Florida's biggest hill! Summiting Sugarloaf Mountain
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- čas přidán 27. 08. 2024
- Alex and I decided to drive out to Clermont to climb Florida's biggest hill, known as Sugarloaf mountain. This would be a pretty average hill anywhere else, but we couldn't resist the novelty. Surprisingly it's almost a 15% grade in some places, and goes on for about a half mile. If you've been to Florida you'll find this pretty amusing.
Transcript:
If you spend enough time on Wikipedia, it’s easy to get sucked into the wormhole. Recently I came across a list of the biggest hills-in Florida. This is only interesting because Florida is known for being flat everywhere.
Alex and I set out to climb the biggest of these hills on our bikes, and naturally treated the whole endeavor like one big joke. The hill in this picture doesn’t look bad at all, but then again, nothing does on the screen of your iPhone.
Sugarloaf mountain is the most prominent point in Florida, at 245 feet above the surrounding land. The elevation at the summit is 312-hardly a snow capped peak, but still pretty unusual for the sunshine state. In fact, it bests the biggest hills in both Louisiana and Delaware.
I’ve shown videos riding the North Shore of Long Island New York, which is known for being hilly. Clermont is hillier than that in most places.
For some reason we decided to tackle Sugarloaf mountain in the wrong order, descending it first before climbing back up. Alex was wearing flip flops and had his arm in a sling, and I was on a 36 pound fat tire BMX.
That was a hill.
Those who live by the sword, must die by the sword. It was time to pedal this monster back to the summit.
The climb took about five minutes, and it wasn’t that bad, but we were still amazed. Imagine seeing a palm tree in Denver, or a snowflake in Miami. Imagine seeing a rabbi at a Nascar race. I guess what I’m trying to say is that some things are interesting because they’re unexpected. Sugarloaf mountain definitely falls under this category, and so does this whole area North of Orlando.
Naturally, you’d wonder if there are any bike trails around these parts, and there are. Mount Dora has trails, and so does Ocala, with over 85 miles of singletrack and a huge freeride section built in an old quarry. As for Clermont, many road cyclists frequent the area for year round riding and a little taste of elevation.
If you’re from Florida and you ride bikes, Sugarloaf mountain should be on your bucket list, just to say you did. As for Alex and I, it was worth the drive just for the laughs. We were definitely not expecting to see a legitimate hill in Florida. Thanks for riding with me today and I’ll see you next time.
![The 12 "Backwards" MTB Basics for Beginners [The RIGHT Way - 4K]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/IfwwgTkrTU4/mqdefault.jpg)
I think that is the only time I've ever ridden the MTB with sandals on.... and I remembered why when I saw the massive holes all over from my flats afterwards XD
oh, and of course, because it's not safe
Wow, i didn't notice you were wearing sandal lol!!
Once did a century in flip-flops, can confirm, it's not that great.
I love this goofy stuff, never stop doing it!
BKXC I love your vids
I thought this said gooey stuff, and was suddenly concerned about completing the video.
Bring back some goof!
All the non-Floridians: "I don't get it.....where was the mountain." Floridians: "That WAS the mountain."
Lmao!
To Coloradans this is a sorry excuse for even a hill. Colorado hill is at least 3x larger at minimum
@@nk6197 here in PA a hill is 2x the size at the minimum.
You guys haven't heard of The Netherlands..
@@nk6197 same in Massachusetts.
Since the one-uppers won’t be able to help themselves in the comment section today, let’s flip the joke around on them. Some great example replies would be: “wow your town has bigger hills than Florida? Impossible!” or “Wow, you must be really big and strong!”.
Anyway, it was great to ride with Alex this weekend. He should be back on the trails by February, and with a little luck, out of his sling in a few weeks. In the meantime he can still do stuff like this just fine!
Seth's Bike Hacks hi
Seth's Bike Hacks i live in colorado and i walk higher to get to my garage
Seth's Bike Hacks you're*
Seth's Bike Hacks I live over in the Catskill mountains in New York I do this every day
Townsend Pritchard no it is not wow you are town has bigger hills
I live near there and have ridden that hill hundreds of times in both directions. That hill aint no joke!!! Kudos to you for busting it out on the Fat Ripper! That's hardcore man!
The Adventure Biker biggest hill in flordia, smallest hill in the US
Lol go to California, steepest mountains
Basically a pimple for those of us who live in the Rocky Mountains.
cool! enjoy those blizzards in april and snow until may!
