Before you go, make sure to plan ahead: Recommended items to bring for any cycling or handcycling trip include a helmet, money/debit card, ID, sunglasses, hydration, nutrition, spare tubes, Co2 cartridge, mini-inflator, sunscreen, mobile phone and a small first aid kit. Try to have a cycling buddy or ride in a group as well.

Riverbend Park

Jupiter’s Riverbend Park is one of the most scenic parks in The Palm Beaches. It is approximately 680 acres and wheelchair-accessible with plenty of shaded areas and restrooms. Its bike path is 10 feet wide with plenty of room for handcyclists. It also has a hard packed shell rock path that pedestrians and cyclists can enjoy. There are 10 miles of scenic trails winding through the park, and you’re likely to spot many birds including peacocks. Pack a lunch and enjoy a day exploring in this magnificent park whether you’re walking, cycling, fishing or kayaking. This popular park also offers rentals for both kayaks and bicycles.    For a longer ride, consider taking the Bluegill Trail that starts at Riverbend Park and follows the C-18 canal through the Loxahatchee Slough Natural Areas about 5.5 miles to Sandhill Crane Access Point in Palm Beach Gardens. The trail extends a full 9 miles into Grassy Waters Preserve in West Palm Beach.

John Prince Park

John Prince Park in Lake Worth surrounds Lake Osborne on its western and northern shores. Its 726 acres include campgrounds, ball fields, tennis courts, a dog park and a boat launch. It is a great place for families or friends to spend a day, or if you’re camping, a week or the whole season. It is also a wheelchair-accessible park with accessible parking and a challenging wheelchair-accessible obstacle course. There are plenty of paved roads offering great routes for cycling for all abilities, and you can ride single file on the trail through the park.    The nonprofit Shifting Gears United, an organization that helps wounded veterans, first responders and the physically challenged community participate in adapted sports, trains weekly at the park, meeting up at the on-site Therapeutic Recreation Center (TRC) complex. The organization also offers monthly handcycling clinics at this location.

Carlin Park

A popular spot for cyclists, triathletes and beachgoers, Carlin Park in Jupiter has a fantastic view of the Atlantic Ocean. There are plenty of accessible parking spots and restrooms. From the park, there is a paved bike lane along the beautiful, oceanfront scenic A1A highway that allows for a few options for handcycling depending on which direction you wish to ride. If you start out from the parking lot heading south and turn back before Route 1, then head back north to Carlin Park, it is approximately a 9-mile ride. You can also continue north to DuBois Park and Jupiter Inlet. Before or after your ride, have breakfast or lunch on the beach at Duke’s Lazy Loggerhead Café, or bring your own food and use one of the many barbecue grills and picnic areas. Larger groups can reserve one of the pavilions.

Dyer Park

Dyer Park in West Palm Beach is a 560-acre, multi-function park with an array of amenities, including ball fields, basketball courts and a freshwater lake where people can paddle or fish. There’s also a range of cycling options. There is a 4.9-mile bicycle path that’s ideal for typical handcycles. But this park has the unique addition of mountain biking trails, including a 4.7-mile, single-track perimeter trail and a 2.4-mile single-track course on the park’s hill. If you like to mountain bike and have an off-road hand-cycle, this park has 7.1 miles of course just for you.

Coral Cove Park

Coral Cove Park is a waterfront park that sits on a narrow tract of land between the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian River in Tequesta. There is plenty of parking and an accessible ramp to the beach, as well as bathrooms, showers, barbecue grills, picnic tables and a children’s playground. Past the park runs South Beach Road. This narrow road is very popular with cyclists, but as Jupiter Island does not have a dedicated bike lane, it’s recommended at this location for cyclists to stay single file and have flags and lights on the handcycles for extra visibility for vehicles driving by. From here, you can take a picturesque ride alongside the ocean to the end of Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge and then back to Coral Cove Park, making a 19.8-mile loop.

Handcycle Rentals

Shifting Gears United, Inc. 177 US Highway #1, Suite 260 Jupiter, FL 33469 732.236.3576 Jacqueline Kapinowski Jacqui@shiftinggearsunited.org   Therapeutic Recreation Center 2728 Lake Worth Road Lake Worth, FL 33461 561.966.7088 Stacy Staebell SStaebel@pbcgov.org