Hot on the Caloosahatchee

On my last blog I mentioned I would bike on Thursday with Barry & Sue on their E-Bikes to Bayfront Park in Sarasota. We all enjoyed the views of the Sarasota Causeway Bridge and it was certainly worth extending the bike ride off the trail on the new Ringling Parkway's sheltered bike lanes. Only the last 1/4 mi is missing but the traffic is very light. It was a 30 mile ride and we stopped at a Rally's on the parkway for lunch. That was my only ride with them as we seemed to always have different plans.

Venetian Waterway

Circus Lift Bridge on S Tamiami Trail

On Friday I did a 22 mi bike ride south along the Legacy Trail to the Venetian Waterway which has trails on both sides but very few options to easily cross. I found the easiest and safest way to cross was over the Circus Lift Bridge which has nice wide sidewalks. I headed to the end of the trail at Caspersen Beach on the Gulf of Mexico.

Site 24

My two weeks at Oscar Scherer State Park was over on Monday and did my bi-weekly shopping on the way to WP Franklin Locks on the Caloosahatchee River just East of Fort Myers. All their sites are on the river, either in the freshwater upstream or salt water downstream of the lock.

It was very hot, temperatures are forecast too be in the mid 80's for the next two weeks. I plan to do more kayaking than biking here since there are very few options for nice bike rides.

So on Tuesday I paddled the Caloosahatchee upstream  about a mile to Hickey Creek. This winding creek has many homes along it but finally ends in a nice park which was a good place for lunch.

On Wednesday I rode my bike around the neighborhood housing developments and even did a trail ride in Telegraph Creek Preserve which has hiking trails right across the road from our campground. 

They allow bikes and it is hardly used by anyone. When people get to the end of the campground driveway at River Rd (SR 78), they see the 55 mph traffic with no bike lanes so they turn around, but you only need to use the road for less that 1/4 mile. I was able to bike through the 3 neighborhoods for about 9 miles and did the 1-1/2 mi trail shown in green, beyond where I stopped it got sandy.

On Thursday I again kayaked upstream past all the million dollar homes with their big yachts out front to the Caloosahatchee Regional Park which is a rustic park with mountain bike trails and a tent campground, no RV's. It has more than a  mile of frontage along the river and has one tiny place where you can stop and enjoy a lunch at a picnic table.  The shore is lined with large boulders and this was the only place to stop.

Next week I hope to be visited by my niece Pat and Tom Foos who are staying at his mother's condo in Naples. Then I hope to see my kayak friends, Kelly & Brent, who are also my next door neighbors at Beaver Creek. They are flying in to visit Brent's parents near Post Charlotte.