Christian Burrell FACTS
@@marketqueue7236 you're wrong
At least in Florida we can go to MTB trails year round
@@illuforce We have other sports like snowmobiling, skiing, snowboarding. And best of all, we dont have to deal with all the crazy crackheads of Americas sweaty asscrack.
As someone who lives in Colorado. Calling that sugarloaf “mountain” is kinda funny
Same bro Colorado bills are 3x as large
That's the joke
As someone who lives in Alaska. Calling those Rocky Mountains a “mountain” is kinda funny.
@@YTAccount82825 lmaoooo
As someone who lives in Colorado and has "everested" sugarloaf it is quite funny to call it a mountain, though it's legit steep. 135 reps on this "Mountian" is no joke.
I can only imagine the faces of the other bikers who watched you descend.
Nipple
on a bmx
moves to florida cuase it has no hills. ends up living on that road
That’s not a hill.....that’s a speed bump.
Andrew Bratcher a very awsome & larhe speedbump too :)
@@AmusementVision r/wooooosh
@@-73- r/woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooosh, it no speedbump or hill, it be a mountain ;)
This is a fantastic Video!!! I grew up in Lake County and we are proud of Sugarloaf being the tallest hill in Florida. I've driven it, know people who live on it but never ridden, I would like to one day. Thanks for showing that FL has great places to ride!!
Also I don't think that most people know that Clermont is where world class triathletes train and they climb that hill a lot.
I live in a really hilly area, south wales (in uk) so this is like everyday ride for me
Forest of dean for me just down the road
What Happened to Jesus arm?
czcams.com/video/TeW6D5VGsbY/video.html this!
It's call the Wall.
I remember the 1st time I rode it, I had to get out of my bike and walk it up hill. Next time I did it (a couple of months later) I was gassed out, but I refuse to get out of my bike and did it at 3 mph... But Felt like a Champ
For people asking, the average grade for the whole climb is 8.4 percent.
In 1991 I did my first century ride during the Mount Dora Bicycle Festival and rode Sugar Loaf Mountain.
It was awesome.
I was looking at the thumbnail and realized i literally live on that fucking road xD
I'm not sure if I love your vids because of the bike content or because I grew up watching and loving the wonder years.
What I love about riding in my area is we have a lot of hills like that, get a little shorter as one moves north, a little taller as one moves south; encourages one to go into the red more often, knowing that a respite is just ahead, unlike other places where one just climbs for a long time so ya can't blow your top or you're done. Can't convince myself that going hard into a headwind on flats is just as satisfying as climbing either!
I just got my first flat today
Oli Lee First of many! I got one too just today :P have fun changing!
A minute of work
Imagine passing these guys in your car. You got a hippie with one arm riding a full spec trail bike in flip flops and Seth's oompa loompa lookin ass just mashin his way along with a fat tire bmx. Ultimate Florida man shit.
I can't believe I just watched you guys climb a road... yet here I am. Healing vibes to Alexander!
The hills on US 90 around Madison are surprisingly steep. San Felasco Hammock Preserve in High Springs is another good place to ride trails. Not so sandy like a lot of places around FL.
pfft I have to do that every day to go to school
Polny Vlogs same
Polny Vlogs same
same
You must all be very proud of yourselves
Hermeez yes yes indeed
A True Mountain Biker Never Quit. Love Your Videos!
I really like your videos, it's just about the love of bikes and riding them and not about having the latest gear. Great job and thanks for all the videos.
”Imagine seen a rabbi on a nascar race”😂
Lol props for climbing in a bmx, and the other person with one arm!
The narradation always on point.🔥🔥
Hey seth you should make a trip here to bc, tons of trails everywhere, and quite different from the dry sandy stuff in florida.
This video was awesome! My college cycling team used to go to Florida every spring for training because riding in NH in February and March sucks. I clocked my highest ever maximum speed of 50.7 mph down that hill and that record held for 3-4 years!
The area of hills is called the Ocala up lift. It’s just a small ridge of decent sized hills. There’s a decent hand full of caves out there as well. Because caves in Florida makes as much sense as hills.
Clermont trips are always a blast
I live in Suffolk, UK and I know how you feel!
Our highest point is 100m or so, which is about 330ft but those few hills get me every time!
