Day 50: Saturday 04/23/16, Rest Day in High Springs, FL

Day 50 distance: 0 miles (Rest day)

Total miles:  2720 miles

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Foot bridge across the Santa Cruz River at O'Leno State Park, High Springs, Florida. In a 2012 flood, the water was even with the bottom of the foot bridge.

This is our final day off of the 2016 C2C, so besides a few thoughts of the day, I will try to answer a few questions that blog readers have asked earlier in the blog. If I have missed anything you have wondered about, please comment so perhaps I can address it in my final summary after the ride is complete.

What a great day for a day off! The day started cloudy and quiet, great conditions for sitting back, relaxing, and taking an occasional nap. A large group of coasters went on a 7 mile kayak trip down a river a few miles away. It sounded like a fun excursion, but I chose not to go. My lower back has been bothering me this past week in the area where I had back surgery about 27 years ago, so I decided my best activity today would be rest for my back, ahead of the last two days and 129 miles of riding.

It is interesting, that even after riding over 2700 miles with several days of rides longer than 80 miles, most of the coasters are not looking forward to tomorrow's ride of 84 miles. I think it is the psychology of a final long ride, one day before the short 44 mile ride into St. Augustine. Everyone is very capable of doing the ride, but we all are tired and it will be a strenuous day for many. Being so close to the end, we just want to complete this C2C without the effort that will be required tomorrow. This morning, to split the 84 miles into two days, five coasters left on their own, after making a motel reservations for tonight, so they could divide the 84 mile ride into two shorter rides over two days. The rest of us are sticking with this year's C2C schedule.

Here are three of the five coasters who left earlier today on their day off, to split tomorrow's ride of 85 miles into two days. From left to right: Jim Hilly from Chicago, and Kathy Del Sota and Bruce Farell, from Massachusetts. Jim's bicycle sports 26 inch wheels. Kathy and Jim's Kestrel's started with too high of gearing, so they ordered and replaced the front chainrings on both bicycles en-route.  Interestingly, the farthest Kathy had ridden a bicycle on one ride before this C2C was 45 miles.

Here are some images I took around O'Leno State Park this morning.

The Santa Cruz River originates from Santa Cruz Lake some 44 miles before it flows through O'Leno State Park. It is a very pretty river, heavily treed along its banks.

I hiked down this trail along the river this morning for about ten minutes to get to what is called the Santa Cruz "Sink."

This is the Santa Cruz Sink, the end of the river on the land surface. At this point the river, carrying 900 million gallons a day of water, goes underground, into caves, reappearing three miles away at what is called the Santa Cruz "Rise". The entire underground water cave system has been mapped out by divers. After it resurfaces, it flows for another 35 miles before flowing into the Suwannee River.

This and That...

 A question I was asked some time ago was about the types of bicycles people were riding in this year's C2C. After trying to approach this question logically, I gave up. Perhaps if you can imagine a bicycle combination, it is being ridden. The most typical bicycle would be a standard compact 10 or 11 speed, although there also are several triple chain ring bicycles in the mix. This year, there were also 5 or 6 bicycles with electric shifting. There were also a couple of mountain bikes with mountain gearing and adjustable shock suspension. Three Rohloff internal hub bicycles are being ridden by three people from the Netherlands. Two of the Rohloff bikes are 12 speeds driven by a chain while the third is a 14 speed Rohloff driven by a rubber belt. All three of these bicycles each weigh 40 pounds, but these bicycles are also very fast. Overall bicycle designs are quite similar, but there was also the 2002 custom built Soft Ride Beam custom steel bicycle (the frame cracked but was repaired..see Day # 41 blog post), and, one tandem, which in the front position is a recumbent rider with an upright rider in the rear position. We also can't forget Mike Barga's Bike Friday which I briefly discussed in the Day # 33 blog post.

A standard Giant bicycle and an older Litespeed bicycle.

A ladies standard Specialized Dolce.

Sherry Smith (upright) and Mary Ellen Kurki (recumbent), both from Florida, riding their Hase Pino tandem. Both of these fine ladies and riders work in the area of critical care nursing.

A Cannondale Mountain bicycle being ridden with 28x2.0 tires.

 

Kurt Frederick's 2002 custom built Softride Beam Suspension bicycle. Note the repaired frame next to the SS coupler. Steel frames can be repaired!

A chain driven Rholoff 12 speed bicycle.

Mike Barga and his Bike Friday.

There were many flat tires during the C2C. I don't know the count but I do know several people that had more than 5. I experienced three, two thorn and one pinch flat to-date. Several riders experienced broken spokes, there was one broken rear derailleur hanger, one broken front derailleur hanger, and at least two wheel failures. If you ride a C2C, be sure to bring all the recommended spare parts, as if in the middle of nowhere and a part is needed, you will be the best source to fill that need.

Randi asked how my Anatomica Selle bicycle saddle was working out. I would have to say very good. This was the first long bicycle trip I have taken where I never had a complaint about a sore butt!

Finally, Lisa asked about the camera I used for my photos. It is a Canon G11 that I purchased for my wife when it was released in late 2009. It is a small lightweight camera that I just toss in my small handlebar bag so it can be grabbed and used quickly. It can be used in "Auto", or in full manual control. I usually shoot in "P", which is something in between Auto and full manual. It also has a view finder in addition to an LCD screen. I usually use the LCD, but do like the view finder for shots like flying birds. I usually shoot in RAW rather than jpeg, and then do my own post processing of the image in Adobe Lightroom. I currently am using Lightroom Version 5, even though I own Version 6, simply because I haven't taken the time to learn the idiosyncrasies of the Version 6 update. With the Canon, I get an excellent image right out of the camera so it doesn't take much work to make it better. You can never start post processing with a bad image and expect to make it a good one.