Day 5 - Fort Lauderdale to Key Largo - 98 miles - Elevation gain: 2.5 bridges

This day ran the gamut of biking terrain. We left Fort Lauderdale and had to go out and around the cruise ship ports. The path around this area led us to roads that seemed like we should not have been on them, like a short highway and a tunnel. The wind was in our faces in the morning and we were on roads with lots of traffic lights, which both slowed our progress.

We made our way back to the coastline and then were able to pick up a couple of miles of a multi-use trail along the beach. It was a nice break from the traffic and afforded good views of the ocean. After this trail ended we were back with the traffic and lights until we reached Miami. Then we jumped on another multi-use trail along the beach. This time it was also filled with people, so the going was slow.

I had mapped out a route south of Miami to take us off of the East Coast Greenway path and put us on less traveled roads. However, in reviewing the route on Tuesday night, I discovered that one of the roads was closed. So I decided to reroute us back to the ECG path. This was a mistake, because this dedicated bike path was under construction, so our only option was to be with the traffic. Thankfully the wind was on our backs and we were able to move at a good clip. We were moving so well that I didn’t realize that we lost Al. He had tried updating his bike computer to the new route, but it didn’t take. So he explored the route that I had originally plotted, and the rest of us navigated to choppy bike path through busy streets. We met up with Al at the lunch stop where he told me that the route I had chosen was much better and had no traffic.

After our empanadas for lunch, I made the call to get away from the traffic and follow some of the original route. We found another bike path that was smooth and allowed us to stay off of the road. Eventually we needed to get back on the “planned” route to head south, so I routed us along some back roads. Along one of these roads there was a collision of bikes, everyone was fine, but one of the bikes lost a part. Thankfully everyone was okay and the bikes could still be ridden.

We were a few yards from getting on another bike trail, and this trail ran parallel to dedicated bus lanes. We used the bus lane, because there were no south bound buses using the lane and it was in better shape than the bike lane (which was dotted with lizards and iguanas.

I knew there was going to be a headwind for some of the ride, I just hopped it wasn’t going to be too strong. Unfortunately it was rather strong and it lasted for 16 miles. Once we turned the corner at North Key Largo, we turned on the jets and averaged around 20 mph. It was a very long day, but we are 428 miles down and have 100 miles to go to reach Key West!