This is interesting. My school bus when I was a kid used to go down sugarloaf. I know it’s been a few years since this was posted though lol. I’ve lived in clermont my whole life and I’m just now getting into cycling, so I’m looking at this stuff from a different perspective for the first time.
hey Seth you should do another hill bombing video but this time you should do it with one of those companion bike seats from Amazon that allows you to have a passenger ride behind you and have it where you test out the seat and what it's like bombing a hill with a passenger behind you and switch riders just saying
love your videos keep up the good work
ps. can you do an in depth review on the diamondback hook im looking for a good budget bike and nobody does videos on it
As someone who grew up in Clermont and recently moved to upstate New York, I find this amusing. One of my best friends lived right at the top of sugarloaf. For me, the area I live now feels like less hills than Clermont, even though a quick ride down to Lake Ontario has a more demanding climb than sugarloaf.
Alex is always smiling, that's so awesome, dude. PRETTY COOL VIDEO, Seth. Thanks a lot, and kudos!
Dude!! I can't believe you guys, always up for some shenanigans. Keep charging and remember to Live-Life-Loud!!!
0:30 I love how he mocks apple
I live in Clermont I love this area you're riding in
We just went yesterday for the first time!! This was so nice!
That whole area looks like it came straight out of where I'm from, Northeast Ohio! That's really something for Florida though!
I drove by here this past weekend on my way to orlando airport, it really is funny to see this place in florida, I would love to live on this road.
Summit and Mountain are obviously loose terms🤣🤔
Love the pads on the BMX, brings back childhood memories :)
Also that Fat tyre BMX looks HUUUGE with you riding it hahaha (btw that wasn't me mocking your stature just the bike itself is a beast)
there's a hill this size outside my grandparents house in maine, it's a nice little warmup for a trail ride
Respect for doing that on a ss bmx fat bike! my coach had us do a monster hill like that twice every friday on our mountain bikes and it was brutal.
I just love it when a person on a bicycle smokes a car, nice.
It's so fun how earth's biomes are so different from one another. My house is a little bit above the elevation you were on and i have this kind of view everyday!
I live on a mountain and the hills about that long, but much steeper, yet Seth is better than me at climbing.
I climbed this today for the first time. No stopping. It was exhausting.
Mount Seymour in Vancouver is absolutely crazy for climbing. To go up it's like 6.5 miles of very steep incline, but it's fun getting low in the hairpins coming down.
i climb 300 feet of stairs up to my garage
Wow, you must be really big and strong!
thatIlluminati _ your reply has more likes than his comment
Hunter Eriksen lol
Hunter Eriksen prescott Arizona???
me too
I grew up near here.... Climbing it on our bmx bikes to bomb it every few weeks.... Bombed it on my long board once (half way down I made a deal with God that if I lived then I'd never do anything that stupid again) was in tears of fear by the bottom..... But at the end of the day that hill is no joke and props for doing that on the fat tire......
LOL, when we were kids we used to hit 70-75mph on our bicycles flying down much bigger "hills" in western Pennsylvania.
5:05 My home town. I love the trails here
Always love watching your videos Seth!
The mountain was the friends we made along the way
So much of Florida is flat that the hilly sections are an enjoyable relief. Brooksville toward Ocala and a bit more north has a little ridge.
The people chiming in about bigger hills/mtns elsewhere miss the whole point. Yea I know where you live in the Himalayas is steeper and higher.
Oh my gosh this is insane!! I get winded just going up the stairs!
Yikers, that looks painful, I should know, as I live in flagstaff arizona, and hills like those, around the 300 foot range are hell, but going down is fun.
Clermont also has the NTC national training center, and there is a multi million dollar facility being built now. Claremont is the cycling capital of Florida
“That’s no hill” is measly road bump to us Coloradans
Any one get that Star Wars reference?
I live about 15 miles from Sugarloaf, and rode up and down it hundreds of times over the course of a 25+ year road racing career. The fastest I've ever gone on a bicycle is down that hill. 56 mph.
Clermont and the surrounding areas (part of the Lake Wales Ridge) is about as good as it gets for hilly terrain in Florida. North Florida and the Panhandle have a bit of relief as well as parts of west Florida, around Clearwater/North Pinellas County up to eastern Pasco/Hernando Counties. Keep in mind, these are all ancient sand dunes or part of ancient seabeds when sea levels were higher. There is a bit of lift created from geologic processes, but nothing like you'd get elsewhere in the world. Florida is assuredly flat by and large.
I ride that hill every weekend and I love passing people barely breathing and how they people look at me is funny af
The biggest hills at the trails in Baton Rouge, Louisiana come from clay mining and silt that was dredged up from a nearby canal. Erosion and the steepness makes climbing them no small feat.
One of my buds lives on that road. Havent ridden it yet, but I will.
Entertaining video, thanks. Can't believe how many replies are just bragging about having ridden bigger hills. Totally missed the point of the video.
