Greg & Camille Go Bike

We woke up well before sunrise, but enjoyed a relaxing start to the day. Finally setting out a bit before 8 am, we decided to continue clockwise around the island exploring some areas we'd skipped the night before. Once we were on the beach, we stopped and enjoyed a nice view of the crashing waves and a surprise performance by some singing and dancing corvids.

As we got back on our bikes and peddled along the coast, fog started to settle in. Back in the shopping area near where we'd entered the island yesterday, we stopped for some coffee. We stopped for a bit longer than ideal, but a thick layer of fog was still surrounding us when we got back on the road. It was probably for the best, otherwise Greg may have stopped for a lot more pictures.

Late morning, the fog finally started to lift but by this point we were on the side of US-17 again and traffic was passing us at a steady rate. We were really excited as we approached Waverly, noticing a nice detour along the Georgia Coast Rail Trail. It seemed like a better option than both the Adventure Cycling and East Coast Greenway routes, both saving distance and keeping us off-road.

We had trouble finding much documentation online though and it turns out that some of what we found, wasn't quite accurate. The start of the trail labelled on Google Maps actually had tons of no trespassing signs. Further along we did find an entrance, but it was unpaved and not particularly road bike friendly. Only after crossing the Satilla River did it turn into an actual paved multi-use trail. It was fairly nice for the 5 or so miles we rode on it, but we wasted a lot of time trying to make this detour work.

The rest of our journey through Georgia was pretty uneventful with low enough traffic that we felt comfortable. Traffic picked up considerably after crossing into Florida, especially once we reached A1A. Thankfully there were decent bike lanes most of the way. At one stop light a family joked with us about drag racing and started inquiring about our trip. They were friendly, seemed impressed and wished us well.

With maybe 10 miles to go, we stopped at an Aldi's for groceries and to figure out lodging for the night. We made two mistakes while shopping here. First, deciding to get carbonated water since they didn't have any distilled/spring water available. The bumpy ride that followed did not agree with the carbonation. Secod, we both indendently picked up packs of dried mangos for a total of 5. Honestly, maybe that wasn't a mistake, they're so delicious.

We'd tried booking a campsite at Fort Clinch State Park earlier in the day but failed both on the website and phone. Outside Aldi's we managed to get through this time, but it seems the central booking number doesn't accept reservations after 1pm. Thankfully, calling the park directly, a park ranger told us there were a few first come, first serve sites still available. We raced there arriving just a bit before 5.

The park ranger who checked us in was friendly. He seemed a bit frazzled with new cars constantly coming through and we could hear him on the radio also trying coordinate care of a severely injured turtle.

After booking the site, we continued along canopy road for the 3 miles to our site. The road was true to its name with trees lining the road creating a beautiful canopy overhead. We went a bit further past our site to catch a glimpse of the setting sun along the beach. We set up camp, had dinner and enjoyed the comfortable showers before settling in for bed.