Heading West Ride, December 26th -

Either 4 of us or 6 of us showed up for the West Orange Trail ride the day after Christmas. Carol, Clark and guests Chris and Carla showed up at the Winter Garden Station, while Judith and Pattie had started at the Killarney Station. Oh well, it was a wonderful day in many ways. We headed west from Winter Garden with the intention of going to the Clermont lakefront park. We started late, at 10 AM, because is was the day after Christmas and I didn't feel like making everyone rushed on the morning after. In the shade, the temperatures were ideal; however, as the day wore on, we reach a near record-breaking 80-degrees; but at that, it was still not bad; nothing like a summer ride. The four of us mingled in conversation and the pace seemed well suited for all. We passed through the shady oaks of Oakland, past the Killarney station and onto the Minneola extension where the hills begin the testing of your thighs. The Minneola extension is also a beautiful segment of the trail, especially as soon as you cross into Lake County where the trail winds through canopied woods while drilling your cycling skills on short, steep hills. Carol got a flat, but was prepared with a spare; we had her up and running in about 12 minutes. Up the trail we ran into Judith and Pattie, they were walking. Pattie had a flat and she insisted that they walk back rather than take my offer to get it fixed. The hills closer toward Clermont became longer. We took a break at the Minneola Pavilion near the ball fields then we pressed on the last couple of miles to the Lake Minneola lakefront park where we hung out for a short period before our return trip. In all, it was a very good trip, a bit better than moderate as the hills started bearing down on our sore thighs. We returned to Winter Garden at 1:30, thus making the trip about 2 hours and 25 minutes for a distance of over 27 miles.

Heading Northeast Ride, December 27th -

The 5 of us met at Chapin Station on this Saturday morning at 9:00, a bit earlier than yesterday's ride. The temperatures where much cooler, ideal actually and the skies crystal clear. The group included Carol, Merle, Clark and 2 new members Laura and Paul from the Villages. Our plan was to ride to Apopka and upon the return, take the Clarcona Horseman's Park spur. This is a very good segment of the West Orange Trail as a majority of it traverses wooded areas and where there are developments, there is a good degree of wooded buffer or the development is integrated into the existence of the trail (unlike a number of new developments where there is a vinyl wall that separates the treeless neighborhood from the narrow easement of the trail, creating an awful "gauntlet effect"). Again the group mixed well. It was great to have Laura and Paul join us and we found out quite a bit about them and their interests. The Wilderness Trekkers are a good fit for them and we hope to see more of them as they are very friendly and enthusiastic about the outdoors. The northeast segment of the trail is relatively flat with long grades of very low percentage inclines. The group was fairly strong and we blew by the Clarcona rest stop and found ourselves on the US 441 overpass in short order. The overpass, built in 2007 is architecturally a masterpiece for both rider, pedestrian and the town of Apopka. The State of Florida did well; unfortunately, these very elaborate overpasses are extremely expensive and draw considerable dollars away from the linear efforts of trail way construction. We rested and snacked at the Apopka trailhead station. On our trip back we did take the spur, about a mile, into the Clarcona Horseman's Park. We cruised through the paved areas and saw the rinks, multitude of stables and the camping quadrant. From here, instead of taking getting right back on the trail to retrace our path, we headed west on McCormack road until we hit Ingram Road. It was about a 2-mile stretch on McCormack. Though it did not have a lot of traffic, I would not recommend this passage in the future because the road has many small hills making line of sight for autos difficult in seeing cyclist ahead. It used to be a very country road, but this is Orange County of the 21st century. Merle had parked at the Ingram parking area and so he broke off from the group as the rest of us got back on the trail at the cemetery road and got back to Chapin at 11:30, clocking in at about 23 miles. Laura, Paul and Clark extended the visit at an Italian restaurant on the main strip in Winter Garden. It was another great event with the Trekkers!

Host: Clark Getz