I've wanted to ride the Lake Okeechobee scenic trail ever since Thom and I took a hike on it in 2022. Now that I have a car big enough to load my bicycle, I can. South Bay parking is a little more than an hour's drive away from the Folly.
The flat, narrow berm, often paved, runs for 110 miles surrounding Florida's largest freshwater lake. Bikers and buzzards were equally scarce during my round-trip ride of 15 miles in the midday sun. I saw only two of each.
U.S. Highway 27--the same one we took to Sarasota in February--runs parallel to the scenic trail. A squadron of pelicans can be glimpsed in the cloudless sky.
A pumping station forced me to take a detour to cross the Miami canal. Water released from Okeechobee flows south to the Everglades.
From a distance, I thought the antique pumping machinery on display in nearby John H. Stretch Memorial Park was a child's playground.
Would you believe this diesel engine could pump 1,861,392,900 gallons in 24 hours, reducing the level of the lake by 3/4" over an area of 144 square miles?
My father would have been in heaven checking out this equipment, retired in 1989.
Half a dozen people and a couple of pelicans fished the Miami canal. When I asked one woman why her pole was so long, she replied "Because I'm scared of gators down there!"
Next time I'll start my ride from an access point where the view of the lake--so big that you can't see across it in places--is less obstructed.
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