The loop was a little over 730 miles and included rides in the Everglades, Big Cypress Preserve and the Fakahtachee Strand Preserve.
Outside of the Everglades National Park, the specif roads we roll through were Loop Road, Turner River Road and Jane's Memorial Scenic Trail.
First stop, though, was on the Port Mayacca Locks on the east side of Lake Okechobee. This is my son on the KLR and his first time at this site. You can ride right up on the dike or along the canal there and get a good look at the lake.
From there, we rolled down to Florida City to spend the night. Florida City is a good launch point into the Everglades and other parks. We started with a ride down to Flamingo in the Everglades National Park.
Flamingo has a shop, boat launch and even a visitors center. It also offers camping for those looking to hike or row into the Everglades Back Country. The Park has a $15 per motorcycle fee. Camping would be a little more.
On our way up to the Big Cypress Preserve, we stopped into the Redland Cafe, in Redland, Florida. The place had a Cuban twist to it. Sam, my son, got a burger and it was the biggest burger we've ever seen. It had to have been near a pound of meat. I got some outstanding pressed Cuban Sandwiches. Never been there before, but definitely will stop in again.
The place had a real weird palm tree out front.
After lunch, we rode Loop Road that runs 24 miles down into the Everglades back country. This road can easily get washed out, but it was perfectly fine on our trip.
The entrance to the Fakahtachee Strand Preserve has a big pile of rocks. Not sure how they got there, but they're definitely more sturdy than they look.
The real attraction in the Fakahatchee is Jane's Memorial Scenic Drive. It's a 14 mile gravel and dirt road that can get pretty rough. It's narrow, terribly rutted and prone to flooding. Cars drive in there and, after a mile or so, can't put up with all the ruts and potholes and back all the way out. I once read that TripAdvisor listed it as the worst scenic drive in America. LOL.
Let the ruts begin!
I wasn't too concerned. The Versys is a good adventure(ish) bike, but not with those Bridgestone Battlax sport-touring tires!
We didn't run into any flooding until about 8 miles in. This is technically still part of the Everglades so it is naturally wet, plus the water moves around a lot. However, the road surface itself is fairly solid with no super large rocks, so the real issue simply comes down to, "how deep?" Unless we can actually see the bottom, we need to stop and check closely ... and that takes a lot of extra time.
The KLR obviously did well in the water crossings with my son at the helm...
...but you can still only go so deep.
Same for the Big Versys. This is about as deep as I'd go.
So after that first water crossing, they started coming one right after another. Some we could circumnavigate, some we had to cross.
We did that for about 2 miles, then came onto a water crossing that we couldn't even see the end of. Right when we were about to walk it, a big mud truck came through and rolled on in. He stopped for a few minutes sizing up the situation (you can see his brake lights in the next photo) and then rolled in. The water came over his 35s and that's way too deep for either the KLR or Versys.
So we turned tail and rode out of the Fakahatchee the way we came, in the dark!
I've always known that Jane's is a hit-or-miss road, so I wasn't surprised. It was still a great time and we'll get through it next time. Actually, the whole trip was a hit and a great way to kick off 2016.
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