It’s the time of year to show our love for bicycling by not only getting out to ride, but also by logging those rides to help demonstrate our collective interest in safe, accessible bicycling conditions in Florida.

Each year, we ask everyone who rides a bike for any reason and for any amount of time to enroll in the Love to Ride Florida Challenge.

Love to Ride is a bicycling encouragement and reward program that aims to increase bicycling. The program engages veteran riders to capture their miles, encourages new riders to try out bicycling, and provides employers with a wellness tool to help employees stay active, healthy and connected.

Most of us can name even more benefits of bicycling, such land conservation, social connectivity, transportation equity, and strong local economies. And while Florida offers many ideal conditions for bicycling to achieve all those outcomes, we also must acknowledge that our state can be one of the toughest places to get around by bicycle. Further, with the devastation in Southwest Florida, we know bicycling will be even more challenging—and downright impossible—for too many people.

The Love to Ride Challenge helps us make the case for investing in “bikeability,” and encourages more people to get out there on two wheels when and where they can.

My son has pledged to try to ride as many miles as me during the Love to Ride Florida Challenge.

The program is free to users and launches today (Oct. 21) with a statewide “challenge” funded by the Florida Dept. of Transportation to celebrate Mobility Week. A goal of the challenge, which runs through Nov. 30, is to get as many cyclists, bike clubs, advocates, organizations and businesses signed up as possible, to demonstrate that yes, we do ride bicycles in Florida and yes, we do support making places bikeable.

Whether an experienced cyclist or new to riding, you’ll be asked to log your rides through the online portal; you can sync your Love to Ride account to your tracking app such as Strava or MapMyRide for automatic logging. You also will be asked to encourage new riders to try out bicycling. Riding even a small amount and encouraging new riders to give it a shot will make you eligible to win prizes and incentives. But most importantly, you will be contributing to a more bikeable Florida.

I’ll ride my old-school Cannondale to as many nearby activities as possible, including my soccer matches.

Please take five minutes to register online at www.LoveToRide.net/Florida. Also, add your company to the list of organizations participating, and invite your colleagues and friends to take part. Then, log your rides, get others cycling and have fun with it.

And throughout the challenge, follow both the Florida Bicycle Association (on Facebook and Instagram,) and Love to Ride, where you will find more ways to support bicycling, profiles of people making a difference and updates on the successes of the program.

The Love to Ride Florida Challenge is free, helps kick off Mobility Week on Oct. 21 and runs through Nov. 30. Sign up now at http://www.LoveToRide.net/Florida

Bicycling has the ability to make both the treasures and necessities of life more accessible throughout the Sunshine State.

Health, human connection, physical activity, engagement with the world outside, and even the satisfaction of being able to “put in a hard day’s work,” are within closer reach—and for more people—when and where bicycling is safe, accepted and encouraged. 

Across Florida, many people bike for recreation or competition, or for transportation. For some of us, it provides a social life; for others, it helps us live within our budget; gives us a way to reduce our environmental impact; is how our children get to school; or gives our parents continued independence. And for many of us, bicycling is not a choice, but is either the only option, or not an option at all.

For all of us, though, the Florida Bicycle Association has invested 25 years in education and advocacy, helping to make bicycling safer, more accepted, and more widely encouraged throughout the state. The organization has achieved some very big wins, notching not only measurable successes (including the Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety law that took effect in 2021) but also creating a strong, stable foundation for its next chapters of growth and impact. 

Those next chapters will rely on strong partnerships and collaboration across sectors and cycling types: a collective and inclusive push toward policies, programs, and projects that advance bicycling for all. This is work, of course, that many of you—like outgoing Executive Director Becky Afonso, longtime board members, and numerous others—have been doing for a long time, and to great effect. 

In the weeks and months to come, I look forward not only to learning about what you—our members and partners—already have achieved, but also to planning for what more we will be doing together. Working alongside incoming Board President Eric Draper, the full board, the advisory council and YOU, I am ready to explore ways to support bicycling as a sport, as transportation, as a recreational activity, as a tool for self-reliance, as a means to grow local economies, and for its many other benefits.

If you’d like to share your ideas about the future of bicycling in Florida, please don’t hesitate to reach out. My direct email is kelly@floridabicycle.org and my office line is (407) 734-1690. Although I appreciate your patience as I get settled in, I promise to do my best to respond to every connection.

We are aligned in our commitment to the cause, and I understand the assignment. Let’s get at it.

West Volusia County is an area in central Florida made up of what we call the 14 communities along the St. Johns River – stretching from Pierson and Astor in the north, down to DeBary and Deltona to the South. As the connections along the St. Johns River-to-Sea Loop are being developed, cyclists can now follow a similar path to that which explorers and steamers made centuries ago.

