Cape Haze Pioneer Trail

Northport is an amazing town, whose planning has paid dividends with a really excellent bicycling infrastructure. The layout of the neighborhoods insures that there is only one busy street, and in this case it's Sumter, for one whole section of town. Take a look at Google maps and see how there are drainage ditches that prevent to a great extent the driving between neighborhoods. They've tried to mitigate the disadvantages of having too much traffic on the main streets by situating the town on the interstate, with highway 41 also being a major traffic route. There's also Price street, and others that reduce the negative aspects of not having more of a grid layout of the streets. The result is that the neighborhood streets are suitable for children playing, or bicycling in the streets, or, on Sumter street, on the greenway trails that parallel Sumter street.

You can reach many of the services in the town of Northport using the greenway trails, or the sidewalks along the streets. They are concrete mostly, and mostly in very good repair. There are a few minor problems, but overall quite good. You can reach highway 41, and can follow the sidewalks along highway 41, including dozens of businesses and shopping plazas, and the library, as well as Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, and other popular franchises and a variety of stores, not to mention a few restaurants and fast food stores. Plus, you don't even need to ride down to Highway 41, there are neighborhood stores and restaurants at Sumter intersection with Price.

The main idea is to get fresh air, good exercise that is a good experience and is good for me, and is a pleasant pastime. In Florida in February or January or late December most years, it's pleasant for outside exercise. The temperatures are quite pleasant in December, January, and February most years for bicycling.

At the busy streets, there are crosswalks and buttons for pedestrians and bicyclists to employ to get across safely. This is necessary given the heavy traffic on highway 41, especially, although there are quite a few drivers that use Sumter.

It's nearly 12 miles round trip to Panera Bread, but it goes really fast. The surface is outstandingly flat and smooth. It's a joy if you enjoy your bicycling! Northport citizens are lucky and deserve to be proud of their community, and the opportunities it has created for it's active adults and children seeking to have a healthy lifestyle that includes aerobic exercise at least part of the year. In the summer it's pretty much too hot and humid to do much of anything outside. But in winter, it's really a nice experience.