+Carl Janse van Rensburg thanks, it's actually pretty hilarious that people are bragging about that... it's like bragging about eating a more expensive hamburger than a Big Mac.
My parents live in the house near the top with all the gas station stuff and coke signs. The camera definitely flatten this hill out quite a bit. I've seen lots of experienced riders walking their bikes up that hill. I once tried to ride my skateboard down it as a kid. Got speed wobbles about half way down and looked like the Terminator (at the end of the movie) for about a month after I fell going about 30+ MPH.
You blew Granny's doors off...on a BMX bike! lol
In my state, the highest point- at 1,257 ft above sea level, has a fifteen foot prominence. You would never know it's what it is if you saw it. It's just a little hill with some trees.
I’m guessing you’re talking about Hoosier Hill in eastern Indiana? Not the most disappointing state high point in the country, but disappointing nonetheless
Awesome video almost to 200k keep it up Seth
base @ 245ft (75m)
summit @ 312ft (95m)
67ft (20m) in elevation difference over 1/2 a mile (800m).
Seth complaining
lol wut. that hill is nothing man.
jamesExiledLegends lmao true
No, the base is not at 245ft, I believe you misunderstood the concept of prominence.
Prominence is the height compared to the lowest contour line around it, meaning that Seth did a 245 ft (75m) climb.
Also some guy in the comments said the average gradient is 8.4% which is no joke on a BMX or with only one hand :D
Very basically put prominence is the height of the mountain compared to the surrounding areas.
Sorry for not being able to describe it more exactly, I don't know how to express it in English.
Sugarloaf is the tallest prominence in the whole state, more than Britton Hill. Even though Florida has the lowest high point in the nation it does not have the lowest prominence .
In his defense, he's climbing on a 40lb brick
I live in Florida and I want to go there so bad, looks really cool. Seeing you died bikes up it makes me want to try it too, it would be hard lol
Sup! In Copper harbor Michigan, there was this one road that climbed to the top of a 1,200 foot tall mountain/hill. I rode trails down to the bottom then rode back to the top on the road. That was a crazy climb. It looked like this but about twice as long and it curved to the left. Definitely the biggest climb I've ever done. My dad was with me and he was dying on that climb.
Wow, I didn't realize Florida was so flat! How do you do much elevation on a MTB ride? Living in southern California I'll typically do 1000 to 3000 ft on a single ride. Is it even possible to do this kind of elevation on a single ride out there?
Wow. That is crazy. Never knew Florida was that flat. You guys should try Cali.
Be waiting to ride sugarloaf mountain when it's a island when I'm 70..
Wish I had known you guys were in the area, I am over in Citrus City. I would have come out to meet and ride with you. I will be hitting Santos the next 2 days, hope I see you guys out there. cheers.
This is exactly how my area looks everywhere
Same Contra Costa county
you're officially invited to California to come and do some climbing! This hill is Cute!!
This is why I love Florida you dont have to climb to descend but theirs no descend
I live like 10 minutes away that's crazy I never knew
lol in Austria we usually have to climb hills three times bigger than that one in order to enter a trail ....
I climbed a mountain called sugarloaf mountain and it's in Wales and it one of the top 5 mountains in wales
Tekkloop hey brother you from wales
Seth your BIKENESS is awesome , this is a new word to band around that I've invented! It just sums up all that is good about bikes and the people on them! So with that in mind everyone check out this mans BIKENESS Glitchy Pics !!
We have a Sugarloaf Mountain in New Brunswick Canada and it has some single tracks it's mainly more most people in New Brunswick go for some downhill singletrack action
I've longboarded down this! So much fun
Just seeing a hill in florida is throwing me off
What the hell? I climb a 120 m "mountain" each day on my way back home
I've climbed Sugarloaf many times...even at my peak (pun intended) it was always a challenge. A buddy of mine climbed it one time...he said he was moving so slowly at the top that a butterfly flew through his spokes without being touched...said it was the most disheartening point in recent memory.
One of my first proper times mountain biking I climbed a hill for more than 10 miles with no downhill
Love your uploads pal, Florida looks like an awesome place to live from a cyclists perspective and the awesome weather, so much better than the UK!
Finally early to one of your videos I love your channel Seth it's dope
Good video Seth! All of them are great IMHO! When you come back north give a heads up I'd love to do stillwell or even glacial ridge with you!
Keep posting
4:26 made me think a car hit you
Holy hell Seth, you got some Endurance sir. i would not be able to Pedal that uphill on a single speed.