West Volusia’s world-class trail network spans through each of those communities as well, much like the St. Johns. With the newest segment recently being completed in DeBary, riders can now go from DeLand and DeBary all the way to Titusville, uninterrupted on a designated trail. With that convenience comes a sort of tunnel vision for some riders, focused on reaching the metaphorical finish line, missing an almost hidden, small historic community called Enterprise. Tracing back to Florida’s oldest settlers, Enterprise has a rich story to tell. 

A brief look at Enterprise yesterday

Enterprise was once the head of navigation on the St. Johns River. In the early days of Florida’s settlement, Enterprise was the last stop for steamers on the St. Johns River. Seeing as the river becomes too shallow beyond Enterprise, passengers were given the option to either stay in a nearby luxury hotel or hop on a train to travel further southeast towards Titusville. One of those early hotels in Enterprise was the Brock House, built by Steamboat Captain Jacob Brock.

In 1851, Captain Brock started purchasing land near Lake Monroe, laying out the streets and building a wharf. By 1856, he had completed a 100-room hotel that put Enterprise on the map as the “premier destination on the St. Johns” and in Florida, attracting notables and celebrities from all over the world. Among its most famous were Grover Cleveland, Ulysses S. Grant, Jay Gould, James Rockefeller, Gen. William Sherman, and the Vanderbilts. 

At some point in the early 1900s, the Brock House Hotel was renamed the Epworth Inn and became a Methodist retreat for those seeking a spiritual haven from the world and for those studying at the Methodist Training Center in town. Later in 1937, the Hotel would be burned down to make space for the Florida United Methodist Children’s Home, which remains in Enterprise to this day. 

Even before Enterprise was “discovered” by steamboat travelers like Jacob Brock, the area had been a crossroads of military activity. Fort Kingsbury on the lakefront was a garrison for soldiers scouting Native American activity in the Second Seminole War. A network of trails linked the fort to posts at Volusia, Smyrna, Lake Ashby, and points west. Much later the stagecoach road took steamboat passengers from Enterprise and Volusia to the coast.

Stone tools and arrow points found in the area of the shell mound show that native people lived here up to 6,200 years before present time. At time of contact, the inhabitants were probably Mayaca Indians who fished, hunted game, and gathered roots and berries. MUCH more information on the history of Enterprise can be found online at oldenterprise.org, or at the Enterprise Museum located at 360 Main Street in Enterprise.

A glimpse at Enterprise today

Today, Enterprise remains as an unincorporated community in Volusia County, flanked by the cities of DeBary and Deltona. The close proximity of those other cities prompted residents of Enterprise to form The Enterprise Preservation Society, Inc. (EPS) in 2000. Established to protect the rural character and history of Enterprise, the Society has worked to obtain protections from Volusia County, including designation as a Community of Special Interest, implementation of the Enterprise Local Area Plan, which establishes additional landscape and architectural standards, and finally the designation of the Enterprise Historic District, encompassing several blocks of the historic downtown area.

In 2003, Enterprise Elementary School’s Building #8 was slated for Demolition, but instead was deeded to EPS. In 2007, with the help of a Volusia ECHO grant, EPS hired Youngblood & Sons to move the building to a vacant property at 360 Main Street, donated to EPS by Sandra and Roy Walters of Enterprise. Following Several years of renovation and thousands of hours of volunteer work, it reopened as the Enterprise Heritage Center & Museum in October, 2014.

Today, the Museum offers various informative exhibits and talks that cover everything from local wildlife to local history while highlighting local artists, as well as a permanent display space for Enterprise History with historic documents, letters, photos, and artifacts. Visitors are welcome to tour the museum to find out more about its history as a restored historic schoolhouse from the 1930’s era. Up to date information on museum events and exhibits can be found at oldenterprise.org or facebook.com/EnterpriseHeritageCenterAndMuseum. 

Other points of interest in Enterprise

Green Springs – This county park is located within beautiful Enterprise. It offers picturesque walking trails, playgrounds, bike trail access point, scenic overlooks, and a gorgeous emerald-green sulfur spring that was once part of Corneilus Taylor’s property. Its entrance is located on Lakeshore Drive. 

All Saints Episcopal Church – On the corner of Clark St. and Jacob Brock Ave., this beautiful historic Church is open to visitors! Built in 1883, it showcases the architecture and way of life at that time. 

Mariner’s Cove – Just beyond Green Springs and also located on Lakeshore Drive, awaits picnic pavilions, soccer fields, tennis courts, a playground, and a fishing/boat dock on Lake Monroe. 

