Link with Route
https://strava.app.link/cOmjH2gpNAb
Last year I moved from Central Florida, where I had lived all my life, to Boulder Colorado. Because of the move I fly home a few times a year for various holidays and family events. Despite having world-class bikepacking routes right outside my new front door, I’ve found that I simply cannot resist the urge to drag a giant cardboard box through Denver International Airport and tick off another Florida bikepacking route whenever I fly home.
My great-grandmother celebrated her 100th birthday this year, so I knew I would be flying home in May to attend her birthday party. I purchased my plane tickets giving myself enough time to attempt to strike a healthy balance between visiting with family and self-indulgent destination bikepacking. When I began researching potential routes, Karlos’s (@singletracksamurai) St. John’s River to Sea Loop caught my eye.
This route had been on my radar for awhile. It appeals to me for a few different reasons.
1. My parent’s house is on the route
2. It’s essentially a nostalgia tour of my home county, hitting all of my favorite natural areas I grew up going to
3. This loop has been under development by local governments for over a decade. There are several long stretches of MUP, plentiful resources, but it still takes you to some hidden gems off the beaten path
My parents’ house proved to be an excellent starting point. I planned to do ~250 miles in 4 days, stopping at Blue Springs, Mud Springs, and Anastasia State Park for camping. I would be riding my new Crust Florida Man which I essentially purpose built for exactly this kind of ride. Lots of aspects of this build hearken back to my beloved vintage road bike conversion “the red bike”. I rode the red bike for many years and fell in love with fixed gear bikepacking on it.
Day 1: Ormond Beach to Blue Springs (75 miles)
I roped my brother, Landon, into joining me on Day 1 and seeing how long he could stick around for. Landon is not a regular cyclist but he’s an athletic guy with a good sense of adventure. He rides a vintage Schwinn I built up at Bike n Gold. He’d previously done one other bikepacking trip, a long weekend last December where we tagged along on a pretty massive @sub24hour trip and then added a night at Seminole State after.
So my brother and I ate a big breakfast and headed out. The plan for the day was to ride south to New Smyrna Beach where we would hit the East Central Regional Rail Trail. The ECRRT is a very long MUP that would take us all the way to our campsite. I knew the stretch from Ormond to NSB would be the worst section of the whole trip. It cuts through Floridian suburbia with lots of traffic and little infrastructure. We were glad to get it out of the way right off the bat. Brutal headwinds and late-May heat made for difficult riding. Around lunchtime we rolled into NSB and purchased a formidable mountain of calories from McDonalds. After a brief reprieve from the sweltering midday heat we were back in the saddle.
Heading out of NSB we turned west and settled in for a long push down the ECCRT. The empty stretch of MUP between Orlando and the coast was intoxicating after the suburban hell we had been through that morning. Hours and miles ticked by and we crept closer to the St. Johns River as the sun began to dip lower. Finally just as the sun set we pulled into our campsite for the night. We stashed our bikes in the woods and headed straight for the cool spring water we had been dreaming of all day. Refreshed, we set up camp and ordered some Chipotle to be delivered to camp (hey this my vacation alright). After dinner we fell asleep pretty quickly depleted from the day.
Day 2: Blue Springs to Mud Springs (65 miles)
We broke camp at sunrise. After all, we had somewhere to be. The pancake house at Deleon Springs, 10 miles north on-route, offers pancakes with all the fixings, made table side Korean BBQ style. All of this inside of an old Spanish sugar mill, immediately adjacent to a freshwater spring. We arrived shortly after they opened and feasted on pancakes, eggs, bacon, toast, coffee, and OJ. After breakfast we swam in Deleon Springs. We challenged each other to see who could dive deeper towards the boil of the spring, bringing up a handful of sand to prove we made it to the bottom.
This was where Landon and I split ways. His legs weren’t in it anymore and he got picked up. I set out solo for the first time since my very first bikepacking trip back in 2018. I was strangely excited about traveling solo, but also in contact with my long-time friend, Boston who was interested in joining me for the rest of the trip. The issue being that Boston was currently in Nicaragua on a surf trip. He would be returning to Florida that night, but it would take some serious coordination on his part to meet up with me on-route. However Boston was serious and started to put a plan in place. His dad was already planning on picking him up from the airport. Boston’s dad would have to bring his bike and all his gear with him to pick Boston up from the airport. Then he would have to drive out to Mud Springs where I would be camping, adding 1.5 hours to an already 3 hour drive. Thankfully Boston’s dad is a lifelong cyclist and is supportive of such antics; he agreed. I continued on with my day, amused by the thought of Boston flying directly from Central America to camping in Welaka, Florida without so much as a shower.
The route for the day consisted of navigating around the eastern perimeter of Lake George via a patchwork of limestone roads, grassy two-track, and rural county roads. I found this area to be the most scenic of the whole route. It really feels like “old Florida”. My route would conveniently place me right at Renegades, a tiki bar/restaurant waterfront on the St. Johns River, around dinnertime. Renegades is considered a “must stop” for many who attempt this route, and I looked forward to it all day. Motivated by the thought of greasy tiki bar food I pushed myself and arrived around 4 pm. Devastatingly, the place was completely empty with a sign on the door reading “closed – today only” with no further explanation. I sulked around for a bit while researching my other options, this area is quite rural so there’s not a lot. There was a Dollar General on route 3 miles away from Mud Springs. With it being such a short ride from camp I took the opportunity to purchase some heavy luxury items including a 24oz Mike’s Hard Lemonade and a miniature watermelon.
