today I think, maybe after a quick stop at a different shop for their take on cheap tubes . Oh, I'll run up to Bikes n More - my club jersey and shorts order came in .

Aaand, 'cause I really didn't know where else to put it, something I found in a years old LJ posting:

Everyone is wearing Spandex
Lycra is the way to go
No more baggy pants to hide in
All the folks you pass will know

Nothing to imagination
All the flab is there to see
Everyone is wearing Spandex
It's a traumatizing sight to me!

© 2005 Bruce H. McIntosh, all rights reserved (as if anyone would want this doggerel!)

kjc9640

Monday 10/11/2010
30.5 miles today slow and easy
161.6 miles this month
5339 miles this year
173 ride days LY vs. 172 ride days TY
2160 miles needed to hit 2010 goal (7500 miles)
I am @ 70% of my goal.
41 miles BEHIND last year at this date
23.09 miles average ride this month
31.04 miles average ride this yr.

Motivation meter today 8.5 on a scale of 1-10

Nice weather for a ride today but my motivation level was not to high. My daughter was here and she had springs in her legs today so I was looking at her back tire for the entire ride. I didn't post the ride that I had Saturday because.... Guess what ...BROKEN SPOKE AGAIN... go figure. I was about 6 mile from the house when I discovered it. That is two broken spokes on my bike in three weeks on a brand new rim.

I haven't had a spoke break in years now both the D and myself are having them.

FunkyStickman

Man, broken spokes is a sign of 1. harsh riding, or 2. a poorly built wheel. I guess even with new wheels, you get a few.

It could, of course, be sabotage by spies. Have you been followed lately by a black van?

kjc9640

Come to think of it there was a dark van with heavy window tint stalking me today. It had some type of funny antenna on top that was rotating.

I think I am going to take option # 2 "poorly built wheel" I will be revisiting the LBS that sold me the wheels this week.

mrz80

Just did a quick 16 miles at 16.5mph, racing the sunset (don't wanna get caught on 23rd Ave after dark!). Felt good.

scottsmith

Hell, I hear ya man! When my last bike died (fatal crack at the rear suspension hinge) my wife was trying to convince me to forget about riding for the rest of this year, and just get another bike in the spring! It was only August! Crazy!

Needless to say, I got another bike. As you say, it's NOT optional, we all need this!

Good luck with the repairs, etc.