A Bike Ride to Deerfield Beach

Today, Fred and I are going to take a rather ambitious bike ride. Our destination will be Deerfield Beach, some 17 miles from the condo up the Florida coast. Assuming we complete the trip, this will be a 35-mile ride when all is said and done. It won't be the farthest we have ridden, but it will certainly be a long trip.

We did not take many pictures along the way; these would duplicate pictures already in the album. But I do want to describe, perhaps in some detail, the route that we took. So, I am going to describe, with narrative and maps, how one bikes from my condo to Deerfield Beach, so you can get some appreciation not only for the length of the trip but for the sights we usually see on the way.

Mile 0 to Mile 5: My Condo to Oakland Park Blvd.

 

The first five miles of the bike ride took us over a route that both I and Fred have ridden more times than I can count. When we do go for a bike ride, we usually go all the way up the beach until A1A moves inland a block or so (to allow the construction of buildings right on the beach). We continue to stick as close to the beach as we can.

Just a bit south of the next major east-west street above Oakland Park, Commercial Avenue, we can get right back to the beach again, and we usually end the ride at an area called Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. It is located where Commercial Avenue ends right at the beach, and there are restaurants right on the beach where you can have breakfast or lunch. It makes a pleasant, but not strenuous, ride.

My unit is on the second floor in the building marked, in the position where the star is. So we just carry the bikes down one flight of outside stairs and we are ready to go. We go through the parking lot and then onto SE 4th Street heading east, turn on to SE 11th Avenue heading north, and then out onto Las Olas Boulevard going east. From this point, it is a straight shot along Las Olas to the beach. I've zoomed out a bit to show more of the route in the picture below. Once out on Las Olas, it is a block or two before we pass in front of the Floridian Restaurant (on the corner of the block in the lower left of this picture). This is a favorite place to eat; it has lots of local "color," has an extensive menu, and is open 24 hours. We'll often get a bite to eat there if we've taken a late flight down. Another block east and on the north side of the street is the Fort Lauderdale Hospital, one of the first in the city, which is now a "boutique" hospital catering to people in the immediate area. Then it's across one of the many canals in Fort Lauderdale and we are into the Las Olas Isles area.

These islands are artificial, of course, and were built to take maximum advantage of the sheltered Intracoastal Waterway (which is still some distance east). The "fingers" on the north side of Las Olas are connected to the causeway by short bridges; the ones on the south are connected to the causeway directly. Each island is just a single street, with million-dollar homes lining the street on either side. On the northern islands, there are also a good many small apartment complexes; these look like very small motels, usually with just five or ten units. But, over the years, most of these are disappearing, replaced with larger homes.

Lining the canals on both sides, behind the homes, and around any water edge, are boat docks. Being the "Boating Capital of the World," Fort Lauderdale has more private boats than anywhere else, and they all have to be kept someplace. There are not nearly enough marinas for them, so every available foot of every single canalside is given over to docks. For the most part, the boats parked in the slips belong to the homeowners, but there is usually a good deal of additional space that landowners can rent out. Ty and Scott once lived on a boat they kept docked on one of the islands you see here. Rents for dock space range from $300/month for a small boat to more than $1000/month for a 50-footer kept in a desirable spot. There are canals and waterways all over Fort Lauderdale, and they are filled with boats. The larger boats must be kept in spaces that have unrestricted access to the Intracoastal ("no fixed bridges" is the term that is used in advertisements to denote these kinds of spaces). All of the spaces you see here are "no fixed bridges."

In the picture below (where I have zoomed out yet again), I've shown the route across the causeway. As you can see, there are many of these artificial islands, some north-south and some east-west, most of the connected to each other and/or Las Olas Boulevard. But alongside all of them, in every available space, are boats, boats and more boats. And this doesn't even count all the marinas spread over the area (where the REALLY big boats are docked)!

Technically, the entire beach area is an island, but it is a barrier island. There are bridges to it every so often north and south, and then inlets that cut through it once in a while. One of these inlets is south of us- Port Everglades and the Everglades Inlet. This is where the cruise ships go in and out and this particular inlet is large and deep. The next inlet north is at Hillsboro, and we will get there shortly. So to get to the beach, we must cross over the Las Olas Bridge, which is a drawbridge- like all the ones along the Intracoastal Waterway. Down the east side of the bridge we are at the beach. The last major street you cross before you run out of land is A1A/South. (A1A splits a ways north of here into southbound and northbound one-way streets, and they come back together south of here at Bahia Mar marina. Let's take a closer look at this area:

I've marked the southbound and northbound streets for A1A. For our ride north, we come all the way over to the beach, cross A1A and then ride along the wide promenade sidewalk up to Sebastian Street Beach. Although from the shadows this picture was taken in late morning, there are no people to speak of on the beach itself. Usually, there would be many people at the beach by this time, even in the off-season. The fact that there are almost none means that the picture must have been taken in January or February, and it must have been too chilly for very many people to want to lie out on the sand or go in the water. Anyway, we've crossed A1A and are now heading almost directly north.

