I've ridden a lot of the trail you rode,that road section from Pruitt to dunellon sucks.I live in citrus county so there's a lot of decent places to ride.I would be riding now but it's a tad hot as you know.Happy riding have a great day!
Thank you for this video. It brought back great memories. While visiting family I rented a hybrid bike in Inverness for two days and rode the Withlacoochee trail. Starting in nearly the middle, on each day I ride out and back to the trail terminus, making two roughly 50-mile rides.
That looks like so much fun! I'm looking to get into bikepacking myself. Been online researching decent entry-level bikes. Do you have any recommendations? Would love your input. Thank you Ms. Putt-Putt!
It was a super fun trip! I don't have any specific recommendations for specific bikes, but i'd definitely recommend getting a quality bike from a quality bike shop. My first "real" mountain bike as an adult was a hard tale (no rear suspension) and it was a great bike for getting me into mountain biking. A great site to check out is bikepacking.com. They have a quick guide for choosing your first bikepacking bike. I just used the mountain bike I already had, even though it's not an ideal bikepacking bike. Surly and Salsa are super popular among bikepackers. Though I'm sure a decent Trek, Specialized, Giant, or Santa Cruz would also fit the bill.
Are you a full time resident of any particular state? I have watched a number of your videos and I guess you’re pretty much made for a visit to Eastern Tennessee. If you can, I recommend so so super highly that you check out Knoxville, TN and be amazed that it’s such an overlooked gem. The riding there truly is unbelievable. Additionally the hospitality of the locals is unmatched and there are some fine eateries are close to trails. Lots of things to do in town when not actually riding which is a huge plus. I say throw caution to the wind and go see if I’m not 100% correct. Keep making videos.
Is this a established route or is it one you made. I want to do the coast to coast sometime this year but I want to make sure at every moment possible I'm off road. This route looks like it would be great as the west side of the route.
This is a route I made. I knew that the OMBA epic existed and I knew about the Croom trails and the Starkey trails, so I just had to use google maps to figure out how to connect it all together. The coast to coast is also on my list!
@@AdventurePlusMe ok cool. Next year I'm going to attempt the southern highlands traverse then when it ends in Alabama I'm going to connect it to the Florida divide route. I'll create a file to share so everyone will have a route to plug and play.
@@AdventurePlusMe hope so. Going to use the hurican route, a modified at john's loop, some of the Florida divide route, and the previously mentioned coast to coast as training.
Thanks, pgreenx! I am only in FL for the winter, so I didn't choose the Aeon specifically for Florida. On this particular trip I had slight condensation on night 2 only, but it was super slight. I only noticed because I purposefully swiped my finger against the wall and it felt slightly damp. I couldn't even actually see the condensation it was so slight. When I was looking into getting a new tent I really wanted something with ample floor space, something that weighed about the same as my hexamid tent, was DCF, and only needed 1 trekking pole. The Aeon Li has more floor space than the Notch Li. I have been super happy with the amount of room I have, considering it's a 1 person shelter. The Aeon Li is also almost 3 oz lighter than the Notch Li. I am pretty petite so I try to keep my gear as light as possible, as long as it functions how I want. I also really like the fact that the Aeon Li only requires 1 trekking pole. If, by some chance, I break a pole while hiking (or, in this case I am bikepacking and don't want to carry two poles), I am not out of luck when it comes to setting up my tent at the end of the day. I also noticed that the Aeon Li has a heigher height. For some folks, perhaps the "double wall" aspect of the Notch Li is important. I have been using a DCF single wall tent since 2014 and have not had many problems with condensation. That's not to say I've never had condensation, it's just that it has never posed a problem for me (I just don't touch the walls on those occassions I've had when there is condensation).
@@AdventurePlusMe Thanks. I had a solplex and at 5'10" my bag always touched the end and couldn't bring myself to get an Aeon. Going to the New Notch Li when it comes out next week.
@@pgreenx yeah, I'm only 5'1" so I don't have that problem. The Aeon is 4 inches longer than the Notch, but with the double wall aspect of the Notch perhaps you won't have a problem with the bag touching the wall. I know I saw Darwin on the Trail is now using the Altaplex from Zpacks bc of his height.
Great job! A buddy and I are planning to come ride sometime in January from the Atlanta area. Since we don't know the area, your route could give us a ride that might be doable. My largest distance has only 38 miles and that was with my daughter back in 2012. Looks like i got some peddling to do.
Thanks, Sam Off The Beach! This route is totally doable. Before doing this trip the longest I had ever ridden my mountain bike was about 30 miles. I trained a little before the trip, but never rode more than 30 miles while training. You got this!
Nice one. Thanks for sharing. I am trying to do ur route reverse from clearwater. Could you share ur route details,a little more than RU-vid post. Or can you share gps file? Thanks
Thanks Hamid! I don't have a GPS track for it, but I'll do my best to explain the route in words, in the opposite direction that I rode it, since that's how you'll be going. Once you get to Starkey Park, you can ride through the park to the suncoast trail. Take that left and follow until you get to the state road 50 trailhead. Then you'll take state road 50 east, through brooksville. If you're looking at Google maps find the brooksville trailhead for the Good Neighbor Trail, at the Train Depot Museum. You're headed to that from SR 50. Once on the Good Neighbor Trail, follow that until you get to Weatherly Rd. Take a left on Weatherly Rd. Follow that to Croom Rd. Take a right on Croom Rd. Careful on Croom Rd, as there is no shoulder and there are hills and corners that can hide the view of drivers who may not see u. Take Croom Rd to the Tucker Hill trailhead. I took the singletrack trails on the right side of the road. You can download those GPS track from mountain bike project.com. from those trails you're going to make your way to the Withlacoochee State Trail, a paved bike path. That's at the Croom MTB parking area 1...you can mark that on your GPS app so you know when you're at that parking area. Take the Withlacoochee trail north. Follow that all the way until it ends. In Funneling basically. Then make take W. Corrine st to WG Martinelli Blvd. Take a right here. Follow to 41. Take a left on 41 and follow to SW Hwy 484. Follow 484 to Pruitt TH. From Pruitt TH make your way to the tricycle trail. You can find the trail tracks for this area on mountain bike project.com. I followed tricycle to the OMBA epic...which starts in the Ross Prairie area. Again, the trails for these areas are on mountainbikeproject. You can follow the OMBA Epic to the Santos TH. Hopefully this helps. I connected all these trails together before doing the trip using Google maps and mountainbikeproject.com. Have a great trip!
What a fun adventure ride! Some parts are familiar like that land bridge over the I-75. I hiked that part of Florida Trail and biked all away down that long straight trail you did. Subbed your channel check out mine. Looking forward watching more of your videos. Thanks!
