Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive on a Motorcycle Review / Overview | Gator Country on a Motorcycle

Hey fellow riders, today we're on our way to a gravel trail here in Central Florida. I'm on the 850GS. Let's go check it out. Starting right now on Motor Travel USA. Okay, so on the north shore of Lake Apopka here in Central Florida, where they used to have a ton of muck farms that kind of decimated the lake, they've been cleaning it up and they've kind of turned it into a wildlife sanctuary. They have bike trails, which you might be able to see there, that you can ride along the north end of the lake. But they also have a gravel path up here. It's the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive. And I don't anticipate this one being very difficult or anything. It's pretty much a straight path. It's there so you can see the wildlife, the gators, the birds. But if I remember correctly, and hopefully I do, it's mostly hard packed gravel. I don't really want to drive on sand yet. And it's not crazy speed either. I think it's like a 10 or 15 mile an hour speed limit throughout. But I'm looking forward to it. Another reason I wanted a relatively simple one. I haven't put any crash protection yet on the 850 GS. And I want to minimize my chances of going down. This is an awesome area. If you're not from here, or even if you are looking for somewhere pretty nice to ride. The whole north shore of Lake Apopka, still a bunch of farms, undeveloped. But as you're seeing, as I'm driving here, you might be seeing more and more housing developments going up. But for right now, it's a really nice ride. But I did go over the bike last night. Made sure everything was ready to do this. Fluid stopped off, chain slack, checked. Just so you know, this Lake Apopka wildlife drive is only open Friday, Saturdays and Sundays. So plan accordingly. It can get a little busy. I've driven here in a car. And you can, people come to photograph wildlife. It's a huge bird sanctuary. All right, let's go check it out. There's a right now, it's some gravel, but it also seems like it might've been paved at some point. It's actually gorgeous out here right now. It's a little cool, 60 degrees. So there are some big divots in the road that you have to keep an eye out for. Nothing too bad so far. Oh, and if you're curious what I'm riding with, I have my Climb Latitude jacket and pants on. I wanted to make sure I was protected in case of a fall and because it's a little cool out. Yeah. So for Lake Apopka, it used to be a huge tourist destination, but the farms in the Northern section used to pump all their wastewater with fertilizer into the lake. So it, over the years, it has spawned huge blooms of algae. Over the years, they've been trying to restore it, but there's still a lot of work to do. It's a beautiful lake. It's unfortunate. I could see how it was a tourist destination. Rocks on this section. Absolutely gorgeous day to be doing this. I would highly recommend this. If you just purchased an adventure bike and you want to test it out, don't feel like doing heavy duty off-road right off the bat, come to the Lake Apopka Wildlife Trail. There's been nothing hairy so far. A little sand here and there, but nothing extremely deep. Really the biggest thing I've seen are the huge divots and the west loop, all the rocks. And the good thing about this trail is where you come out, there's a bunch of great places to ride on road. So this is really more of an exit. It seems there's, we've kind of lost the wildlife aspect of it. I'd have to think the exit is up here shortly. Yep. There it is. So that was pretty cool. That's exactly what I was looking for. Probably do it a couple more times, but I do want to find some other trails to go on. But yeah, it's about 11 miles long. The posted speed limit was 10 miles an hour. So hypothetically it should take you an hour or two, depending on how much you stop and sightsee and photograph. And if you go around lunchtime and go to the right after the exit, you'll end up on a pretty major road here in central Florida that has pretty much any food place you could imagine. I hope you enjoyed this little look and review of the Lake Apopka Wildlife Trail. I would recommend it. Again, if you're looking for something thrilling, you're not going to enjoy it. But if you are looking for something a little unique, if you like nature, if you're looking kind of for a leisurely ride, it's the perfect thing. Super straight roads, the quality of the trail is pretty good, and you can see a ton of wildlife. Now, if you liked the video, please give it a thumbs up. Also subscribe to the channel. I'll have a lot more videos like this coming up. I definitely appreciate you guys watching. Now let's go explore!