Day 203 Feb 17, 2017 Orange Beach to Daphne, AL

All good times must come to an end. After delaying over breakfast, we bid good bye to Al and Pat, our friends from Grand Rapids, who had hosted us in their condo for the last three days. We hope to see more of them when we are back in MI.



Cool, mostly overcast ride today, with a few wrinkles. Our route for the day: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/18993625

The trails in Gulf State Park are well kept, paved, and beautiful. A great resource, and judging by the number of people we met on the trial, well used.

 
Marks the entrance to the trail off of AL-161


Here, gator, gator, gator.


Lots of benches along the trail.



We initially missed our right hand turn at mile 4.2, probably because it was blocked by a six foot high, chain link gate. Google maps sometimes does make mistakes. With the help of some other cyclists, we eventually found our way to our first climb of the day, the Foley Beach Parkway bridge.

 
 Yep, needed granny gear.

View from the top






Also a toll bridge; $3.50 for the bike and trailer.


The route was pretty flat after we got over the bridge. We did run afoul of another of Google's foibles at mile 11.2. (We added 2.4 miles getting lost on the trail. The mileage figures quoted are from the Ride with GPS map link above.) Our right hand turn is just before the red SUV.



Yep, dirt/sand road.




We did not fall, but it was close.

 Approaching Foley, AL (not the catheter).


 These things are everywhere


 Great live oak.

The 20 mile stretch on US-98 from Foley to Barnwell gave us some rolling 2% ups and downs. We also spotted some trees planted in rows. Couldn't figure out what and why.



The answer.



In Barnwell we changed to alt US-98, and after a nice descent, turned north onto seven newly paved miles of flat road. With a 0 to 2 mph tail wind we pedaled along at 14-15 mph, anticipating lunch at the Two Sister's Bakery and Deli.

Peeks at the bay through the trees.






Lunch.





After lunch, the day's climbing began.






We did pass a nice butterfly sanctuary.










At last. The last down hill, which gave us nice nice coast into our motel.



Ran long on this, sorry, but it was a fun day with lots to see. Tomorrow and the next day we plan on Uber'ing into Mobile for Mardi Gras. We will be riding again on 2/20.