I BIKED LAKE OKEECHOBEE IN ONE DAY | 117 Mile Cycling Adventure
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ต.ค. 2024
- Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail (LOST) is a 110 mile bike route on the dike surrounding Lake Okeechobee. Due to a couple closures, the ride ended up taking me 117 miles to complete. While there are some campsites and campgrounds along the way, including on the Florida Trail, I decided to bike this route in a single day. I was planning a bike ride of the Florida Keys (coming soon), and wanted to make sure I still had the chops to complete a 100+ mile bike ride.
Despite Lake Okeechobee's troubled history, you can definitely enjoy a nice day or three navigating the dike. Stop along the way in surrounding farm towns, and enjoy the sites! So much of the water in Florida flows through Lake Okeechobee in one way or another, and I encourage you to research it before making the trip.
If you plan to do this route, here are some tips:
Check the weather and wind
Bring sunscreen and a hat or sun shirt
Bring extra bike tubes
Bring ample water (I had about two liters)
Bring snacks that you can supplement with meals from the towns
#lakeokeechobee #cycletouring
While I've biked plenty of centuries in my time in Europe, this was the first trip where I set out on a one day century ride. The Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail (LOST) was a blast and I'd definitely do it again. Only in the Winter though!
Im jealous, I used to live right on Okeechobee at Butch's Fish Camp. I so wanted to do that ride.
Very good explanation of red tide, big sugar, and politics. Really appreciated that.
Great video. This might just be the best video I've seen about cycling around Lake Okeechobee. I only rode from Port Mayaca to Taylor Creek. The good part was the paved surface to ride on that was away from traffic. The bad part was having to ride on the busy highway with traffic going by.
Thank you very much! I had the same experience. The straight road on the dike with no cars around was the best
We were there in early 2019 and there was construction everywhere. We couldn't figure it out and gave up. No way I was going to ride on Florida roadways. Thanks for sharing!
Haha I don’t blame you. Knowing when to stop is one of the most important lessons on trips like this. Learned that on my Spain hike when I had to stop halfway through. Finishing doesn’t matter if you don’t get home safe!
On a side note, it should be more open now than in 2019, with little road riding. I believe the army core has opened up a lot more of the dike
@@jacobsladder3619 Thanks for the heads up. We may head down that way again this year.
I've ridden parts of this but props
Great job! I’d love to do this someday, though in the winter lol
Thanks for watching!
We did this ride a few years back, made a 2 day adventure out of it, except for having to back track on some of the roads it was a cool ride. This is a pretty cool channel with great content....
Thank you very much! My first love is backpacking in the mountains but I make do with other cool adventures in Florida. We’re lucky in Florida with all the state parks and natural areas. After traveling outside of Florida for a while I found a new sense of appreciation for Florida’s nature
Thanks for showing bus what that looks like .... I've often wondered! Thanks again!
Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed!
Been waiting on this one! 🙌
Florida Keys trip incoming in the next week or two!
Thanks for the history lesson! Great video.
Very nice, well done! Those roadways looked way to frightful for me!
Haha there is a fine line between a ‘not turning back’ mentality and ‘this is dangerous and I need to stop’. Theres also a ‘I can’t stop because there’s nothing around me for ten miles’ factor. This was a risk I was willing to take that day. I know what you mean though!
Dude. RESPECT. That ride is a mission.
Thanks! It wasn’t the easiest bike ride, but it was flat!
Really enjoyed this! Thank you.
Thanks for watching!
This video was so helpful! My room mates and I did the LOST a few weeks ago and we camped overnight right where you got back on the trail by clewsiton
Thank you! That did look like a good little area. Did you camp in the park or up on the dike?
Great adventure a Big O. Thanks for the heads up because I was gonna do it myself. 👍
Enjoy! It was hard to find resources before the ride on what was closed and what was open. The army core reports said all construction would be done by august. So I was almost certain they wouldn’t be done by the time I was riding in late October 😂
@@jacobsladder3619 I've done only east side of lake as part of my bike tour but was thinking to ride all around like you did. They're still working on it, not sure when they gonna actually finish it up.
Really enjoyed all your factoids! Good ride!
