Friday, January 11, 2013

Haulover Canal




Love In The Jungle
Manatees make sounds when mating that I have never heard before. To describe these sounds would be difficult, to say the least. They snort and blow out spume and make a kind of bleating sound, not calf-like, but close. It has an odd, almost human quality. They thrash about on the surface, big and slow and they are like little whales. They certainly look as though they are enjoying themselves, here in the deep cut of the Haulover Canal, one of my favorite Florida Places.

A New-Found Clarity
The water, finally shed of its damnable summer algae bloom, is clear and enticing after a strong twenty-five mile bicycle ride into a gentle southeast headwind. Here on the bank of the canal the thin water is clear and as it falls off into the deeper water of the channel it shades through a spectrum of ever-deeper blues until it is purple and cool and a kind of a mystery to a happy cyclist who is here today, in the heart of a place that he loves, a place that makes him smile no matter what direction he looks.


I Am Not Alone
A young dolphin breaks clear of the surface just a dozen feet from where I sit, then arcs rapidly back into the water. He is on a school of bait fish, slicing again and again through the little silver cloud that darts erratically about. They don't stand a chance.

Haulover canal two



I look around for the rest of the pod. Usually, there are three or four more tursiops keeping company on these hunter/gatherer excursions, but today this young brave is alone, it would seem; alone but enjoying himself nonetheless. I am enjoying myself also. This is a good place to be and I am happy to be here.


Listen
In the sad and lopsided year that was 2012, a sorry and awkward election year, a year of a slaughter of children and of failed promises and maybe a dimming of hope;  in a kind of a year of lethargy and of pedaling clogged avenues toward elusive truth and joy and light it seems that I rode my bicycle 500 miles less than I did in the year 2011. This lessening of joy, perhaps, is a result of this not-riding.  Is there a chance that a perverse god in some side-show heaven somewhere far, far away has placed the happiness of a planet on the shoulders of a single cyclist?  If so, wouldn't He tell me?  If I had ridden 500 more miles in 2012 would things have been better?  Well...

Perhaps.  If perception is reality, then from the point of view of me, that single cyclist, the number of miles I am riding has a dramatic effect on how I view the world.


Sorry about the Slacking
So here in the new year, this year of the future, a time of perhaps renewed hope and promises kept, maybe;  this new season of the year 2013,  I have determined to fix that problem, and to ride more.  If by riding more miles I somehow help the rest of the planet then  I want a statue built somewhere in my memory and if that is too much to ask then perhaps a McDonald's Happy Meal in my honor...




OK
Things have changed and perhaps (probably) it is up to me.  But I don't know what to do.  I am without answers but there is a Voice, a source of light, a glimmer of promise and a far off, lonesome note of hope, a hint of what to do about it and that Voice says ride.  Home, hearth, dog, family, comfort....already these things are fading as the truth claws its way to the surface of my conciousness and it says ride, boy.  It's all ya got.


There Is Work To Do
That teenage dolphin has chased the bait pod further out into the vastness of the Indian River and those manatees are also gone. I hope they were successful in their endeavor. We seem to have a manatee shortage here in Florida. I get up from the sun-warmed sand beside the canal, put my pen and notebook back into my Goodwill messenger bag and dust the sand from my shorts. I turn back to my bicycle and pause for a moment to just look at her. Sitting in dappled sunlight against a baby palm tree, my red and black gloves lying on the saddle, waiting; my bike is waiting here beside the Indian River and far off on the distant horizon I can see the vague image of the Vehicle Assembly Building, the place where the Space Shuttles were put together. It is unavoidable not to ponder for a moment the long strange trip from bicycle to spaceship. But what of that? Today will have pondering enough, of that I am certain, but that is not my task. My self-imposed chore for the day is to ride the lonesome road of the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge  some twenty-five miles from the Whispering Pines Trailer Park to the scenic Haulover Canal. Upon arrival, I am to spend an hour poking around the area, seeing what I usually don't see because this is, for me, normally just a waypoint as I pedal further south in search of the elusive Big Miles.  It is up to me.

 
A Good Sign
I am diligent. I saddle up, slow-ride the dirt road back to the drawbridge, then ride across. At the southern base of the bridge is a dirt trail that runs along the side of the canal. A steel barrier has been installed at the head of the trail: NO MOTOR VEHICLES, it says. HAH! I love that sign! No Motor Vehicles, indeed! I lift my bike over the low railing, climb back into the saddle, hit a couple strokes to get my chain into the biggest rear cog and then:  I pedal slowly and alone down the trail.  

This is the stuff! This is it! I have put away pen and pad, for now.  Now it is riding.   Right now it is about no cars and a smooth dirt trail alongside these crystal waters filled with mystery and life; a place of primordial creatures procreating, a place of dancing dolphins and also a place of one old cyclist, pedaling slowly and steadily ever deeper towards home, ever deeper into the heart of this old Florida Place,  this place that is his home.
 
