Coastal and Ocklockonee Bay Trails Ride August 14, 2024

I rode the Coastal Trail east from the Magnuson Hotel in Medart, FL, but my Bafang unit kept losing power, so I returned after a half mile to troubleshoot it at the hotel. The connections were good, but the battery balancer unit was bad. So, I disconnected it and used one battery connection. Problem solved. I resumed my ride and was very pleasantly surprised by the mostly shaded trail set back from the road behind trees with lots of fun trail curves along a straight road. I rode to the Ecolockonee Bay Trail in Panacea, riding east to Mashes Sand Beach and then west through the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge to the rail depot trailhead in Sopchoppy. There was utility pole work in two locations on the trail in the SMNWR. I stopped at the Panacea trailhead and the Woolley waterfront park on the way back. In 50 miles, I encountered one bicyclist, one runner. and four walkers on the beautiful and wide trail. I saw two deer and one white squirrel. This was a very enjoyable ride on excellent trails, in spite of sand covering the trail in several places and the utility work. The roads were lightly traveled on a weekday, so it was no problem to leave the trail when needed. There were several long trail bridges over marshes-no expense was spared in building this trail. Trail signage could be improved, especially in downtown Panacea and for trailheads with restroom facilities. Awesome trail that exceeded my expectations.