Archive for the ‘Cycle Hikes’ Category
Palma Sola Bay to Sarasota Bay
A bicycle tour south through Bradenton Beach and Longboat Key begins with great egrets, brown pelicans and an opportunistic gull.
After grooming atop a pole, an agile resident settles into a standing split.
Vying for scraps, a laughing gull plops down on a pelican’s back as it dives for mullet.
Next is a ride through the Robinson Preserve.
Stretches of paved path yield to elevated sections winding through mangrove forest.
Hidden breaks in the forest lead to amazing vistas of the bay.
A flock of white pelicans slowly bobs up and down until one notices a school of fish.
An awkward orange, black and white ruckus erupts. The collective briefly takes flight.
Crashing down onto one another, the frenzy lasts maybe a minute (but it doesn’t appear that many catch a snack).
Compared to Robinson, Perico Preserve is a smaller and younger restoration project. Bikes are restricted to a small loop, but the route includes curious flora and fauna, including fallen trees and sharp turns.
Drivers and cyclists on Manatee Avenue are forced to take in the view as a yacht lumbers through the drawbridge over Anna Maria Sound.
More avian natives eye tourists from a weathered jetty on Coquina Beach.
Taking such subjective advice in Florida (and across the US) is hard these days.
A dune daisy blooms below one of many towering resorts occupying Longboat Key.
The day’s ride begins and ends on Palma Sola Bay.
May Day Flurries
A flurry of cottonwood seeds occupy an entrance to the North Oconee River Greenway.
Absence
Thirty spokes gathered at each hub:
absence makes the cart work.
A storage jar fashioned out of clay:
Absence makes the jar work
Doors and windows cut in a house:
Absence makes the house work
Presence gives things their value,
but absence makes them work.
-Lao Tzu
Fallen Tree, Falling Water
Weekend psychogeography leads to Watson Mill State Park’s Holly Tree Trail, and the ruins of a hydroelectric dam and power house built in 1907.
