Wakulla

March 20, 2018

There is no Wakulla, FL. Wakulla County? Yes. Wakulla Springs? Yes. Wakulla Beach? Yes. I'm actually, technically (I think), in Crawfordville, but that just wouldn't do for a destination point today, so I latched onto Wakulla early on as it was the dominant name on the map.

Per Wikipedia: "Wakulla County has a near-absence of any municipal population, with two small municipalities holding about 3% of the population. The county seat, Crawfordville, is one of only two unincorporated county seats among Florida's 67 counties." But it gets better. The largest city is Sopchoppy, with a population of 457, and like Cross City, is a railroad town. It dates back to 1894. So it's pretty amazing my hotel, the Magnuson Hotel Wildwood Inn, is even here! But, alas, there is a golf course here AND a country club.

None of this is meant to disparage anyone or anything. It just shows how rural you can be this close to a state capital (Tallahassee). I'm considering changing my course tomorrow so I can visit Sopchoppy. It also looks like it might be a less busy route to the coast . . .

So yesterday was rain, and today promised more. But the odds had improved since the night before, and there was only about a 50% chance through 10:00 AM. I rose early, 7:00 AM (Jerry would be proud), was out the door by 7:30, and headed for Hurdles for a hearty breakfast, the only game in town. It was 6/10ths of a mile away . . . in the wrong direction, and in the dark at this hour. But I covered it easily in spite of the lack of sidewalk for half the distance. Even with taking my time, I was back by 9:00 and ready to head out by 9:30. An early start was in order, not for fear of rain (no thunderstorms were predicted) but for the winds that were indicated to arrive near Crawfordville around 3:00 PM. No direction was given (I need a better forecasting site), but I assumed southwest or west, my general direction of travel.

Today's ride to Wakulla.

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I knew when planning this trip that wind might become an issue, but I thought it might be more along the coast than inland. However, recent storms further north were stirring these up, and there had been tornado warnings in Alabama and Georgia . . . but not Florida. Except that this part of Florida really is just an extension of those two states. Anyway, fingers crossed!

So I pushed off into the early morning light with a short-sleeve jersey covered by my rain jacket to ward off the morning coolness and for visibility. I had to continue up US-98 (really US-19/US-98) for a short distance before taking a left and wandering through a residential neighborhood to recover US-98, sans the US-19 part, which continues north towards Atlanta, GA. I would continue on US-98 the rest of the day for about fifty miles . . . with no turns! And unlike US-19/US-98 that I had ridden yesterday, this section of US-98 is an undivided two-lane highway, so passing would be more problematic.

Making the left to take my shortcut showed me the other half of Perry, a more marginalized half. And even though it was residential, as I closed on my turn to US-98, I passed the destination point of all the lumber trucks I had seen. The railroads may be gone, but lumber is still king in these parts.

You see these "skinny" trees everywhere . . . growing straight up and on the back of tree-hauling trucks.

From there, onto US-98. I was not really looking forward to the long haul to Wakulla. I’m not overly fond of riding shoulders (per se), and I really get bored on long straightaways, especially with the Garmin in front of me slowly counting down the distance to the next turn. But sometimes we just have to do what we have to do! But knowing the route, I was sorely tempted to just cancel the course and be done with the countdown. But not yet. It was actually showing only twelve miles to the next turn, so maybe I would luck out and find a trail!

Some of the side scenery as I traveled up US-98.

But it mostly looked like this. This also captures one of the logging trucks headed back towards Perry. One advantage of being on this side of Perry is that the returning trucks were empty of loads.

At the twelve-mile mark, and 14 miles into my ride, I found my "turn" was nothing more than . . . a bend ("turn") in the road, and after eight miles of straightaway, I guess that is worth noting! But the scenery did change a bit as I then passed the Lower Econfina River and entered the Aucilla Wildlife Management Area.

And a little further down the road, some nice roadside scenery. This would all be worth exploring more, but probably easier by car than bicycle, given the remoteness of this area and that all the side roads are dirt/sand.

And this, which is nice-looking but probably farmed timberland.

Eventually I entered Wakulla County — only 20 miles to go. And no rain . . . and none coming, it seemed.

Somewhere through here I was alerted to the fact that Newport was nine miles hence. Newport? I actually didn't think there were any places along here to stop, so I thought, "OK, I can take a break there." Well, Newport was little more than a campground and an oyster restaurant . . . so I stopped for a picture, but not for oysters. That may have been a mistake, but stopping for oysters twelve miles out might be a mistake too!

But I did get waylaid in the end. A little unexpectedly. I stopped at a Chevron for a snack, didn't find what I wanted, noticed they had a Subway, and caved for an Italian BMT. Bad me, but a good sandwich. So that held me up 30 minutes or so, which may have been my downfall.

The wind. It was predicted to hit at 3:00, but like most forecasts, that is only an estimate. And the weather seemed to move east a bit faster today than forecast in general . . . so the wind came up a bit early too. I pushed off from "lunch" at about 1:45 and could feel the difference already. Not totally, but I could feel it building. So my last five miles were a bit tougher than they would have been if I hadn't stopped.

But as I pulled away, I saw something that US-98 needs sorely . . . and looks like a great idea.

But for now, I was still on the US-98 shoulder.

Crossing the Wakulla River. Behind me, they were working on the bridge, presumably to add a bike lane.

And then, lo and behold, I saw construction activity on my side of the roadway and then this paved section. Well, it didn't say "Closed," so why not?

Well, that only lasted about a mile, but it was a pleasant mile with good shelter from traffic and some shelter from the wind. Then I was back on the shoulder for about three miles before another paved section appeared . . . and that took me straight to my hotel.

Interrupted only by this bridge construction.

The wind only got worse after I arrived around 2:30. Tomorrow looks promising but not particularly warm, with wind picking up again at 3:00 PM, both here and in Apalachicola. And until tonight, I thought Apalachicola was in the CST/CDT time zone . . . WRONG! There are exceptions along the coast, so I won't see a change until sometime Thursday on my way to Mexico Beach. That will be a short cycling day, only 40 miles, plus I gain an hour with the time zone change. And . . . I have the next day off!

But enough of that. Off to dinner first. Snapper at The Seineyard at Wildwood . . . plus it's bingo night. Yahoo!

Back to seafood! Snapper at the Seineyard!

Today's ride: 52 miles (84 km)
Total: 316 miles (509 km)

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