Central Florida & Orlando Mountain Bike Trails: SNOWHILL ROAD MTB TRAIL Little Big Econ State Forest

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Hello I'm Bobby and I'm the trail volunteer for the Florida Forestry Service out here at the Little Big Econ State Forest. The Snow Hill Bike Trail has been around here since the late 80's and it follows mostly in the deer paths. There's about 15 miles of singletrack out here at snow hill bike trail but most of it winds through the state forest here and a group of volunteers from SORBA Orlando comes out here and maintains the trail and works with the Florida Forestry Service.

The terrain out here at the snow hill bike trail consists of mostly sand but it's also mixed in with some muck and some loose dirt but most of it is sandy. This land used to be used for harvesting turpentine and it was a farm for cabbage and celery.

This is a wildlife preserve and there are all kinds of wildlife out here that are native to Florida. Since it's a Preserve you might find alligators in the water which is common here in Florida as well as snakes, turtles, gopher turtle and also wild hog and wild turkey. There's quite a few deer out here as well that you'll find along the bike trail.

A good portion of the trail runs along the little big econ River. On the weekends the river is quite active - there's kayaking and camping along the river.

The Snow Hill bike trail is located just outside of the town of Geneva and sits between Geneva and Oviedo Florida. The Little Big Econ State Forest is located about 15 minutes east of the University of Central Florida and it's about a 30-minute drive from downtown Orlando.

Central Florida & Orlando Mountain Bike Trails: MARKHAM WOODS Mountain Bike Trail

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
I'm Mitch Greenberg and welcome to the Markham Woods mountain bike trail. This trail was established in 2013 thanks to the generous contribution of Wekiva Springs State Park. We currently have about nine to ten miles of trail here, mostly beginner-friendly. We cater to mountain biking, trail runners, hikers, family use. We do have some interesting features on the trail such as log overs, jumps, various sinks out here, varied terrain for people to see but this area is generally beginner-friendly. There are some other interesting features such as palmetto roots and some historic features to this piece of property as well. We have a great facility here parking lot provided by Seminole County, restroom facilities that are taken care of also by Seminole County, parking and access is easy. The location is near I-4 & Lake Mary Florida, so check it out have fun!

What Goes Around Comes Around

What goes around comes around. We've all heard the saying. And I guess to some, or a great extent, it is more or less at least somewhat true, I don't really know. What I do know is that it usually seems to be associated with something negative - some sort of negative karma, or whatever.

Not this time. Two days ago I had just finished uploading and publishing a video to YouTube and was posting the YouTube link on Facebook when out of nowhere I received a private message from a friend whom I hadn't heard from in quite some time. The message read "2 years ago. Amazing trip....".

This is a screenshot of that message:

Under the text caption in the message is a short video. This is that video:



Kim is a fellow cyclist and mountain bike adventurer from Denmark. About 2.5 years ago I joined up with 2 other friends and Orlando area locals for a somewhat local overnight bikepacking adventure. Kim was here vacationing in the Orlando area and visiting one of the guys and he came along for the ride. That's how we met.

The ride was relatively short (by most bikepacking standards), but an epic one nonetheless. I had wanted to capture the experience as I do on many of my rides, so I recorded bits and pieces of video footage along the way, assembled it all into a timeline, and published it online. That was over 2 years ago.

Fast forward to this past Friday when I received the unexpected message above. I hadn't heard from Kim in a very long time and it was very refreshing and rewarding to receive a message of this nature. It made my entire afternoon to see that someone half a world away was reflecting back on some good times and epic moments that we had.

Cheers, buddy. We'll meet again sometime for another ride. I guess what goes around comes around is mostly true.

You can view the entire video of the ride I did with Kim & friends here:

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DiamondBack Outlook Mountain Bike For Sale

I have a very nice entry level/beginner's bike for sale for anyone who might be interested. It's a 21 speed DiamondBack Outlook with 26" wheels, a 20" aluminum alloy frame (suitable for riders 6 feet tall and above), and is equipped with front suspension. The bike is in like new condition. Leave a comment below if you're interested.

The Orlando Critical Mass Bike Ride: Another Angle

Some of you may have seen my recent September Critical Mass Bike Ride video. The Critical Mass rides are always a fun experience and while I tried to capture the essence of the entire scene in the video, one of my primary objectives in attending the recent September 2018 ride was to shoot some aerial drone footage of the 'Mass riders for videographer Chad Pearce who was creating a short biopic about Orlando Critical Mass frontman Nicholas Mandino.

In this short, but fantastic video Nick talks about some of his personal battles that led him to become a cyclist and how cycling provided a form of liberation. He then goes on to talk about how this led to him forming the "Orlando Chapter" of the monthly worldwide cycling movement and phenomenon known as Critical Mass.

Without further ado...

September 2018 Orlando Critical Mass Ride

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It's been a while since I attended a Critical Mass Ride. At least 6 to 8 months. While I really enjoy attending these things and riding with 3, 4,or 5 hundred like minded riders, the last Friday of each month has a strange habit of creeping up on me without notice and as a result I usually remember that this ride is taking pace at the last possible second - which is always too late to attend. That is, when I DO remember!

I hadn't really planned or considered attending this month's Critical Mass ride but a friend brought something to my attention the day before. A documentary video about the phenomenon that is Critical Mass and it's organizer is being produced for an Orlando area community web site and they wanted someone with a drone who could shoot aerial footage of the ride. I have a couple of drones so I confirmed that I could attend and do it. With a day's advance notice I surely wouldn't forget this time.

With bike locked & loaded, batteries charged, and drones packed and ready I made the 10.5 mile ride on my bike Friday afternoon to the starting point at Loch Haven Park. The original plan was to do the ride and shoot a few random aerial scenes of the riders along the way, then hand off the video footage to the producer of the documentary. Simple enough. But then I figured, since I am going, I may as well bring my other gear as well, and shoot a bunch of various shots, both aerial and handheld, and use them in a video of my own creation in addition to supplying the aerial footage for the documentary.

The result of what I did is what you see above.

Until next time....