3 miles later I arrived at Mud Springs. Mud Springs is a beautiful freshwater spring located within Welaka State Forest. It gets significantly less traffic compared to the other springs in the area due to the fact that it is a mile hike/bike in from a trailhead. I love Mud Springs because it is much less developed than other springs (more hidden oasis in the woods, less public playground), however the recreation area still offers picnic tables, a covered pavilion, trash cans, and a pit toilet. Officially there is no camping allowed at Mud Springs. It used to be allowed, but is not anymore. There are other primitive campsites in Welaka State Forest where camping is allowed. So don’t camp at Mud Springs. But if you do, obviously practice strict LNT, arrive late, leave early, and be discrete.
A few hikers stopped by the spring on a sunset hike but left when it started to get dark. I set up my tent and enjoyed having a spring all to myself, a rare treat. Boston texted me. His plane had landed in Orlando and his dad was on his way to pick him up. I had dinner and waited for his arrival. It’s around 11 pm now and Boston calls and tells me they’re almost to the trailhead. I rode out to meet them. Suddenly I see the bright headlights of the van pulling into the trailhead. I’m greeted by Boston and his dad, and they start assembling his bike in back of the van. It’s super dark out and there’s fireflies and bright stars above.
Boston and I say our goodbyes to his dad and I guide him through the dark single-track back to camp. He sets up camp and starts telling me about his trip in Nicaragua, we catch up, both pretty amazed that he came straight off the airplane to here. It’s pretty late by now so we both crawl in our tents and fall asleep.
Day 3: Mud Springs to Anastasia (55 miles)
We packed up camp early and went for one last swim. I filtered the spring water and made coffee. The town of Welaka was just outside the forest and we set our sights on a Circle K for breakfast. Food for the day was purchased and we started out on-route. First we cut through rural and residential areas working our way north to Palatka. The Palatka to St. Augustine State Trail is a MUP that we would ride for the majority of the day. It was a straight shot. We passed potato farms and small towns. There’s a pretty nice cyclist rest stop on the MUP, bathrooms and outlets, covered picnic area with big outdoor fans. We stopped there for a while and charged our devices.
By early afternoon we were on the outskirts of St. Augustine. A seafood restaurant on the San Sebastian River in St. Augustine came recommended to me so that’s where we stopped for an early dinner. We ate and drank lots of ice-water. Camp tonight is across the Bridge of Lions at Anastasia State Park. We rode through downtown and over the bridge. Just outside the park we stop at another gas station to get a bag of firewood. It’s surprisingly dense and I strap it to my handlebars, easily exceeding my rack’s weight limit and hoping nothing breaks. But it’s a short ride to our campsite and nothing does break. Anastasia State Park is right on the beach, so we stash our bikes and go for a swim. This completes Karlo’s imposed ritual of bathing in both the St. Johns River and the Sea while touring this route.
When we got to our campsite Boston’s longer-than-expected travel was catching up with him and he got picked up from camp. I had a campfire but turned in for bed pretty early to prepare for the final push home in the morning.
Day 4: Anastasia to Ormond Beach (60 miles)
I didn’t waste any time packing up in the morning, I planned on stopping at a local breakfast joint for coffee and food. I stayed there for a while, letting my phone charge and chatting with another customer about his motorcycle tours.
The finish line was practically due south from St. Augustine and you can ride A1A the whole way. The more attractive option however is to shoot west at Crescent Beach and ride through Matanzas State Forest and Faver-Dykes State Park. Everything was going well on the fast rolling forest two-track but when I got into Faver-Dykes I started to see a little bit of smoke in the air. I continued with caution. When I came to an intersection and looked in the direction of the route I saw thick smoke and flames. There was a controlled burn happening in the park on that day. I turned around and re-routed around the park.
From there I took a county road out to “Old Brick Road”. The road is a relic leftover from the Old Dixie Highway, a 100 year old network of roads connecting Miami with Michigan. It was mostly covered in a soft sugar sand but patches of old bricks shone through in spots. This would have been the main paved corridor of Florida a century ago. The I-95 of its day. This stretch of the road is extremely isolated with no cross roads for several miles. I rode for a few miles and came upon an elderly man operating a large tractor. It looked like he was using the tractor to clear the encroaching weeds from the side of the road as well as throw the dirt and sand onto the road. He stopped and asked me if I was doing alright. I told him yes, and he explained that he is the only person that maintains the road. He said that he kicks up sand with this tractor and dumps it onto the road to prevent brick theft. Allegedly people come out here in the middle of the night and steal bricks “by the truck load” and sell them online. He protects them by covering the entire road in sand.
We parted ways and I continued down the road. My back wheel washed out in a soft patch of sand a few miles down the road. I was able to correct and keep from crashing but the lateral force of the correction broke 2 spokes on my rear wheel. This wasn’t great, I was only 30 miles from the finish. I stopped in a shady spot and decided to have lunch before I dealt with my bike. When I finished eating I went to work, thankfully I carried 1 spare spoke, and 1 fiberfix spoke I purchased on a whim just before the trip. I removed the wheel, took the tire off, removed the rim strip and tubeless valve, replaced the two broken spokes, replaced the rim strip, and put an innertube in, and put the wheel back on my bike. I was stopped for about an hour during the hottest part of the day. But I was very grateful that I had just enough spare parts to get rolling again. I carefully rode directly to the nearest bike shop which luckily was on-route only about 10 miles away. I grabbed another spare innertube and some more spare spokes, just in case.
From here I only had about 20 miles left to my parents house. These roads are so familiar to me having ridden them many times growing up. I stopped at a Publix in Flagler for my last water refill and a few cold chicken tenders. Slowly, I pedaled home enjoying the sunset over the scenic Ormond ” Loop”