Paradoxically, my interest, and subsequent obsession with
mountain biking began when I was living in Orlando, Florida; a part of the
world not known for any mountains except for Space Mountain. That being said,
in the mid-nineties (and probably even still today), central Florida had a
great MTB scene. It’s been almost 20 years since I’ve ridden off road in
Florida though, and I wasn’t sure where to go. (Video after the jump too) Read MORE...
I knew that Santos was a hot spot, but I wasn’t heading in that direction and was limited on time. I know we used to ride somewhere in Sanford, at an environmental center of some sort, but I couldn’t recall any of the details, so I hit the Internets…
I posted on MTBR.com’s forum page and ultimately found the
Central Florida Mountain Bikers' page on Facebook and got some good leads.
While most people probably search the Orlando area online for the best theme
park deals, I was looking for trail info. Anyway, with really only one day to
explore—before I headed to the Tampa area—I settled on a trail network in Oviedo
called Snow Hill. I thought the name was apropos because I was in Florida to
escape the snow. In the Little Big Econ State Forest, the network seemed to
offer several miles of fun trails. This was about 45 minutes away from where I
was, at my mom’s house near Universal Studios, and I was up and on the road
early. I needed to pick up a spare tube
and was happy to find a bike shop/coffee shop near the trails called Velo Creek Bike & Brew, which, since it was also a coffee shop, was open at 7am.
Anyway, tube in hand, and coffee in my cup, I got to the
trails and was fortunate to hook on to the wheel of one of the locals that was
heading out. The trails are easy to follow, but this was better than being solo
because I could just cruise through trail intersections and not worry about
looking at my map to see where I was.
As you might imagine, the trails are flat. Make that
F-L-A-T. My brother looked at my Strava link and asked if my altimeter was
broken. Okay, yeah, there was no climbing, but it was just about all
singletrack with more twists and turns than Fort Meyers has old people. It was fast, flowy and fun. It’s also pretty non-technical; I think we
encountered only a handful of roots in our 10+ mile loop. Personally, I’m just
happy when I’m on my bike, but if you’re looking for rock gardens, drops, or
stunts, I’d suggest that you look elsewhere.
If you find yourself in the Orlando area with access to a
bike, I’d check this place out. I know
I’ll be back.
Longer version of my video is below:
Longer version of my video is below:
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