Haulover canal one
 

 
Whispering Pines Trailer Park 
#113





















24 comments:

  1. I hope they were happy noises; they were mating, after all.

    Nice word pictures in this one, TJ. Keep it coming. I like where you're heading, both on the wheels, and on the booger.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Brian. I think the pictures are pretty cool, but I like the posts without pictures also...just a straight narrative. I will probably continue to mix them up.

      tj

      Delete
  2. Thanks for taking us along on the ride TPC, its 30 degrees here in Seattle, cold for us, and hearing about dolphins and manatees and palm trees warms my cycling soul.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can't even begin to grasp the concept, Ryan. Right now outside the sun is shining, it is 76 degrees and I am gettijng ready to run some errands, by bicycle, of course, in a t-shirt, shorts and sandals.

      Florida is a wacky place, but at least it is WARM and wacky.

      tj

      Delete
  3. Oh yeah, thanks for sharing your ride, narrative and pictures. An occasional ride share keeps all of us cold weather types in touch with how it is in a warm place.
    65 days to the first day of spring...that's not too long, is it??
    I also like where you are heading with your riding. Sounds like a good place to me.
    Jim

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sixty-five days goes by like nothing Jim. I would really like to do a little summertime riding in the Rockies. I guess. The hills and the altitude might be to much for a flatlander like me.

    tj

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great write up of what sounds like a glorious day. I wish we'd get out of this cold snap here in the southwest. Only been on the bike twice so far this year. Hope to get out more once we get warmer temps and winds less than the 50 mph gusts we've had recently.

    keep riding and writing.

    Dan

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks, Dan! The weather here has been just perfect all week. I'm taking advantage of it while I can. I went out in some pretty powerful gusts a while back and while it was a wild ride and kinda fun, I would never do it again, at least not on purpose. Thanks, as always, for your support.

    tj

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sometimes I am a manatee. Sometimes I am a cyclist. I prefer both.
    Yer pal
    Zig

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Zig! Both things have a lot in common. Today, Saturday, I venture south on the other side of the Lagoon, along the Beach road to a vast National Park that I have not been to in 20 years. I expect to see kayakers, tigers and bares.
      (There is a nude beach there)

      I will file my report upon my returm.

      tj

      Delete
  8. TJ,

    Now that sounds like a ride I could enjoy. Watching the wildlife really makes you wonder if having these great big brains is an advantage or handicap.

    Glad to see you back on your bike. Hope to get some saddle time myself this weekend - even if it is on pavement.

    Keep on riding.

    Steve Z

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There is a part two to that post, Steve, that involves what I saw and did along the trail. It involves coyotes and deer and racoons and me. Soon.

      tj

      Delete
  9. Wayward! Anytime, Brother! I believe you have my email...if not and everyone else, it is trailerparkcyclist at gmail dot com.

    tj

    ReplyDelete
  10. When we sailed down the coast I had never seen a dolphin. Somewhere near Florida we were anchored and enjoying a after dinner cocktail when something bumped into the boat and kinda sprayed water. After my heart went back to normal I realized it was dolphins playing with us.They are very cool animals and we enjoyed them all the way to Melbourne..
    Doug

    ReplyDelete
  11. Doug, I have dolphin stories that would curl your hair. I have been swamped by dolphins, run into dolphins with my hobie, I have spoken to them on the side of the road where it runs alongside the lagoon...it may be the redeeming factor of my existence that dolphins have always been here in my life and yet one more reason that I will never leave this place. I can see a dolphin anytime I want to, some of them I know on sight by their battle scars and some I just know by the gleam in their eye. Come on down and i will show you.

    tj

    ReplyDelete
  12. I have also never seen a dolphin, except Flipper on TV and the ones when we took our kids to Sea World many years ago on a California vacation trip.
    I really like the wildlife while riding thing. You tend to take for granted the wildlife in your area after seeing them many, many times. If I ever get the chance to ride with you there in Florida I will be stopping and getting off my bike to look at dolphins! It will be the same thing here, if you ever get here to ride the rockies I''l let you stop and look at elk or the big horn sheep!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I'm gone to convey my little brother, that he should also pay a visit this blog on regular basis to get updated from most recent reports.
    Here is my web-site :: Click On this website

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey! I got spammed! That's when you know you've hit the big time! I'm SOMEBODY now!

      Delete
  14. I have read this more than once, because it makes me happy. I am determined to do more exploring by bicycle, and this will involve going off road to get to natural places, so I really have to make peace with the mountain bike. There will be kangaroos, and big snakes, maybe I'll finally see a croc (but I hope not). Thanks for the inspiration.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dee, under the powerful influence of my friend Nicholas at Gypsy By Trade I have begun to seek out rougher and rougher roads. My old Schwinn is wearing 35mm Kenda Kwest tires and the bike is handling the trails and occasional fire road just fine. The best "wilderness" I have available is about twenty miles from the Park, so I have decided to stick with my drop bar "road" bike and beef up the tires.

      But I still look at those fat bikes with longing, particularly since one of those would open up the 1300 miles of beach we have here in Florida.

      I look forward to reading your wilderness report.

      tj

      Delete
  15. as soon as someone turns of the convection oven outside I am going for a ride on dirt, thanks for the motivation.

    ReplyDelete
  16. My relatives always say that I am killing my time here at net, but I know I
    am getting familiarity everyday by reading thes pleasant articles.
    my web page: backup client server

    ReplyDelete