Hike Saturday March 29 from MM 70 (I75) to Bundschu Grade

[shawn beightol]

I'm working on a bikeable route from Lake Okeechobee to Flamingo as backcountry as possible.  I've got about 90% charted (60% scouted).  Its ~210 miles.  Planning on doing it next Spring Break (interested?).

Anyway, one possible part of the route involves getting from Bundschu to mm 70, then crossing I75 to the south mm70 entry to Turner River unit (concho billies to monument trails).

I plan on hiking roughly toward Charlie Cypress camp then diagonally ne along what looks like a fence line or buggy trail (see attached).  Lunch at Bundschu then turn around and come back same route OR come on south down Bundschu toward Charlie Billie Camp then West to retrace final portion of route.

Total hike is 10 miles, either way, 5-6 hrs.

Let me know if you are interested.

Shawn

[shawn beightol]

That's 10 miles total, regardless of the return route.

[shawn beightol]

This is the video of the bike/hike trip May 29 2014 

[yakmaster]

How you going from Monroe to Flamingo?

[vivian]

Impressive! Do you bring gear to stay out overnight? What kind of bike are you using for the backcountry trips? I would imagine something simple to fix with minimal gears.

[Amazon Bill]

You added biking to the modes of traveling through the backcountry! That makes four non motorized modes of travel that I know, canoe, hike, sail, and now bike. I would think that light gear would be in order. That one heavy trail through the palmettos must have been tuff. 

[shawn beightol]

$250 dept store mtn bike with saddle bags to hold water food tools machete and solsr panel recharger. Handlebar storage for backup battery and reg compass and paper map backup. Handlebar mounted android phone running us topo maps to follow route and record track. Since putting kevlar tires and puncher proof tubes, no flats in a year. I carry 2 spares, 4 liters water, sawyer straw and mini fishing pole (kmart 10 bucks can catch bass in ditch and drink water through .1 micron filter if necessary. So far ive made it back without unplanned overnight. I always set a halfway "go-no go" point to destination and stick religiously to it. Mm70 to bundschu pushef it cause I made it halfway and pushed on but conditions were different than anticipated.

[vivian]

David Denham uses a very simple bike which I harrumphed at when we first did a trip together but now see the infinite wisdom in that choice. A beach bike would work well too. Mine is also a mountain bike and the Kevlar tubes is a very good idea. We have had gears and cables break or get snagged in brush. The less stuff to break the better. I don't have the panniers but would really want them if doing anything like carrying gear. We have used our backpacks to bring camp gear into bear islands pink jeep and that is only 3 miles in....I don't recommend this at all, panniers and handlebar storage best.

BTW love the GPS tracks you use in your videos. How do you do this?

[shawn beightol]

I use Google Earth to play the kml file and EZVID to record the screen.

Double click a kml, When it opens, on the left sidebar of Google Earth find the name of the kml file and double click it. It should display on the map.  On the left sidebar you should see the name of the kml either compactly displayed as a folder with a + sign indicating it can be further expanded or already expanded.  Mine usually have Start, trail name, End as 3 parts. I double click the trail name then below the window of trails there is a an icon that I press to play.  GE then does an overflight of the trail which I screen record with EZVid (the app has a lot of advertising and commercial blah blah...there's an easy way to get JUST the video it records without having to upload to Youtube.  you can find other screen recorders).

I use a 15 speed mountain bike.  David had a similar one this weekend (we did Bear Island Indian Mounds and Tomato Fields).  I haven't had problems with cables breaking or what not.  You don't need breaks in Florida really.  ; )  (btw, we could only ride about 1 mile into the tomato field trail and 0 into the mounds...that was jungle stuff - all on foot).

[shawn beightol]

Yak: The whole route is described here: http://gladesgodeep.ning.com/forum/topics/lake-okeechobee-to-flamin... I will probably change the mm70 south to concho billie portion and just do nobles grade south to Florida Trail (no, we will not ride on the FT) at mm 63 and use one of the ORV trails to head over to 11 mile road, cross that and come down the canal to indian reservation.  That will shorten the distance a little I believe & keep us backcountry longer (that balances out).

yakmaster said:

How you going from Monroe to Flamingo?

[yakmaster]

So you're going to come down the L-28 instead of through Oasis?

I love the L-28 crossover. That has to be the gator densest place in the area!

Looks like you'd have to use raccoon or Lost dog to raccoon to get across. South of that, the L-28 jogs over and you have the Res cut-out  and then you have the jetport. After that, the stuff south of the jetport gets DEEP. I've used a buggy trail that goes west from the crossover, but I don't know how far west it goes. We were playing between the jetport & the crossover. From the GE seems like quite a bit of traffic, but it doesn't go west too well, from the looks of it, drier close to the L-28 & getting marlier to the west.But I guess you could work your way over to the jetport & along the north road and then over to the crossover. 

Day 4 I'd get off the levee at 136 & go west there to  237, then down past chekika, you just have to go east a bit to 232 & you can follow those section lines all the way down to 288 though the fields.

But that south turn on 288 looks TOUGH. I'd bet there's a reason the old road ends where it did...

I hadn't seen that one before, used to ATV out there back in the day before GPS & Google. Probably ran it, but can't be sure. But now that I've seen it,  maybe try to peddle it before the rains come, looks interesting!  Hey Terry, you got a bike?

Your daily mileages seem a bit aggressive especially in the stretches in the BCNP & between Chekika & Pine Island. I figure your going to be walking and carrying your bike quite a bit for some of those stretches.

But hey, what don't kill you makes for better posts, so we'll be waiting for the story! Maybe even join you for a leg or two!