Trail Biking in a Sauna

(First in a series….)

My husband and I decided a month or so ago that we needed to be more active physically and that we wanted to see more nature.  So we went on a couple of bike rides and invested in a couple of great kayaks.  Out the door we go!

Our first very ambitious bike ride was in the Frenchman’s Forest Natural Area on Prosperity Farms Road in Palm Beach Gardens. [Editor’s note: Bicycles are not allowed in Palm Beach County Natural Areas. Please respect all posted signs, and try riding elsewhere.] After a morning of walking the dog beach in Jupiter with our three dogs and experiencing the heat of the morning, we decided to wait until the late afternoon for the “coolness” of the evening to set in.  It was about 4:30 when we arrived.

Anticipation was heavy as I read the sign at the opening of the trail that indicated we would possibly see two different types of turtles, myriad lizards, and American redstarts…that was what I wanted to see.

We began pedaling through the heavily wooded park on a paved trail.  “This is nice,” I thought.  I made a small mental note that we were going slightly downhill at the beginning of our trek.  That would mean going slightly uphill on the way back.  I usually care for downhill both ways, but that’s never going to happen, so downhill at the end, when I’m tired, is my preference.  Very quickly, the paved trail ended.  Okay, we thought, we’re on a “real” trail now…..just what our bikes were made for.  The trails are marked with yellow dots and red dots.  We didn’t really know what that meant, but made note of it.  I’m following my husband who veers off the marked trails to follow his own path.

We came upon a boardwalk and walked our bikes across it over a swampy area.  It was a great time to slow down, get some water, and admire the scenery.  What we noticed was there were no birds….nothing….not even the usual suspects of mockingbirds, cardinals, blue jays, and certainly no American redstarts.  We were disappointed.  We did come across a gopher tortoise, nest and all, a little further down the trail.  That was pretty cool.

I, however, was not pretty cool.  The “coolness” of the early evening had yet to set in.  Sweat, profuse sweat, was setting in nicely, however.  The thought that my husband had taken us off the marked trails and thus making it difficult to be rescued for heat exhaustion was ever present.  How would they find us…namely, me?  What was I thinking?  Where was the coolness?  I decided to take the lead out of there by way of marked trails and as anticipated, was greeted by the slightly uphill ride on my way back out.

The moral of this story is 1).  4:30 is still too early in the day to go for an off-road bike ride if you are not in the best of shape and 2). American redstarts usually winter here, so it was unlikely we would have seen one anyway.

However, we both were surprised to find no birds at all in this very natural area.  Were we making too much noise?  We thought not since the noise of the road could be heard through most of the area, which was much larger than it looked from the street.  I pondered this long after air came back to reside in my lungs and sweat stopped pouring from my brow.  It looked like the perfect natural setting.  I think we’ll have to try it again to see if it was a fluke, much later in the day next time.  Perhaps they were doing what I was wishing I was doing at the time:  lounging in the shade, lazily napping and sipping a cool drink!  Let’s hope that was indeed the case.