Ocala becomes a mountain biking mecca

Horse Country is now also a destination for mountain bike enthusiasts

BY CARLTON REESE | PHOTOGRAPHY BY RALPH DEMILIO

The land once referred to as the “Ditch of Dreams” has at last earned its glory, not as a canal to protect precious cargo from a more arduous journey around the Florida peninsula, but as a mecca for biking enthusiasts who swarm to Central Florida from all parts of the state and even the nation. Ever since Carl Rose ignited Marion County’s horse industry in 1936, Ocala’s reputation has been wedded almost exclusively to the equine industry. But mention Ocala to any rider of the two-wheeled vehicular variety and the sport of mountain biking immediately comes to mind. Thoroughbred racing has Lexington, and then it has Ocala. Mountain biking has Moab, then it has Santos. Seems odd to consider any place in Florida to be a home for “mountain” biking, much less a destination point for enthusiasts. One might initially see as much compatibility with Florida and mountain biking as one would Oklahoma and tiki bars, or Manitoba and surf shops. But make no mistake, the Sunshine State is quickly earning a national reputation in the sport, and Ocala’s Santos Trailhead is the flagship. On any weekend, hordes of cars descend on Santos Trailhead, and the vast majority make trips from all corners of the state, eschewing trails in their own backyards to experience what many biking publications hail as the top mountain biking venue in Florida. C.J. Johnson and his wife Cindy regularly make the two-hour drive from Jacksonville to Santos, and they aren’t alone. “It’s my favorite place to ride,” said C.J., who in his fifties prefers to challenge himself on Santos’ expert “Black Diamond” trails while Cindy sticks to the paved trail. “We started riding a few trails in Orlando and Volusia County, but the first time we came out here it became twice-a-month we’d come here, then every weekend.” Bicycling.com lists Santos among its “Top 6 Secret Mountain Biking Destinations in the U.S.”, while Men’s Journal Magazine

“Seven Most Epic, Secret Mountain Bike Destinations in the U.S.”Men’s Journal Magazine names Ocala as among the

names Ocala as among the “Seven Most Epic, Secret Mountain Bike Destinations in the U.S.” For those enamored with rankings, Singletracks.com places Santos as the No.1 trail in Florida and No.3 in the nation.

Located on the former Cross Florida Barge Canal land that was converted into the protected Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway, Santos boasts 85 miles of trails that offer daredevil challenges for the fearless experts as well as the cautious newbie enjoying little more than a nature hike on wheels. Trails meander through lush forest greenery and into deep limerock pits, while man-made wooden features in the vaunted Vortex, with its steep drops, tight turns and multiple jumps, give the trails some of the sharpest teeth in the state.

“Part of the fun is pushing it to the edge of how fast you can take a corner, how quickly you can go over a rock,” Johnson said. “The nice thing about here is, if you want to go fast you have to peddle. You don’t get the luxury of a downhill ski run like you do in other states – you’ve got to make your own speed here.”

Johnson travels up the east coast and even out west for his mountain biking adrenaline fix, but calls Ocala his “go-to” location. “This is one of the few trails in Florida that keeps us in shape to do the other technical trails.”

Will Rude, 26, moved to Ocala from Minnesota several years ago and loves having Santos so close. Testimony to the diversity of trails here is Rude’s preference for the technical rides of the expert trail while admitting his favorite is Twister, a medium-level blue trail.

“It’s 2 1/2 miles long of flow, and you can pick up some decent speed,” Rude said. “My buddies and I, we used to time each other on the track so there would be some competition. That one, I have ridden a lot – I like the technical stuff, but I like the competition.”

For Gregory Steele, the trails are less about speed and daring and more about the nature on display. Steele, 58, came to Santos from Orlando with his Central Care Mission group that regularly visits the park and this excursion gave him a chance to retreat from the bustle of city life and regain a small taste of his youth.

“When I grew up, my grandparents lived way out in the country,” Steele said. “It was nice to walk out the door and walk through the woods where there are no cars, just the sound of nature. That’s what I like about this ride, it’s so peaceful, so serene.”

Count Steele among those riding the paved trails, something very few mountain bike parks offer right next to the dirt trails, and yet another draw to Santos.

Why drive from Jacksonville, Orlando or even Miami to experience Santos Trailhead? Rob McVeigh, part-owner of Brick City Bicycles in downtown Ocala, thinks he has an answer.

“The trails were designed by riders,”

Alex Sioch and Ron Griffor

“The trails were designed by riders...they were built specifically by riders for riders.”

“Top 6 Secret Mountain Biking Destinations in the U.S.”Bicycling.com lists Santos among its

McVeigh says. “They weren’t just put in or adapted; they were built specifically by riders for riders, so it’s an extremely popular destination.

“It’s probably one of the best on the east coast, just for the sheer size of it and the variety of trails. It attracts pretty much any type of rider; plus, we have the paved trails through everything so non-mountain bikers can enjoy the trails as well.”

As part of the cycling retail industry, McVeigh has seen firsthand the cycling boom not just locally, but nationwide. When the pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, unease gripped the cycling retailers as it did the rest of the na-

tion when lockdowns became mandatory.

