Green Cove Springs to Orlando

Riding from GCS to Orlando this Sunday. Anyone interested in some riding? Does anyone have any route suggestions or any tips on some off road action on the way? It can go through some rural areas...
KLR650 with ok tires.

Can send you a gps route in Mapsource, if that works pm me an email. It's probably more than you're looking for, about 4.5 hours, but it is rural and with a good bit of KLR style dirt.

Hey Jenkem Baron, if by chance ya happen to run into that FF in or around the greater GCS metro area, then by all means please post the info to the dedicated thread on the topic. You might could help solve an old mystery:
http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=642678

How many miles ya got on that old KLR these days?

Never seen a dude on an F650 there...Someone around here commented about that and I thought they were talking about a bigass Ford since there is the big Garber Ford dealership there! Haha!

The KLR has probably 30-35k on it now. I got rid of the stock gauge cluster a few years ago and got a Vapor...that worked for awhile and then failed...so they sent me a new one. But I lost all my miles...

See if this works. Disregard the two spurs.

https://www.google.com/maps/ms?msid...ll=29.279212,-81.677856&spn=1.693696,3.172302

That works...looks good!

That route takes you right past my house, maybe we can meetup somewhere?

Here's a short alternate. If it's wet by the time you get here (you'll know by then) you might want to go this way. Otherwise should be good.

https://www.google.com/maps/ms?msid...ll=29.426105,-81.696138&spn=0.026427,0.049567

I will be headed down from GCS around 2 today, weather permitting

Always appreciate your willingness to share your hard work. You're one of the good guys, Bill...

We got a bit of rain here the past couple of days. The roads through ONF should be in good shape for riding.

Cool! Its raining in GCS now, hopefully it stops soon and I can hit the road. Thanks for the input!

Well, I decided to wait to leave until Sunday morning. With spotty weather and having worked part of the day, plus riding an unknown route it proved to be a better decision.

I was located a bit south of GCS, so I took Sungarden rd. to meet up with Bill's route. It was a nice surprise, as it was a long dirt road (within about 1 mile of leaving the house).

Once I got to ONF I ended up deviating from the route a bit - I had forgotten my GPS and was using the map on my phone and it was a pain in the ass. I had a hard time navigating the forest roads because none of them were really marked. I want to come back here with a GPS, road/trail map, and maybe a few of you who know the lay of the land better!

I ended up at the ferry, which was a really cool part of the trip - not expecting that. I chatted with the dude about his boat (built in 1918) and he let me ride for free!

I did hit some rain but it was alright - got wet/dry about 3 times but it was not worth stopping and getting my rain gear on.

'Truck trail #2' was a good road, it was nice riding on a well groomed dirt road going about 60 to try and beat the rain!

I only busted my ass once in some deep sand in ONF.

I will post some pictures later tonight or tomorrow, I have to re-size them.

Thanks for the route info and input! I will be doing this again, I am in GCS about every month or so.

Damn, when did ADV start only allowing 1 image upload per post?

Ok, I made a photobucket account - a quick read on the 'how to post pictures'

So anyway, I left from Hwy 17 S., went right on Sungarden Rd.


It was nice dirt road that was pretty well manicured. I passed this, never seen or heard of it before. Wonder if any of you have been? Not that I have a MX bike...but it is still cool


Once I ended up on the pavement again I spotted this homemade looking RV thing in the trees. Check out the gutters on the patio (?)




Like I said in the other post, I forgot my GPS and got kind of lost in ONF. I decided to just ride around and keep track of where I had been so I could turn back around. Ended up on Cemetary rd. which was very sandy. I did see some pretty cool shacks back here. Oops!



I did get oriented again and found the ferry, which was very neat. I waited for awhile and saw it coming in the distance. Did not know what to expect. The little tugboat was cool, the captain claims it was built in 1918. 4 cyl diesel powered.







On the high seas aka St. John's River. FYI, this ferry runs 7am to 5:30 pm, every day but Tuesday. The cost is $10 - the guy didn't charge me after I chatted with him about his boat which I was genuinely interested in. Basically if he ain't there, he's across the river, and if he ain't across the river, then the boat ain't runnin'!

The route kind of snakes a bit on the other side of the river, some nice roads here and there around the Lake George area


Next area was through the Weleka forest/Lake George conservation area. Truck Trail #2 is what the road was called - it was a nice ride.

Once I ended up back on 17/15 I decided to abridge Bill's route due to time and weather. I had been away from home for 2 weeks and basically wanted to get home and with rain on the horizon I figured to slab it the rest of the way. The ride down 17 is good until you get into the more populated areas and once I got to Sanford I abandoned it for I4. I had been wet a few times and was in familiar territory so priority #1 was to not get killed in the rain by idiotic drivers.

Saw an old abandoned Bob White citrus plant somewhere on 17


And this very cool and strange bus/truck/van on the side of the road. Windshield said 'for sale - 1953'


The sky is somewhat foreboding...


And finally, Hi Mom!

All in all it was a fun ride and I would like to do it again and explore more of ONF and more of the interesting stuff on the east side of the river. Maybe find a good lunch spot somewhere too...my $.59 pack of peanuts at the gas station while it POURED about 5 minutes after I took that picture was not worthy of the standard RR food picture!
Thanks for the route WayBill!

Jenkem baron rides again!

Anytime Mon, sorry had to send you down 17 but there's few good alternatives approaching the big O.

Nice pics and write-up, you showed what I like about Fla, it's as bumpkin as any other southern state once you get off the avenue.

Dude, yea! Finally!

Yes, I know folks all around the country - a common misconception of Florida is that it is one state full of Miami. Couldn't be farther from the truth. I love the rural areas. People who don't know don't realize how big the state is as well.

You were in my backyard. I am south of GCS. One of your trips we need to meet up. Clay county has great backroads heading south.

So when's the green cove to Colorado journey??