laneys.info Beware of Yankees, drunks, and loose women.

May 13-15, my family went camping with my friends Randy and RC and their families to Alafia River State Park. Alafia River State Park contains some of the best off-road cycling trails in Florida, because it used to be a phosphate mine. Randy, RC, and I wanted to go specifically so we could experience what the other off-road riders were talking about, and also because we were starting to lose the sense of challenge when riding the Wilderness Park trails. I had looked at some of the photos of the trails at Alafia, and we figured that since we were doing well at Wilderness Park, and had even raced with the big dogs in February at the Squiggy Classic, we were ready. Little did I know.

Some of you may be familiar with Randy's temporary cycling impediment, incurred the previous weekend at Wilderness Park. His accident had really freaked our wives out and instilled a little bit of reality into all of us. However, we continued with our plans to camp and ride, though it would be just RC and me on the trails. After a report hit the news about a guy that had to be airlifted from Alafia to the local trauma center after going down a 30-foot embankment, we were told in no uncertain terms that the expert trails were off-limits, no matter how we felt about them. We planned to take one of the easy trails to the place where it met one of the intermediate trails, which we would then ride all the way back.

We rode out on the easy trail and it was a nice warm-up. We met up with the intermediate, called Bridges, and started out. Pretty soon, we encountered an unmarked fork in the trail. The only sign in sight was a simple arrow pointing to the left-hand fork. Since some of the trails at Alafia are one-way, we took the left fork. I'm leading RC up a pretty steep climb when I notice that I can't see the other side of the trail as I approach the top. I call a halt at the top and we look down into a series of drops and turns that honestly made me lose all heart. At that moment right there, I lost all my nerve for the rest of the day. We walked our bikes down the slope and ported them over an embankment to get back onto the right-hand fork we had just left. We later found out that we had stumbled onto a black diamond trail called Gatorback - the very trail that had made the news just weeks before!

We continued on and found that in most other places, the trails were pretty well marked. SWAMP does an excellent job with the trails out there. However, we also found that we are not anywhere near the skill level we thought we were. The people we met were all fantastic and helpful, and helped put the different skill levels into perspective. Bottom line is that the easiest trails at Alafia are roughly equivalent to the toughest trails at Wilderness Parks, and then go on up in skill from there. We also learned from the riders we met what the real story was behind the guy that got airlifted out - his "friends" took him on a black diamond trail on his first day on a mountain bike. Some friends.

Before the ride was over, we had a couple more times where I had to apologize to RC and walk my bike down the slope. I also found out that some hills are safer to ride than they are to walk. One hill in particular, I had to let go of my bike and let it find its own way down the slope. I just couldn't hold onto it and keep my footing, it was one or the other. There was also a place on one trail where the trees were closer together than the width of my handlebars! No time to stop, just wiggle them a little and slip on through!

All in all, it was a great ride, but very sobering. I can't wait to go back, but I have a lot of work to do in the meantime!