Fears turned to windfalls, however, as the pandemic provided a great excuse for people to take up cycling, mountain biking in particular. The month of April 2020 saw a 75 percent surge in U.S. cycle sales that was nearly $1 billion.

“As far as our shop, at the beginning of the pandemic for the first several months our business almost doubled – it was insane,” McVeigh said. “It kind of leveled off, but it’s still 25 percent higher than average.

“We kind of worried for nothing. Now, we’re hoping that a large percentage of new riders stick with it, get off the couch and start enjoying everything we have here.”

The cycling boom has placed a strain on bicycle manufacturers, which initially had difficulty producing enough supply to keep up with the demand. McVeigh notes that his shop “went months without anything coming in” and that almost all shops struggled with inventory.

With manufacturers now catching up, the retail shops in town are stocked with the diverse array of bikes necessary to cover all the different ground offered at Santos.

In addition to the volume and diversity of trails, Santos offers something else that sets it apart from other parks: maintenance. The many miles of trails and wooden features do not maintain their condition without the diligent hands of volunteers who come from the Ocala Mountain Bike Association. OMBA assembles crews on a weekly basis to clear debris, fix man-made features and even inspect for areas where trails may need to be shifted.

FROM CANAL-IN-PROGRESS TO BIKING HAVEN It’s the OMBA that was started by local riders such as former clerk of courts David Ellspermann and Todd Frobish, creator of Brick City Bicycles and still part owner, that played a strong hand in turning the Santos area into the premier trailhead in the state. Bike enthusiasts who fancied themselves off-road riders took to the Greenway property due to a lack of trails in the area. That was 1998, but the story goes back long before then.

From the onset, the Cross Florida Barge Canal project was synonymous with controversy and division, and over one-fourth of the project was completed, including large excavations south of Ocala in the 1930s. The on-again, off-again project gained traction once again in the 1960s under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, but opponents led by Gainesville-based environmentalist Marjorie Harris Carr and her organization the Florida Defenders of the Environment, were able to successfully convince President Nixon to kill the project in 1971.

With the project officially deauthorized by Congress in 1990, the canal lands were turned over to the state of Florida, which converted them into the Cross Florida Greenway State Recreation and Conservation Area in 1991. In the wake of the project was an opportunity for local off-road bikers, who salivated over the lush landscape and the abandoned excavation projects.

“There was a group of us back then that found the Greenway property before it was

It was more than just a vision of cyclists that made it successful,it was the knowledge of actual riders that helped shape the trails into such a renowned venue.

established as the Greenway and we would ride out there,” said Ellspermann, who at the time was on Brad King’s staff at the State Attorney’s Office. “We wouldn’t make trails, but we would ride on designated roads or whatever was out there.”

While working for King, Ellspermann ran into Fred Ayer who was the director of greenways and trails with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. He informed Ayer of his group’s interest in creating official bike trails on the Santos property. Ayer’s advice to Ellspermann was to go back and form a non-profit organization, and out of that sprang forth OMBA, which proceeded to mark areas where trails should be.

Biologists with the state came to inspect the potential trail sites.

“We walked the trails with them and they’d say, ‘no, that’s too close to a gopher hole, so move that trail,’ or ‘no, that’s too close to an endangered or special tree,’” Ellspermann said. “The earlier trails, we really got into the lime pits that are around there where you could do jumps and other crazy stuff. It morphed from that into what it is today.”

There were two keys to pulling off the project: one was creating a facility that would accommodate hikers and horseback riding in addition to cyclists; the second was to respect the integrity of the property.

“While we wanted bike trails, we knew we had a responsibility to the land and to maintain it, be careful with it,” Ellspermann said.

“It’s an amazing opportunity that was provided us by the state. They could have shut it down and closed the property. But Fred Ayer had this vision of maintaining it from shore to shore, and it really took off.”

In 1935, the Greenway land project turned Ocala into a boomtown of sorts. Then 65 years later, that same property would lead to a boom of a different sort. It was more than just a vision of cyclists that made it successful, it was the knowledge of actual riders that helped shape the trails into such a renowned venue. With the likes of Ellspermann, Frobish and others back in the infancy of the project who had clear understandings of what quality trails should be, the Santos Trailhead is a mountain biking destination unparalleled in the state.

“After we built it, word of mouth kind of got out,” Ellspermann said. “In the beginning we would see it pick up from a dozen cars to 20, then we started seeing license plates from Orlando, Miami and Tampa, and this was before it really got started. It wasn’t before too long on a weekend way back in the late ‘90s and 2000s you started seeing 40-50 cars.”

There once was a machine that was called “The Crusher” for its ability to turn an acre of cypress trees into a swath of desolation, and it became a symbol of the Florida Barge Canal’s ruthlessness. Today, The Crusher has been replaced by hands bearing simple shovels in attempts to mend paths for the safety of cyclists and create nature trails that hide inside, becoming a symbol of the Greenway’s benevolence.

The result has been a grand reputation for Ocala. No longer just “Horse Country,” Ocala is now a mountain biking haven.

“There are plenty of riders and a lot of opportunity for growth,” McVeigh said. “In a few years, if not already, people will recognize Ocala as a mountain bike destination second to being a horse destination.”