Barnett Memorial United Methodist Church – This Church was established in 1908 and houses some of the same lumber that was used prior inside in Brock House Hotel. It is located at 715 Jacob Brock Avenue. 

East Central Regional Rail Trail – The portion of the larger Spring-to-Spring, St. Johns River-to-Sea Loop and Coast-to-Coast Trail that is in Enterprise. A bicycle trail that was once an old railroad bed that ran through Enterprise to Titusville. Trailheads include the Enterprise Museum, DeBary Hall, Green Springs Park, Lakeshore Park, and Thornby Park.

Florida United Methodist Children’s Home: This establishment was a result of the Methodist missionary conferences that were hosted at the old Brock House and a concern for local orphans. It is located at the corner of Children’s Way and Jacob Brock Ave. 

For more information on Enterprise and other West Volusia attractions: www.vistwestvolusia.com

What’s your cycling story? Is it in the Messenger? Our quarterly Messenger newsletter is available online for your internet reading pleasure, just visit the FBA website Home page .  Want a hard copy of our Messenger? FBA members have the Messenger delivered to their door every quarter.  Join Florida Bicycle Association or visit one of our bicycle shop members to pick up a copy and use the membership form inside to join!

Today we welcome guest blogger Barbara Giles of Bike/Walk Central Florida.  Barbara originally sent this article for our spring Messenger, and somehow it fell through the cracks.  Suffice to say, the content is worth sharing.

When cyclists think of West Orange County, the 22-mile mile signature West Orange Trail, which stretches from Apopka to the county’s western edge and beyond into Lake County, comes to mind. But a collaborative of local municipalities and health advocates have even grander plans. They want West Orange County to be the healthiest region in the nation, and they see connecting, enhancing and activating trails as the backbone to this plan.

Spearheading this work is the newly created Healthy West Orange Trails Connection (HWOTC). Consistent with the purpose of Healthy West Orange (Foundation for a Healthier West Orange or FHWO), HWOTC will, and now is, promoting, activating, and enhancing the trail system throughout West Orange. This will create more opportunities for physical activity, social engagement, prosperity and happiness.

The HWOTC Steering Committee includes the Town of Oakland, the City of Ocoee, the Town of Windermere, the City of Winter Garden, Gotha Rural Settlement, the West Orange Healthcare District (WOHD), and the FHWO. Supporting agencies include Orange County, the Florida Department of Transportation, MetroPlan Orlando, Florida Department of Health – Orange County, West Orange Chamber of Commerce, Bike/Walk Central Florida and the City of Apopka among others.

From left, Winter Garden City Manager Jon Williams, Commissioners Mark Maciel and Colin Sharman, Mayor John Rees, FHWO’s Lesa Boettcher, BWCF’s Barbara Giles, Winter Garden Attorney and WOHD Trustee A. Kurt Ardaman and Commissioner Ron Mueller

“Trails are essential for the health and wellness of the community, now and into the future,” said Lesa Boettcher, the FHWO chief operating officer and HWOTC executive committee member. “The Foundation is dedicated to providing support for trail development, connections and engagement opportunities through the HWOTC.”

To fund the initiative, FHWO and HWOTC have been entrusted with $5.5M from the West Orange Healthcare District to support the mission. The HWOTC Steering Committee will determine the best use of the funds, accelerating the implementation of projects that support walking, cycling, and wellness activities within the communities while improving multi-modal safety. The $5.5M grant also serves as seed money to attract additional investments in the region’s trails and enhance current and future trail projects.

“With the Foundation’s grant plus additional funding or grants from other sources, West Orange can become one of the most trail-friendly regions in the nation,” said Boettcher.

In a show of support of the HWOTC, the Town of Oakland, the City of Ocoee, the City of Winter Garden and the Gotha Rural Settlement have passed resolutions of support of Healthy West Orange Trail Connection, and the resolutions are on an upcoming meeting agenda of the Town of Windermere.  The supporting agencies are submitting letters of support and participation. The first official meeting of the HWOTC committee was held this month to begin prioritizing projects.

“The trail system has been a vital component of our City’s health and wellness,” said Jon C. Williams, city manager, City of Winter Garden. “We are excited to join the other partnering agencies in activating as well as expanding the trail system within Winter Garden and throughout West Orange County.”

A couple outside of Bike Life bike shop and café in Ocoee, one of the West Orange communities that see connecting and activating trails as vital to its community health.

What’s your cycling story? Is it in the Messenger? Our quarterly Messenger newsletter is available online for your internet reading pleasure, just visit the FBA website Home page .  Want a hard copy of our Messenger? FBA members have the Messenger delivered to their door every quarter.  Join Florida Bicycle Association or visit one of our bicycle shop members to pick up a copy and use the membership form inside to join!