Riding the 30-A Bike Trail on Thanksgiving Day

(By Steve) On Thanksgiving morning I took a few hours to explore the 30-A bike trail. The house we rented had seven bikes in the garage for renters to use. I took the least crappy bike, which in actuality was still fairly crappy, but to be expected with a rental.  It was a mountain bike with loose suspension, which caused the first part of my energy to be spent moving the suspension.  If you ever mountain biked, this might make sense.

he 30-A is a fairly well known part of Florida that consists of many villages along the 30-A highway. It's about 18 miles in length and sits between Destin and Panama City Florida. The whole road has a well developed bike trail alongside of it. The house we rented was in Blue Mountain Beach, which does have a beach, but no mountain, of course; this is Florida, after all! We were halfway between mile 5 and 6 of the 30-A.

The trail runs near Greyton State Park

I kept looking for gators in the lakes but saw none

I didn't get an early start on Thanksgiving morning, so it wasn't until 11AM that I actually left. The temperature was pretty chilly that day with a high of 59. Despite being chilly, it was bright and sunny.

I promised Linda that I wouldn't be out too long; it was Thanksgiving Day after all, & she was slaving away in the kitchen. I set the timer on my phone for 1:20 and headed West.  I had hoped to make it all the way to the West end of the trail, but I stopped around mile 17 in the town of Seacrest Beach. When I turned around, I discovered the dreaded head wind and knew that it would be difficult getting back in time.  The wind was vicious and cold, and I really began to hate the bike.  I felt like I had to pay the first tenth of my energy to the stupid suspension.

The much photographed post office in Seaside

In places, the trail runs very close to the beach

There are no dunes here, and a longer stretch of sand than the beaches farther West.

It took me about 20 minutes longer but I made it back okay.  I managed to ride 24 miles on a crappy bike depite being out of biking shape.  I was pretty sore for the rest of the day, but then I got to enjoy my football team the Philadelphia Eagles beat the snot out of the Dallas Cowboys.  Of course, after the game, I was more than ready for a delicious Thanksgiving Dinner.

Alys Beach struck me as a pretentious kind of place