We continued biking north along A1A, eventually moving a bit away from the beach. Just a short way before reaching the next major street, Oakland Park Blvd., we reached the 5-mile point in the bike ride. To record this milestone, you can look at a picture we took at the point on the inset map marked by the yellow dot and looking in the direction of the yellow arrow if you will click here Then we continued north, crossing Oakland Park Blvd.

Miles 5-10: Oakland Park Blvd. to Pompano Beach

The second file miles of the ride were also covering ground that we have biked done frequently- pretty much more times than we can count.

From the area just south of Oakland Park Blvd., this five-mile section covers a ride along the condominiums on the Galt Ocean Mile, a short stretch along A1A, and then a jog back to the beach for the ride up to Lauderdale By-the-Sea.

From there, we continue north, back to A1A again, and then a long stretch up to Pompano Beach. Another jog over to the beach and we head north once more, with the segment ending just north of Atlantic Blvd.

This section of the ride continues from the 5-mile mark a short distance further up A1A. This is probably the most dangerous section of the entire trip as for some reason there is no bike lane between the northernmost point of Fort Lauderdale Beach and the cut-in to Galt Ocean Drive. I don't know why there is no bike lane, but the four-lane, medianed road is fairly wide, and there is a sidewalk if the traffic is bad. In any event, the stretch is probably less than a mile.

As you can see in the first inset map at the right, just past Oakland Park Blvd. we can leave A1A and follow Galt Ocean Drive, which runs between the businesses than front A1A and the strip of high-rise condominiums than line the coast. This section does have a bike lane, is tree-shaded and usually free of much traffic at all. It is quite residential. This whole area is called the Galt Ocean Mile, and I think that all the condominiums along this stretch reach cooperative decisions on how the street should look. I usually see a fair number of private firms tending to the trees and plantings along the Galt Ocean Drive, and they seem to tend the entire street at once. After about a mile, Galt Ocean Drive rejoins A1A, and we lose the bike lane for just a bit. But it is only a short distance before we can turn off A1A again and get close to the beach once more.

At Pine Avenue, there is a hotel complex on the beach called The Captain's Quarters. It has two buildings and a pool and bar area between them. It seems as if, no matter what time of year it is, the hotel is always busy, as evidenced by all the cars parked in front and in the large lot across the street. I imagine that it caters to snowbirds in the winter and vacationers in the summer, but it IS always busy. On the other side of El Mar, there is a regular hotel.

Right in front of you at the end of El Mar is a very large condominium. As you can see here, it has a pool AND tennis courts, and it is about fifteen stories tall. It is the southernmost of what is about two miles of one condominium or hotel after another between A1A and the beach. So once we hang a left on Pine Ave. and the a right on A1A (usually called Ocean Blvd. in whatever town it is going through), we will be on A1A for quite a while. Fortunately, we pick up a wide bike lane here, so even if there is a lot of traffic, the only thing we have to watch out for are people turning into or out of the condominiums and hotels.

This is another nice stopping place, because in the shopping center on the northwest corner of Pine Ave. and A1A there is a Baskin-Robbins store.

Along this part of the route there are, for the most part, condominiums and hotels between A1A and the beach. There are some new buildings being constructed in this area on the sites where older, low buildings have been demolished. On the west side of A1A, there are mostly residential neighborhoods- many with canals- that front on the Intracoastal. Right along A1A, they are condominiums rather than single-family homes. There is a bike lane here, so the riding is safe and easy.

The lower inset shows where we can make a right turn to again get close to the beach. Then we make a left turn to continue north on Briny Avenue, which runs right along the beach through Pompano.

This an older section of the Lauderdale area. The condos are older and smaller, for the most part, and there are a number of private residences on the beach south of Atlantic Avenue. At Atlantic Avenue, there is a parking area for the beach, and then north of that there are no private buildings between Briny Avenue and the ocean. This is the beginning of the area properly known as Pompano Beach. Over on A1A, there is a lot of development going on, with most of the land on both sides of A1A north of Atlantic being cleared for new condos or apartments. I think that the kind of picturesque, beach community vibe may be going by the wayside.

A few blocks north of Atlantic Avenue is the Pompano Beach pier, and it was very close to the pier that the 10-mile point was reached. There is picture here that was taken at the point marked by the yellow circle in the upper inset picture, looking in the direction the yellow arrow is pointing.

Miles 10-15: Pompano Beach to South Deerfield Beach

In this next section of the ride, we'll go from Pompano Beach north along A1A and then across the Hillsboro Inlet into the towns of Hillsboro Beach and Hillsboro. We'll continue north, eventually leaving Hillsboro and entering the southern part of Deerfield Beach. It is here that we will reach the 15-mile mark.

Along the way, there will be some excellent ocean views as well as a tour through one of the neighborhoods where the "other half" live. There will also be lunch.

The stretch up to 15th Street is not very long, and there is a bike lane, so traffic isn't a problem. Like many areas in South Florida, there is a lot of building going on here. In the last few blocks before 15th Street and for a block or two after, there is one condo project after another going up; a couple of them have signs declaring that the price range will be from "the high $900,000s" (which means that anything but a unit with no view will cost you upwards of $1 million). I suppose they'll be nice, but I don't know how they could be THAT nice.

