Adventure Series: Cary State Forest (Big Bike Friendly)

If you do not have a motorcycle capable of operating off road or in deep water, DO NOT attempt this!

The first set of tracks that I posted for Cary State Forest weren't exactly a cake walk for anyone that has a big adventure bike. It was my first time trying that particular route myself, so I learned a few things along the way. First and foremost; give the rain more time to dry, especially if it's chilly out. Normal Florida heat wasn't there to work its magic, so the evaporation rate was much slower than I anticipated, leaving a lot more standing water than what was hoped for. But that's what adventure is all about right?! Overcoming adverse conditions with odds not necessarily stacked in your favor? Sounds about right.

This track is meant to be of a more relaxing type for those of you that just want to get out and maybe enjoy a nice evening off road jaunt and watch the sun settle into the trees. Try it sometime. It works wonders. To give you a sense of scope for the difficulty of this ride, I was able to do this in almost exactly 50 minutes after a pretty physically demanding day at work. That includes the one time I got stuck (my own fault) and the few times I stopped to take photos or look at the map. Be warned, there is a swampy section that some may not like. Keep in mind that all that rain water we've been dealt lately is still hanging around, so this may be different depending on what time of year you choose to do this. I've marked the trouble area in yellow on dualsportmaps.com. If you pull up to the intersection where blue ends and yellow begins and you see standing water on the road, don't even worry about going down the yellow track unless you're up for a challenge. Follow the blue route for a more easygoing experience.

You'll be starting out at the west entrance for this one, but as most/all of these rides, it can be taken the other way. Follow the line past the facilities and forestry station and head on into the woods. Some of these routes overlap with the previous track, but that can't really be avoided. Between the two, you pretty much have all of the trails covered. Keep going until you get to the intersection where the track goes from blue to yellow. Yellow is generally the universal color to indicate caution, so be wary if you decide to head this way. Things aren't bad on the road leading to the north perimeter road, it's when you actually get to the north perimeter road. Observe...

It seems that only the North Perimeter Road
has these treacherous water crossings.

Some of these ruts have been made quite deep
from trucks and Jeeps. Be careful!

Both of those photos were taken pretty much at the midpoint of the north perimeter road section. As mentioned in the caption of the second photo, some of the ruts are really quite deep due to other off road vehicles making their way through them. I'm not entirely sure how, but I was able to keep my socks dry going through these. So, if it's dry(er) go ahead and give the yellow section a shot. If it's been raining a lot lately, bypass the yellow area and keep going with the blue.

It seems that the Forestry services have been hard at work trying to tidy up the roads all over the forest, but the state of one of my favorite roads has me downright sad. Before, it was a decent dirt track that was, in all honesty, very picturesque.

The eastern section of Cypress Pond Road was stunning.

Now the road surface has these rocks all over it. It's quite loose so be careful.

Since the "improvements," there is now a layer of stone pieces that kept me at attention the entire time. These stones like to slide around one another quite easily. By looking at it, one would think a surface like this would provide plenty of traction, but it doesn't. Use caution going over it if it's still there, because falling on that would be much less than fun, for both you and your bike.

After you make it over the stones, you'll get to some hard tack. The road itself looks like it's been brought up a good 2 or 3 feet because some of the trickier mud pits no longer exist. This makes things easier to traverse, but also takes away from the fun that could be had. A blessing and a curse, I suppose. Head south over a dainty little bridge that I vaguely remember crossing during a Trans-Florida rally and you're almost done.

The metal grates on this bridge move a little bit.

The remainder of the ride is rather straightforward. Road improvements make things easier on the main track, but there are little spurs here and there that are unfinished. I wouldn't dare try to tackle any of those with how wet it's been lately. Keep an eye out for heavy equipment being operated by the Forestry folks, although it would be pretty tough for them to sneak up on you with those giant machines.

So there it is. The big bike friendly Cary State Forest track. You could probably integrate some sections of the other ride into this one to make things a little more interesting or make for a longer ride, but this one is certainly the more leisurely of the two. If you don't know what I'm talking about, there will be a link you can follow below. As with all of these tracks, participate in these according to your skill level, but I would say that most novice riders could do this one, WITHOUT the yellow portion.

Happy riding!

- To get more information about the original Cary State Forest ride (that is more difficult), click here.

- Follow this link to download the .GPX file for this ride from dualsportmaps.com