Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

Henry David Thoreau

Biking the trails with Friends

Saturday January 4, 2014
Oscar Scherer State Park
Osprey, Florida

 

 

First the Legacy Trail

 

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On Saturday at 10am sharp, well actually before 10am, Bill and Nancy Mills met us at Oscar Scherer to ride the Legacy bike trail into Venice.

On the map you will see the that there are numerous “trailheads” from which you can begin your ride.  They are all at parks.  One end of the trail is in Bay Street Park Sarasota and the other end at the Train Station in Venice. We started out near the trail’s mid point at the trail head  marked Oscar Scherer State Park to ride into Venice to the train Station where we would pick up the Venetian Waterway Trail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have to get that before picture.

It is traditional to take a picture before heading out.  Nancy sets her camera up on her seat and runs over to jump into the picture.  Since she had her bike all set up, she coached David on how to do the same.

 

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The trail is just wonderful, wide and easy to peddle, paved and flat.   Along the way there are numerous parks where you can have a picnic lunch or just take a rest if you are doing the entire 20 mile round trip.  We were doing about half of it but planned to continue on past the train station to the Venetian Waterway Trail.

 

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The trail went over several bridges before coming to “the big one”.  Here it crossed the Intracoastal waterway.

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THE BRIDGE is one of the nicest bike bridges I’ve seen anywhere especially in an urban area.

When we got to THE BRIDGE which goes over Route 41, the Tamiami Trail, the main route from Tampa to Miami prior to Interstate 75, it was too steep going up to get a picture.  No one wanted to stop the momentum but David did get this one as we entered “the cage” over the highway.  Hasn’t the County really done a fine job on this trail?

 

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Down the other side we went and on into the lovely old Venice Train Station built in Mediterranean Revival Style in 1927.

 

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We continue on past the train station to pick up the Venetian Waterway Trail.

 

The train station is one end of the Legacy Trail.  Just beyond the trail you can pick up the Venetian Waterway Park.  It has 5 miles of biking or walking trails on either side of the Intracoastal Waterway.  We stayed on the side continuous with the Legacy trail and biked to the end at Shamrock Park.   The other side of the trail goes to Caspersen Beach on the Gulf of Mexico. 

I’d love to load up some beach gear and our bike cart and do that side next time although it requires going over an auto bridge to get to the other side of the waterway.

Here you can see the Venice Train station at the bottom of the Legacy Trail Map and at the top of the Venice Waterway Park Trail Map.

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Venice is well known for its murals.  They are along the Intracoastal Waterway as well.

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We had quite a few “sightings” on the waterway trail.

Along the way an eagle flew right over us and the channel, later we saw manatee swimming down the channel and out to sea.  You can see the spot where they were just before my camera “finally” took the picture.   Several sailboats were motoring out and folks including beagles were walking on this crisp but lovely day.   I wasn’t sure why the boats were motoring since the wind seemed perfect for sailing but not being a sailor I probably don’t understand the rules for narrow channel like waterways.

 

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In what seemed like no time, we reached the end and Shamrock Park.  Looked like a great place for a picnic but it wasn’t quite lunch time yet. 

 

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Time to turn around and pedal back.

We were at marker 0.00 as we headed back to the Train Station to pick up the Legacy Trail and head for home.

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Just as we approached the train station someone saw the osprey nest on the light pole.  A closer look showed a parent and a chick.

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Don’t you think it’s time for lunch??

I don’t think poor Bill has even had a snack.  So up and over the Tamiami Trail bridge and we stopped at the first park for our lunch.  There was a wonderful community garden there and Nancy and I both agreed that our gardens were among the only things we missed from our Stix and Brix houses.  Look at this produce in the beginning of January.

 

 

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Not sure which is bigger, the cabbages or the chair.

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Boy that Kale looked so delicious!

 

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It was a great 20 mile ride on what felt like a crisp fall day.  Thanks so much to Nancy and Bill for coming over to ride the trails with us.  Luckily we’ll be seeing them soon since they are at Myakka State Park now and we will be moving there on Tuesday.

21 comments:

  1. Oh my, what a ride! Simply beautiful. Great photos, Sherry.

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  2. Oh that looks like such a great ride! sadly we will only be in that area for a single day before heading on south. We get only a month in Florida, not nearly enough.

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  3. Great ride Sherry ... 20 miles ... blast! I need to get outta this recliner! great photos as usual...

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  4. Wow that picture of the four of you turned out great. Looks like you had a great time on that little ride.

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  5. The trail looks delightful, but 20 miles. My hat is off to all of you.

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  6. That sounds like a fantastic bike trail!

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  7. What a fun day!! You did a wonderful blog and now I have maps so we can do it again:o)) Both of those trails are about the nicest rail trails we have ever rode!! See you at Myakka and hope we can do a little more hiking and biking:o))

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  8. The Legacy is a great trail for the area. Glad you enjoyed it. If you'd like to do it again some time I'd be up for it! I'd like to see the other side past Venice. Just haven't done that part yet.

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  9. We spent two weeks in Venice in Dec/Jan 2010 and rode the Waterway Trail many times. We could easily get to it from the place we were renting in Venice. It remains one of our favorites. The Legacy Trail could only be ridden to the bridge over the Intercoastal. For some reason, it was closed at the bridge. Someday, we'll go back to finish that one. Florida has some wonderful bike trails. Just so you know....my temp reading currently says it's 1.4 degrees! And Bill has a doctor appointment at 8:30. Ugh!

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  10. Sounds like a wonderful day biking with good friends.

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  11. 20 miles! What a day! Those murals are beautiful. So glad you got to see Bill and Nancy again :) That chick was a special sighting!

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  12. So, did anyone scale the fence to raid the garden? ;-)

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  13. Very nice trail with so much to see along the way!

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  14. You had me at murals! The trouble with me and bike trails is I see something and get off to investigate. Of course I have that trouble in the car and on foot too. Hope you had a big supper after all that exercise.

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  15. That's a very nice trail with lots of interesting things to see. I'll bet you were tempted to raid the garden. We have some nice trails around here. We used to roller blade on them a lot and did some biking. I guess we should get back out to the trails again.

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  16. I had forgotten about the Legacy Trails. It sure looks like a fantastic place to ride. I am with Jeannie and would love to meet up for a bike ride with you. Maybe a girls' only day. (Sorry David).

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  17. That looked like fun! Love the osprey parent and baby! Glad you are having fun! It was down to 5 degrees here and now up to 14 balmy degrees....... I hate January :0( but I love you!

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  18. Would have loved to have joined you, we were a tad busy ;-)! Stay warm, and enjoy Myakka, we love that park.

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  19. What nice looking trails. Not sure I'll ever get Jim the mosquito magnet back to FL, even in the winter.

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  20. What a great bike ride! Would love to do that sometime. We're staying at Ochlockonee SP and doing lots of biking and hiking, despite the freezing temperatures. But you'll be happy to know that there are no bugs at all. ;-) Winter is definitely the time to be here.

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  21. Nice day biking. Now if you were driving in your car, I bet some of those cabbages and kale would have come up missing... ;c)

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