We love staying out at Disney’s Vero Beach Resort.  (More to come on that in a later blog…)  We have been there a number of times and it’s just about the perfect vacation spot.  It’s about a two hour drive from Orlando, close enough but not too close.  This time, I figured I would bring my bike just to see what I could find around there.  Turns out, I found the almost perfect bike trail.

It’s called the Jungle Trail, and it’s actually on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

The seven-and-a-half mile long unpaved road runs along the Indian River.  According to the history books (or the internet, I mean, who has encyclopedia’s these days?!), the road started as a means to quickly transport citrus to packinghouses on the mainland.

Here’s a map I put together:

Day 1:

The Disney resort is basically at the intersection of A1A and Wabasso Beach Road.   So I road my bike to the trail and I had a decision to make – do I go North or South since I was basically in the middle?  I decided to head to the south.  It was simply one of the most beautiful bike trails I’ve been on.  It was wide, a gravel-sand combination and was filled with bikers, runners and walkers.  The road is open to cars, but I didn’t even see a single one while I rode.  I love riding near water.  It’s so peaceful and combing and there’s just so much to look at.

 

I can’t stress enough how pretty this was.  Lots of trees provide lots of shade.  There were a lot of the big mansions backing up to the trail and then you could see their fancy piers on the other side of the trail.  It was great to see a view of the houses that most don’t get to enjoy.  There was also a lot of history on the trail.  Just so much to see and take in.

This is the historic Jones Pier.  I had to do a little research to find out more about it.  In short, for over 100 years, boaters have used this pier to rest while making trips to the north along the river.  The home is in the midst of being turned into a museum/public historic site.

According to the newspaper article, “As the county’s oldest dock, the Jones’ Pier was the best known part of the property. Jones once recalled his father building it in 1910 for local commercial fishing boats and those carrying produce from barrier island farms to mainland markets — before the county’s first bridges were built in 1919.  But in recent years, Jones leased slips to boaters, who would pay $20 a night to stay there on their way north or south. He had tallied visitors from South Africa, Russia, Germany and the Netherlands at the dock. He also counted the late broadcaster Walter Cronkite among his guests.”

I mean – how cool is that?!  The pier itself in the background is painted all sorts of funky colors.  I’m going to have to get a little closer next time now that I know I’m able to.  I wasn’t sure at the time if it was ok for me to check out the pier!

I also really loved this:

I love that someone who lives along the trail would do something like this.  Just makes me love the trail even more!

For the most part, ride-wise, it was perfect.  There was one spot on the trail where the river was splashing onto the road and it was flooded out.  So I got a little dirty riding through, but no big deal.

The people were also so friendly! I saw this older guy jogging, and he started shouting at me…”keep spinning….” and it really made me laugh.  I saw him on the way back as well, and I yelled to him…”keep running.”  Good times.

This is the southern most point of the Jungle Trek.

It’s so picture postcard perfect.  I turned around and started back north.  I could have gone farther north past Wabasso, but decided to leave that to Day 2.  It was time for me to hit the pool.

Day 2:

I decided to head north on my adventure today at Wabasso Road.  It was pretty, relaxing…but boring!  I didn’t see a single person my whole ride north.  The trees were pretty, but that was all I saw.  Trees.  Through the trees there was a giant golf course to the left of me.  But I didn’t even see one person playing golf!  After about 4 and a half miles of straight riding I saw this sign:

I decided this was a good point to get off my bike and drink some water.  It was at this point I realized I had forgotten my water!?!?!?! And I should mention, there’s not a single water fountain on the entire trail.  And unfortunately, I was far away from the dog water spot.  I would have considered stealing some water for myself. So I decided to continues north and check out this wildlife refuge.  I found the entrance to one of the trail within the park, got off my bike, and went in search of a water fountain.  FAIL.  No luck.  BUT, it looked like a cool place to explore so I picked up a flier and headed back south.  On my way back down, I started seeing some joggers, so that made me feel better.

Round  trip this time was 10.1 miles – not too bad.

All in all, a great trail that I would highly recommend to anyone.  I enjoyed the southern leg so much, it’s just about 4 miles one way.  Next year, I’m going to plan a whole day and explore it further.

Another point – I don’t think this will be a great trail for road/race bikes.  I’m guessing with all the gravel and rocks you would pop your tires pretty quick. This is definitely a place for us off-roaders who don’t want to break bones actually off-roading.  Plus, I kind of felt great riding it knowing that some racer isn’t going to fly by me.  It was a built-in confidence boost.

What is your favorite bike trail?  Have you hit the Jungle Trail yet?