Submitted by Gerry Clare
Roving Reporter
Eric Titcomb and Winifred Stephenson are long time local residents, former owners of Amelia Home and Health Services and active members of the Sierra Club. Carl Anderson is a Florida Public Utilities retiree and kayaker extraordinaire. These three friends recently planned an unusual adventure together.
They decided to bike across Florida on a proposed Coast to Coast Connector from Tarpon Springs to Oak Hill, Florida. With the help of Fernandina Cycling on 8th Street, they began to gear up. Eric already had his bike, but Winifred and Carl bought their bikes for the trip. Winifred bought the Fat tire Raleigh, Eric used his 1970’s Schwinn skinny tire Suburban and Carl rode his (medium thick tire) bike, a James-Citizen 2.
After much planning, they drove south and left vehicles at both the east and west end of the trails. They were pleased that the Oak Hill librarian was so accommodating, as this was a small library and their truck took up one of six spaces. After traveling from March 10th to March 16th over 267.66 miles, they would arrive here at the end of the trip.
Much of this proposed east-west connector is not finished, so they had to improvise and, in fact, on one grueling day, ended up using State Highway 50 and later a two lane highway with no bike path at rush hour. This was also their longest and most challenging 63.9 mile long day, but ended up with an overnight cabin in Lake Louisa State Park, one of their best nights. They took camping gear and stayed one night at a Holiday Inn as well.
They averaged 11.7 miles per hour on asphalt trails. Maximum speed was 28.8 miles per hour. They actually were moving close to 50 hours total, but stopped along the trail to take in lots of local sights and enjoy the beautiful Florida scenery. At the beginning of their trek and at the end they encountered Bike Week at Daytona with different bikes than theirs, of course, and much noisier, but entertaining. Carl’s wife, Barbara, joined them at Hontoon Island State Park with a pizza and at the end of the trip for the final ride to Oak Hill.
For Facebook fans, you can follow their route and their GPS link with statistics at Across Florida C2C 2014. Scroll down the comments to the beginning of the trip and enjoy more of the pictures along the way, as you work your way up to the end.
So, what is next for this adventurous group? Who knows? Maybe the Appalachian Trail?
Editor’s Note: Gerry began free lance writing for fun and is the author of a published book (available on Amazon and at Books Plus) about funny real estate experiences. Gerry is a longtime member of our local American Business Women’s Chapter, a volunteer cancer driver and church deacon who loves to read, travel and meet interesting people.
March 31, 2014 8:26 a.m.
What a great adventure. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks so much for the article, Gerry!! Eric and I would like to add that Carl Anderson is the current Outings Chair of the Nassau Sierra Group, and is always willing to head out for adventures. You can message him through the Sierra Facebook page, “Sierra Club, Nassau Group.”