At the end of sixth grade I found myself on a plane with my fellow students from Denver, Colorado, traveling 1,500 miles to Jacksonville, Florida. We were en route to Cumberland Island, a barrier island on the Georgia coast, just a stone’s throw away from that north Florida city. The backpacking trip was an initiation of sorts into my future life of adventure. For a chubby pre-teen from landlocked suburbia, it was also an eye-opening journey to an exotic place, replete with chance encounters with wildlife seldom seen in Colorado: possums, armadillos and, yes, gators.
My mission to map mountain bike routes across the country recently brought me back to this part of northern Florida. Returning the area evoked memories of that decades-ago trip and … More