Thanks for watching!
Your videos are very informative. I moved to So Florida last year and do a lot of distance cycling here. Thanks for posting your videos! Awesome channel.
Thank you! Do you have any 50-300 mile rides you suggest I check out? Considering going east to west from palm beach to st. Pete area.
Right now my eye is on the ocean to lake trail though. Spurring from the Florida trail it is a 65 mile hike through swamps and sand dunes from Lake Okeechobee to Hobe Sound Beach.
@@jacobsladder3619 I've done the Southern Glades trail from Homestead down to the Keys trail. It's not very long but it has some nice views along the canal. I want to start further up on the Everglades Trail near the Tamiami since it connects to So. Glades at 9336. I've also ridden the Biscayne Trail from Cutler Bay to Card Sound Rd and on to Key Largo. It's total wilderness south of Turkey Point Nuclear Plant.
@@nchris41 Thank you! Gonna check these out on google maps now. Do you use an ap to find these trails?
@@jacobsladder3619 the trail routes show up on Google Earth but you sort of need to zoom to the right level. Focus around Homestead and they show up. There are primitive campsites along S Glades Trail too btw.
@@nchris41 sweet I see it! Thanks!
Love it, I'm going to be doing this soon
Enjoy! Are you one-daying it or splitting it up?
Splitting it up to enjoy the journey of course. Thanks for asking.
Nice ride, dude.
Thanks!
Thank you for sharing the story about big sugar and the toxic algae. This is one year later in April 2024, fish from Stewart to Key West are swimming in circles and dying. The last coral reef in the United States has died and is covered with algae. Tourists have died from antibiotic resistant flesh eating bacteria after swimming at south florida beaches. Its gotten worse.
Thanks for watching!
Great video Jacob, thank you! Have you uploaded this ride to Strava, Ride With GPS or any similar platform?
Yes I use Komoot but the place we stayed at is private. If you message me I can send you the link to the komoot :)
Thanks for watching!!
200th like . great video didn’t even know about this trail
Thanks for watching! It’s a super cool trail
sweet vid
It looks great, my daughter lives very close to there ,a few miles. Did you know that like that it's the 3rd largest snake infested waters in the world.
I hadn’t heard that! That’s a cool fact. Thanks for watching
I lived 10 years in Kissimmee. How did I miss this trail?
Lol it's not exactly close to Kissimmee, despite the river's name. Never knew about this trail either as a Kissimmee resident
To put in prospective of how huge this lake is, when you are driving on the highway, you cannot see the other side of the lake. I thought the lake was actually the ocean the first time I saw it.🤦♀️
Very true! I imagine many early immigrants to Florida thought the same thing.
Jacob, how much ride on gravel? I am planning to do it in one day and wonder how much of a scenic dike route is gravel. Thanks
Well, let me start by saying I did as much as I wanted to do on the dike. Maybe 70% of the ride. I think you could do 90% of the ride on the dike if you wanted by circumventing the construction fences. The other 10% was actually in construction mode with people working there.
The 10 miles or so south of port mayaca was gravel. That was pretty much it. The parts that are paved are smooth as butter
Let me know any other questions and enjoy the ride!
It is the 8th largest lake in the country. Not the 2nd largest lake.
Yes, lots of much larger lakes. From the fwc page “Lake Okeechobee is Florida's largest lake and the second largest body of fresh water in the contiguous United States.” I said it wrong in the video. Thanks for watching!
What time of year did you do this? Your average was just under 10 mph.
Thanks
It was in early November. Ya with all the stops along the way it was sub 10 mph. Could be done at 15+ mph without stops. I’m not sure it could be done with a road bike though due to the rocky areas
What was your speed when you did it?
@@mellocello187 we averaged 13.5 across both days. 65 miles day one. 55 day 2
@@outpokin Were you filming?
Any idea when all the construction is scheduled to be finished and you can actually ride safely on the wall of the dike completely around the lake? You are brave and lucky to ride a bike on the roads of Florida. Great job educating people on the pollution in the area.
can you ride that on a motorcycle?
No it’s for walking and biking only I believe. Maybe horses. There is a road that goes all the way around that you can ride