Florida's Green Swamp Area

My Green Swamp ride leaves from the Kissimmee area and heads west on a road my Florida Gazetteer calls 531.  531 generally parallels the more heavily traveled 17/92 and in fact eventually dead ends on 17/92.  I chugged south on 17/92 a few miles to another road with two names, Ronald Reagan / Deen Still Rd.  Deen Still has a bit of traffic on it until you cross west of 27.  From this point on, you be in the country enjoying the great scenery rural Florida has to offer and will see but a few cars.  The road winds around as it follows a low creek area through small cattle ranches and scrub brush.  There is a very nice loop you can make by turning north on Brown Shinn Rd.  Brown Shinn will drop you off on Route 33.  This day, I chose to continue on Deen Still all the way to Rock Ridge Rd.  Rock Ridge is poorly named as you are travelling the low country with real no ridge in sight.  It is a swamp ridge, that is it once was the higher sand areas that skirted the worst of the wet and was often used as trails by the native people and animals.  Turn north on Rock Ridge and you will enjoy some very nice riding with very few cars or houses anywhere to be seen. 

The land is wooded with open pasture and you can expect to see deer and turkey as well as the many other birds Florida is so well known for.  Alligators are everywhere in this part of Florida, all water must be treated as if there are alligators present, mainly because they are.  You can also see them sunning themselves on the roads soaking up a little warmth.

 

 

 

Rock Ridge will meet up with Rt. 33.  I turned north on 33 until reaching Lake Erie Rd - must have been named by an expat. Ohioan.Lake Erie Rd is a nice meander through the Green swamp and there is a nice loop at the end of it you'll want to take.  The loop is named Bay Lake Loop and it takes you through more wooded swamp land.


From the Bay Lake Loop, I took 565 north to Hwy 50.  West on 50 then a few hundred yards you turn north again on a small road that my map has as unnamed.  Unnamed travels more country lowland through a small area that was at one time the town of Tuscannoga.  There are sections of this road that can be flooded during heavy rains, but are dry most of the time.  Unnamed ends at Rt 469.  I took 469 to Town Center and continued on Hwy 48 west to spend the afternoon wandering Dade Battlefield Historic State Park.

This area is full of history and sites of old battle fields.  From the park it would be easy to continue west reaching the Gulf coast in a remote area near Homosassa, but I had only a little time left in the day so retraced my travels back home.

I have some nice photos of this ride, I have digitally misplaced them and will post them as soon as I recover them.

Well it seems I have lost the photos for good.  I'll ride this ride again one day and post a better report.  The roads are great motorcycle roads and deserve a better write up.