BIKES, BIRDS & ABANDONED HIGHWAYS

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A northern harrier within the Decrease Keys. MARK HEDDEN/Keys Weekly

I wakened the opposite morning considering of Sugarloaf, particularly the south finish of the outdated freeway, partly as a result of I’d gotten a brand new bike. Twenty years in the past the bike might need been thought of fancy, what with its disc brakes, carbon forks, inner cable routing and aluminum body. In trendy occasions it’s a midlevel Trek, streets forward of a Conch cruiser, however about so far as you’ll be able to go within the firm’s offroad line with out some type of suspension.

I by no means favored the thought of a suspension on a motorbike. It at all times appears a bit an excessive amount of like using a wheeled pogo stick. They’re nice for the off-road path in locations like Utah or Montana, with twists and jumps and whatnot, however right here within the flatlands of the Florida Keys, they’re mainly ineffective.

The principle distinction between the flowery mountain bike I purchased within the ’90s and this one was the gearing. The outdated bike had a triple entrance ring, with the third cog being a tiny one known as a granny gear, engineered to allow you to experience up just about any hill so long as you have been keen to do it slowly and probably with out dignity. With the seven cogs on the again cluster, you had a selection of 21 gears.

The brand new bike solely has a single chainring on the entrance, however 10 on the again cog, mainly overlaying the identical vary of gearing choices with fewer gradations. The largest gear is concerning the measurement of a dessert plate, with practically as many tooth because the entrance gear, which can even allow you to experience up just about any hill — once more, slowly and probably with out dignity.

I purchased the bike as a result of I wished entry to among the harder-to-reach elements of the Keys, locations you’ll be able to’t actually drive to and to which I’m too impatient to stroll – outdated deserted roads, outdated deserted bridges, etcetera. Additionally, it got here with a rear rack and a bag sufficiently big to hold binoculars and digital camera tools. 

The driving path to Key West wasn’t at all times what it’s now. There wasn’t any driving route till 1928. Earlier than that there was the practice or a ship — and a airplane in the event you have been rich and trusted all that new and experimental know-how. The primary model of the Abroad Freeway was State Highway 4A, which ran from the mainland to Islamorada, hopped on a ferry for 41 miles, and restarted at No Title Key. Later, they added a center part in Marathon, requiring two separate ferry journeys, however shaving an hour off the eight-hour journey time. 

Within the Decrease Keys the driving route adopted the southern coast, crossing between islands on rickety picket bridges. After the Labor Day Hurricane in 1935, the Florida East Coast Railway gave up and offered 122 miles of its proper of means, together with its far much less rickety viaducts, to Florida for $644,000 and the forgiveness of $300,000 in again taxes. Three years later the rerouted Abroad Freeway was formally opened, connecting the prevailing SR 4A with new roads that had been constructed on the outdated railroad bridges and proper of means. The highway nonetheless adopted the coast within the Decrease Keys, although, till the Navy grew displeased with its twistiness throughout World Warfare II and rerouted it onto the outdated railroad bridges between Massive Pine and Key West. The brand new route opened in 1944, and is near the one we observe now. 

The outdated picket bridges have been eliminated a couple of years after that. 

SR 4A nonetheless exists on Sugarloaf, although now it’s formally known as Outdated State Highway 4A. A few third of it’s driveable. The remaining is blocked off, deserted, slowly going to seed. My favourite half is on the south finish, because it goes for a number of miles, and that’s the place I headed. 

Outdated State Highway 4A isn’t blocked off on the south finish, as it’s on the north finish (the best way to the leaping bridge). It simply type of constricts. An virtually bower-like opening made me duck my head to enter. 

One of many issues that cheers me up concerning the pure world in Florida – particularly in locations the place we’ve hacked it again to inside half-an-inch of its life – is that, go away it alone for some time, and most occasions it comes again, relentless and robust.

Apparently it had been longer than I noticed since I used to be final there. It had been wider and extra open earlier than. Now the mangroves and buttonwoods had closed in, and the highway had degraded to rubble. It appeared just like the type of place Little Crimson Driving Hood or Hansel and Gretel might get misplaced. It was so rutted and bumpy I began to suppose a motorbike with a suspension wasn’t such a horrible concept.

Sometimes I might sit up and stretch my again, however principally I needed to keep stooped over the handlebars. It was arduous to go quick with out risking a stick within the eye, so my pace was ruled by how briskly I believed I might go whereas minimizing the danger of blinding myself. As a security measure I rode with my head cocked and angled ahead so if an errant department got here at me, it might hit the invoice of my hat first.

I didn’t actually see any birds for a very long time – simply a few north cardinals that have been little greater than scarlet flashes as they crossed the trail forward.

I’m undecided how far I had ridden when a department knocked the hat off my head. I ended, backed the bike up, grabbed the hat. That’s once I noticed the ovenbird. I anticipated it to leap off into the thicket, nevertheless it bobbed out and in of the foliage, strolling and bopping its head the chicken-like means that ovenbirds do.

Often the warbler you see most frequently within the winter within the Keys is the palm warbler, however I noticed none of them alongside the highway, and three or extra ovenbirds.

Issues opened up for some time, however the solar was low and intense and I saved my head on the bizarre angle to battle the glare. 

A northern harrier crossed in entrance of me, shifting sluggish and regular within the wind, little question looking over some salt pond blocked from view by all of the vegetation. Backlit because it was, the hen was virtually pure silhouette – lengthy wings and lengthy tail in excessive distinction, a black cutout that lingered within the eye. The retinal picture light simply because the hen crossed in entrance of me once more. 

It was going to get darkish quickly and the good factor would have been to show round, however I saved pedaling, questioning what else I would see on the best way to a useless finish.

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