Had Bounder..... Have Phaeton..... Will Travel: West Orange Trail

We got ourselves organized and at the trailhead by 10:30 am. We had initially planned to pick up the trail at Killarney Station which is about 5 miles east of here towards Oakland, FL on old Hwy 50. As we turned off Hwy 27 on old Hwy 50 we saw a sign for Minneola Trailhead and decided to give it a go. Much less driving and more cycling time that way. The trail essentially goes from Clermont through Minneola over past Winter Garden. Paved asphalt all the way with maybe a half dozen road crossing along the way and trailheads at stations in Minneola, Killarney,

Oakland and Winter Garden. The ride was fabulous. Not very busy at all, so plenty of room for us with the trailer on behind. Buddy did very well indeed. He was a bit restless at times but we had him tied into the trailer so he couldn't have gone anywhere anyway. This area of central Florida is quite hilly by Florida standards but certainly not by Gatineau Park standards. Sugarloaf Mountain is near by and it is 308 ft above sea level. The trail is rolling with some good little up hills especially pulling a trailer, but generally a very easy bike ride. We stopped at Killarney station to give Buddy some water and a stretch. There is a bike shop at Killarney Station where you can rent bikes and also get repairs done if needed.

We continued on to Oakland and into Winter Garden where we enjoyed our packed lunch. Given this was Buddy's first real day in the trailer, we decided to make this our turn around point. We encountered a paving crew on the Trail about 2 km west of Winter Garden. They had the trail blocked off but we asked if we could walk by using the grass shoulder and the work crew was fine with that.

On the way back, we decided to go around the paving crew by taking some of the local roads. Some of the homes were very old southern homes with huge verandas and big pillars, what I would refer to as plantation homes. Oakland calls itself Tree City USA and it is easy to see why. I have never seen such monster oak trees before. Trees easily over 100 ft high with branches that spread everywhere. Some trees we saw had branches more than 30 ft long. Many stretch out from a yard to completely cover the street the house sits on. Amazing to see!