Florida Keys 100
The Keys Bike Ride
In July of 2020, we had the lovely privilege of riding our bikes down US Highway 1 from Key Largo to Key West. This has by far been one of my (Sarah) favorite rides of all time.
We started off around 7am-it was raining that morning as a tropical storm had rolled in overnight and destroyed our tent, but we decided to go anyway. It was my birthday ride and I did not want to miss out on an opportunity to do something cool. Thankfully, shortly into the ride the rain stopped, and we were blessed with a nice overcast day, which for Florida in July made a huge difference.
We took with us two bottles of water each and two GU gels each. In Marathon, we stopped at a Publix which was 54 miles into the ride to refill the water bottles. We also bought Cliff bars to eat and used the bathroom.
For the most part we had a tail wind and were able to maintain a decent pace. At mile 80 though, a storm rolled in and the wind shifted to a straight on headwind. It poured down rain for a solid 20 minutes and continued to rain harder. At that point, we stopped at a local fire station to stand under their awning and wait out some of the rain. After looking at the radar and realizing that the rain was not going to stop, we decided to ride onward in the rain so that we could make it there. At mile 90 or so, the rain finally stopped and we finished the ride.
The ride totaled 101 miles from our starting point in Key Largo to the Key West Airport where we were going to pick up our rental car to drive back. We rode the shoulder most of the way, except for where there was road construction, then we had to merge into the traffic. The motor vehicles do fly down Highway 1, so there were definitely times where I felt like the wind from an 18-wheeler was going to blow me off of my bike into the drink (aka a body of water…in our case, the ocean). The shoulder is tight and has a lot of rubbish in it. The bridges were AMAZING! There is nothing like flying down a bridge with a strong tailwind at your back looking at the most beautiful colored water! I highly recommend it..
If you decide to do this ride a few things to note:
- Always pay attention to your surroundings and be aware of the traffic.
- There are definitely sections of this ride that were highly trafficked especially when going through towns.
- Make sure you carry plenty of water, as there are long stretches with no where to stop.
- Enjoy the 7 mile bridge-it was the highlight of the ride.
- There are sections of this ride that have a bike trail, but it does not connect all of the Keys. It stops and starts at random places and crosses the road several times.
- Motor vehicles will fly past you, so make sure you hold your line. And please, do not merge into the road without looking.
Overall, if you love rides with a ‘beachy’ feel to them, and you like a good challenge, you should try this ride!
Cheers to adventures,
Sarah and Jerry
Thanks for your post on this weblog. From my experience, often times softening way up a photograph could provide the wedding photographer with a dose of an inventive flare. Oftentimes however, that soft blur isn’t just what exactly you had in mind and can sometimes spoil a normally good picture, especially if you thinking about enlarging that.
Thanks for the insight! And, thanks for reading our blog post.