C 2 C

[Westinghouse]

Anyone finishing the Southern tier in St Augustine Florida or thereabouts might want to consider adding the C2C route at the end. It is a dedicated bike path, approximately 245 miles, about 88% completed, from Titusville Florida to St Petersburg Florida. You can read the journals on crazy guy on a bike and elsewhere. People like it. Plenty of places for free and paid camping. Restaurants and food stores abound. Safe cycling all the way. Just an idea I would throw out there. I'm going to do this route after the beginning of the new year. Actually it will be a huge loop around South Florida beginning and ending in fort Lauderdale.

[UncaBuddha]

Interested. Do you know if there is a .GPX file I can load in the gizmo to give me directions one way or another?

[Westinghouse]

There are maps online. I think it's on GPS. Google Florida bike trails. It's easy to follow. With something like this I usually Google close down to road level. I talked the directions into email. Then I make copies for myself large font copies. It's easy enough to do. It's about 250 MI. 88% is completely finished and off-road so far. I don't know anything about GPx.

[mattdwyerva]

You should be able to search for "Coast to Coast Florida" on ridewithgps and find several versions.  There are gaps which users fill in, so versions vary slightly.   If you Google it generally, there are a number of official govt and unofficial private organizations with info.   

Here is one: https://www.100floridatrails.com/coast-to-coast.htm

There is a Facebook group as well with info, as you may have guessed.   

Florida roads and drivers are both a bit dangerous, imo, so the trail is welcome, but I have not ridden it.

My wife and I are riding it this February February, taking the train with our bikes to Tampa, riding to New Smyrna Beach instead of Titusville, and then back to DeLand to catch the train home.

[Westinghouse]

You should be able to search for "Coast to Coast Florida" on ridewithgps and find several versions.  There are gaps which users fill in, so versions vary slightly.   If you Google it generally, there are a number of official govt and unofficial private organizations with info.   

Here is one: https://www.100floridatrails.com/coast-to-coast.htm

There is a Facebook group as well with info, as you may have guessed.   

Florida roads and drivers are both a bit dangerous, imo, so the trail is welcome, but I have not ridden it.

My wife and I are riding it this February February, taking the train with our bikes to Tampa, riding to New Smyrna Beach instead of Titusville, and then back to DeLand to catch the train home.

Your post is most informative. The map at street level told all that was needed.  By following the lines on the map, it was easy to speech-to-text roads, intersections, turns and directions along the entire route. It is now on email. The next step is revision, copy, print in large font, and follow directions.  In case some might not know, following google-map written directions could put you on the wrong way.  Comparing their directions with lines on maps, I  found quite a few wrong directions.  Thank you for this information.

[Westinghouse]

 I went ahead and cycled that coast to coast rail trail in Florida. Starting in Fort Lauderdale near Miami, I pedaled US Highway 1 north to Titusville, left on Main, right on Canaveral, and there I was on the path in the inky dark.  Way too much noisy smelly traffic on 1, and no site for a stealth tent.  The C 2 C path was as smooth as silk, mostly, and kept everyone out of the motorized traffic. But here again---a paucity of even a small space of concealment for a small tent for one night.  Try being up at midnight and 3 a.m. searching for a spot 9 feet long and 8 feet wide four nights in a row.


By the time I had cleared far north of Orlando and curved south to Tampa/St Pete, I lost the trail, found myself on Hwy 19 south, and cycled that to Hwy 60 in Clearwater. The concentrations of car and truck traffic were never meant to be.  With the wind blowing the wrong way, unfortunately, a cyclist can get constant doses of air poisoning throughout the day.  Many too many cars and trucks and pollution. In Clearwater I got on Hwy 60 east to Vero Beach on the east coast 60 is doable on a bike, but not so much in Lake Wales where old-town sidewalks and no side lane define your urban landscape. More problems doing a stealth night in the bush.

From Vero Beach to my home town of Stuart and back to Fort Lauderdale was a spin. This was something like 500 or 600 miles.  I have not measured it.  What is needed is a bicycle / multiple-use trail from coast to coast in the United States.

[mattdwyerva]

I rode C2C from St Pete to Flagler Beach (instead of Titusville) with my wife this month. Took the train to/from DC to get to Florida.  We used RidewithGps and Elemnt Roam computers to stay on the trail for the most part.  Got lost once near Orlando, probably due to my carelessness.  Signage is very sporadic, and usually listed the individual trail name but not the Coast to Coast trail.   I try not to screw up, but I find that my success on tour often depends on handling problems. 

Rt 1 is not pleasant, sorry you rode there - we did some of that ourselves. We wear lots of high visibility colors and used lots of lights.  We stayed 3 nights with kind WarmShowers hosts, which was great.  We have hosted for years, but that was our first time as guests.   We used hotels otherwise to charge my wife's ebike.   We met two guys riding the Huracan bikepacking loop, which looks interesting but awfully wet.   That had places to camp they said.     

The US needs more bike infrastructure of all kinds, for commuting as well as touring.  Meanwhile, I still enjoy quiet roads that go to interesting places, and do my best to survive roads like route 1 if I can't enjoy them. 

[davidbonn]

... What is needed is a bicycle / multiple-use trail from coast to coast in the United States.

That is a work in progress:

https://www.railstotrails.org/greatamericanrailtrail/

[Westinghouse]

It could be a very long time when the GART is completed in full. Not in my life time.

[mattdwyerva]

Do you enjoy any dirt/gravel road rides?   My wife and I ride 700x38 tubeless tires and find gravel roads peaceful albeit slower going.  Takes awhile to get used to steep climbs and rough descents, but worth it, imo.

We took the Green Swamp route south of the C2C due to the trail gap near Clermont so we could avoid route 50.  Sandy roads were a bit soft, but the Richloam General Store was fun to see, and we toured the FWC bass hatchery on the way out of the swamp. 

[Westinghouse]

All my bicycle  touring was on roadways, sidewalks, bike paths, even extensive distances on interstate highways. For the gap I used highway 50.  Road cycling is easy for me. However, nowadays, with the crowded conditions and smelly noisy poisonous traffic, road cycling in some places is not such a viable option. I wore swimmers' ear plugs to keep out the vulgar noise. I had a rebuilt Mongoose Iboc Pro mountain bike ($1200 new). wheels 26 by 1.5, Schwalbe Marathon tires. Gravel and dirt trail cycling are not entries on my resume.

[davidbonn]

Do you enjoy any dirt/gravel road rides?   My wife and I ride 700x38 tubeless tires and find gravel roads peaceful albeit slower going.  Takes awhile to get used to steep climbs and rough descents, but worth it, imo.
...

I ride 650bx47mm (usually WTB Ventures) and prefer unpaved surfaces when I can find them.  Sometimes that really pays off, too.