15th Street is one of the major streets that cross the Intracoastal; so many people leave in the upper end of Pompano Beach and across the inlet in Hillsboro that there needs to be an evacuation route somewhere north of Atlantic Ave., and this is it.

The Intracoastal Waterway wouldn't be what it is if there weren't outlets to the ocean every so often. Everglades Inlet, right in Fort Lauderdale, is one such outlet, and it serves the entire area from Hollywood up to Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. The next inlet heading north is this one, and every one from Pompano through Hillsboro and South Deerfield Beach uses it. (The next one north will be at Boca Raton.) Wherever you find these inlets, you will also find pricey real estate, because the people with the big boats don't want to have to go far to get out to the ocean.

At the drawbridge over the Hillsboro Inlet, there is a newly-renovated park and pier system on our right, and a couple of tall condos and some restaurants and shops on our left. Underneath the bridge and across the Intracoastal from where we are riding is the town of Hillsboro proper and, at least from what I can see of the houses lining the Intracoastal, it is a pretty exclusive place to live. There is always a lot of traffic going in and out here, so it is a good place to stop and take in the boating scenery.

Just before the bridge and on the west side of the street is a little breakfast and lunch place called the Jukebox Diner, and Fred and I stopped to get some lunch here. (Since this writing, the diner has closed, and I think that the area was going to be redeveloped. The project may or may not get off the ground, depending on how deep the housing recession gets in this particular area. As of June, 2008, nothing has happened on the site.) Once you cross the bridge going north, you are in the town of Hillsboro Beach, and the homes here rival anything you might find in Biscayne Bay in Miami, Huntington Beach in California or Highland Park in Dallas, for that matter. The homes are all to your right, and, beginning very shortly into Hillsboro Beach, the lots run right across the island. As you are pedaling north along tree-shaded A1A, on your left you can see the large boat docks and boats that belong to the houses on your right. The houses are all very secluded for the most part, and only when there is a new one being built can you see what they look like, the foliage is so luxurious. If the town of Hillsboro gets three dollar signs, then this area must get five. A few years ago when I was biking along here, I noticed that there was a home lot for sale, so I took out my cell phone and called the Realtor. "It's really a prime piece of property," I was told, and "a steal" at $2.7 million. Gee, it's humbling to know that even if I could afford the lot, I certainly couldn't afford to put anything on it! The houses are all very, very nicely-done, as well they should be.

I hope you've noticed in all the pictures so far how built-up the area along the Intracoastal actually is. Just in the pictures you've seen so far, you've seen easily a few tens of thousands of homes and condos. And it continues this way for miles inland and for at least eighty miles north of where we are now. Incredible.

We continue north on A1A to the top of the left-hand aerial view, and come in again at the bottom of the right-hand one. The northernmost part of Hillsboro is again large condos, and then you cross into Deerfield Beach, always paralleling both the Intracoastal Waterway and the seashore.

Our next milestone is just outside the top of the right-hand aerial view.

Miles 15-17: South Deerfield Beach to the Deerfield Beach Pier

Hopping back onto our bikes after taking the 15-mile picture, we continued north on A1A for a bit over a mile, which brings us to the curve to the right that is in the middle of Deerfield Beach proper. Just a few blocks ahead of us, the road turns north again to go to Boca Raton, but this is as far as we will be going today.

Another block in front of us is the Deerfield Beach Pier, and so we biked over to the new beachfront renovation and parked our bikes to have a look around. At the corner by the pier, the large building is a Howard Johnson's resort, which includes a restaurant that Fred and I have stopped at a couple of times. It is also fortunate that, right across the street by the entrance building for the pier, there is one of the most welcome cold-water fountains along the entire trip.

When we got our bikes into the bike stand and locked up, we paused to take some pictures. Standing just opposite the Howard Johnson's hotel, here is a picture of Fred and the Deerfield Beach pier and, taken from approximately the same location, here is a picture of me looking south along Deerfield Beach. While we were relaxing here, I thought I would also take a movie of the immediate area, and you can watch that movie with the player at right.

Today, we decided that we'd do something we haven't done before, and that would be to actually pay our entrance fee and go out on the Deerfield Beach pier. Going out there offered some views we hadn't been able to get before, such as this one looking north along Deerfield Beach. We walked all the way out to the end of the pier, just looking down into the ocean, watching the fishermen and observing the pelicans and other birds. In fact, we got quite a few pictures of the birds out here on the pier; some let us get quite close. I have put thumbnails for some of these pictures below, and you can look at the full-size pictures by clicking on the thumbnails:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

When we left the pier to head home, we took our bikes south along the recently revamped beach road, which is one-way going south. All along the street there are benches, picnic pavilions, water fountains and, of course, the beach. At the southern end of this reconstructed area there is a small boardwalk system that leads over the shore vegetation and down to the beach. It is all very nicely done. Here is a last shot of Fred on the Deerfield Beach boardwalk.

	February 28, 2004: Florida Trip Day 8
	February 25, 2004: Florida Trip Day 5
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