As Bicycle Stories readers know, I enjoy a 50-mile ride I created called the 4-Bridge Ride -- a trek that starts and ends in Seminole Heights that includes biking across the Courtney Campbell Causeway to Clearwater, the Bayside Bridge, the Gandy Bridge from St. Pete to Tampa and the Platt Street Bridge in downtown Tampa near the convention center.
Not too many people ever bike the CCC or the Bayside, but I love the frontage road of the causeway to Clearwater and I have blogged several posts over the years showing how you bike just a mere feet from the bay waters when pedaling that frontage road.
This morning I biked the 4-Bridge Ride with my SHBC pals Doug Jesseph and Nick Griffiths. Doug and Nick were compatible bike partners as we cruised at 17-20 mph most of the way.
The 4-Bridge Ride is a study in contrasts -- the asphalt commercial strips of Hillsborough Ave., 49th Street North, a piece of US 19 and Gandy Blvd. contrasted with the gorgeous watery vistas from the bridges. We took the Gandy all the way from US 19 in St. Pete to Bayshore Blvd for nice Bay views in Tampa and biked along Bayshore's bumpy bike lane that disappears into a ka-thump, ka-thump, ka-thump of the concrete sections that make up the right lane leading to the Platt Street Bridge and downtown Tampa.
It was Sunday morning, so Doug wore a very appropriate jersey for our ride. I happen to be a believer in this church.
Biking on the Bayside Bridge.
4 comments:
That was a great ride Alan and Doug! Thanks Alan for sharing this route with us. It always means something to me to be able to ride regular roads, see what we saw and feel like we accomplished something. I find club rides get a little boring after a while of riding the same route all the time. This felt like an adventure!
How do you get from the east side of the CC back to Tampa surface streets? Are you using the path to the south? I spotted it a couple of months ago on Google Maps satellite footage but when I went to actually use it it was fenced off with 'construction - no trespassing' signs.
We've only traveled west on the CCC...but Mike Weimar may know the secrets to navigating those fences (including climbing them and throwing the bike over...not recommended).
Is Dana Shore Dr the frontage road you're talking about? It stops being an official road in google maps before it hits the bridge, but it looks like it continues to be a paved road and then turns into a sidewalk?
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