Go find your FLOw with a RIDe at Alafia River State Park.
Firstly, the address that google gives and sends you to is 14326 Co Rd 39, Lithia, Florida... It's close, but when you get about a mile away stop following those directions because google will send you on a Duck, Duck, Goose! chase. If you've googled this address the last step will be to turn onto Thatcher Rd, but that won't send you to the actual park entrance or to the start of any trails. To get to the park itself there will be a sign showing "Alafia River State Park" just off of the main road. If you need the google directions, it's safer to search for the UBC -University Bicycle Center - at Alafia River State Park. It costs $4 or $5 depending on how many passengers in the car for the entry fee.
If you do happen to get a little lost though, google takes you through some really beautiful country. So, if you do want a detour to just drive and take in some scenery with some good music, it takes you through some gorgeous farmlands and wooded areas.
As a side note to my little anecdotes about mountain biking here, the UBC is a really cool resource to check out. Depending on when you go to hit the trails, it's typically open. The people there are super friendly and knowledgeable, they have bike rentals, they can give you pointers for the trails, and they'll sometimes hold skill clinics as well.
I live a little more than an hour away from Alafia, so I don't get out there as much as I would like, but it's such a good time and worth the drive. Between life and jobs - those things that we do to fund our dog, Koko's, kibble habits and to fuel Jake and I's new found love for High Noons, cough cough ahem - I make it there about once every two weeks, give or take.
I love mountain biking Alafia River State Park because there's so much variety that I can go hard and really work on bettering my skills, or I can just take it easy and find a quiet flow if I'm needing to just clear my head. I came from Montana, and actual mountains, to Florida. I'll give you a hint and tell you there are no more mountains - I know, it surprised me too. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a bit prejudiced about the riding here, but I have been so pleasantly surprised!
Even though there aren't downhills of any crazy length, that's not to say that there are none. Alafia has some pretty decent slopes and most of them are at a steep grade. The park was originally a phosphate mine, and instead of filling in any of the pits, they left the mounds of earth as it was and used the new terrain to build trails with a lot of variety.
The greens are definitely trails to just mosey along on to enjoy the scenery. Most of them don't have any jumps, but rather wind through with the occasional dodging of tree roots or rocks. For a true beginner they are a perfect starting point to get you comfortable with the lay of the land.
The blue trails add a bit more technical work. They offer up some tight squeezes between trees, throw in some berms, and they have bigger elevation changes with the slopes. What I really love about warming up on these intermediate trails is that they offer side trails to more challenging tracks. I usually warm up with North Creek and will take the forks to head up the black diamonds: Spitfire, Twisted Sister, and Magic Island. The full North Creek loop with the black diamonds takes me roughly 15 minutes depending on how I'm feeling that day or how hot it is. A couple of my favorites here are Spitfire, Magic Island, Rollercoaster, Bridges, and Gatorback. I ride a Trek Roscoe 6 whose name is Peter. He's a hardtail (and a hardass) with some 27.5" fatty tires. I've always had a hardtail, and I love Peter, but I have eaten some decent shit after wiping out on a couple of jumps here that I've been working to nail down.
The trail head is located nicely in the middle, so if you run into some bike trouble or need a break it's no more than a mile or two back to the car on the double track. The bathrooms there are clean, and they have a water bottle fill station; because of this you don't need to carry water, though for my fellow sissy's out there I do recommend... I overheat easy and become a baby if I don't have some water.
On my second time mountain biking Alafia River State Park I met Bob. I made it to the park around midday and parked in one of the last shady areas next to a smaller car and started getting all of my crap ready. I was a bit tired and already hot, so I was thinking I was just going to be taking it easy.. can you see where this is going? Bob happened to be the owner of the car next to me, and as I was getting my stuff ready, he struck up a conversation with me about being from Montana (my plates are still Montana).
Bob is a later middle-aged man, and he is so super sweet - he tells me his life story as we get ready and is a great conversationalist. As he's finishing up, he asks if I want to ride with him. I hem and haw and tell him I've still got a few minutes to finish my stuff, so you go on ahead of me and I'll see you out on the trails, but he tells me that it's not a problem he'll wait for me out at the berm (a practice area at the start of North Creek). He was a cool guy, and I didn't want to be a jerk, so I said, "Ok, Bob, I'll see you there in just a minute."
So, I meet him out there and we take off with me behind him, and at first, I was thinking to myself, "Ok, Bob." Then it became, "OK, Bob." Then it was, "OKAY, BOB!"
Somewhere in the middle of our ride we stopped for a quick break, and I was sucking down the H2O like I was dying. Bob wasn't carrying any water, so I offered him some. He said no thanks, he had had a big aloe drink before starting - all I could think was "Oh sweet baby Jane of course you drink aloe water." We rode for almost 2 hours nonstop in that midday, mid-summer, Florida heat, and the whole time he was kicking my surplus ass. We were nearing the end and he tells me he has one more trail that he wants to go on, and I'm thinking to myself, "Hell yes, buck up, Abbi. One more, go big." That one more was Rollercoaster with a couple of side-shoots, which turned into 2+ miles. I was about to be a whiner with - "Bob! Where's the damn car?!"
Needless to say Bob goes hard. Bob kicked my ass, and it was awesome! Even though I had been once before, Bob gave me the best introduction to mountain biking Alafia River State Park. The man gave me some great lessons, and I still use the route he takes when I go by myself.
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