The Real Florida - Click Any Picture for a bigger view - Blogs read from latest post to older. To read in Chronological Order Click link Florida Trip 2023-24 Click to see My updated Travel Plans
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Monday, March 18, 2024
After 1/3 of a year my Winter RV Trip has ended and I'm back home
Saturday, March 9, 2024
Back to Cypress Glen for one week
I left early Sunday morning to head north to Cypress Glen Campground. I got to my campsite-48 at 11:30am.
My plan was to take the Good Neighbor Bike Trail to Brooksville on Monday. It's normally a nice 26 mile flat rail-trail ride, but right before town the trail was blocked and I was detoured to the road, no bike lane and a big hill. I tried a different route back around the detour but it was still hilly. It added a about a mile to my bike ride.
I checked the river level and was surprised that the low water in December (50 cfs) caused by the Fall drought was gone and the winter rains brought the level way up to 240 cfs. It was the wettest winter ever.I decided on Tuesday I would see how far up the Little Withlacoochee River I could paddle. After about a mile I eventually got blocked by a tree across the narrow river, so went back and then up the main river to Crooked River Park. I scared an alligator who then scared me by jumping into the river next to my kayak.
On Wednesday my daughter Joan and my grandson Jake flew in to paddle with me on Thursday at Weeki Wachee Springs. They got a motel room nearby and picked me up. No car rack so I couldn't take my kayak. We rented a single and a tandem and got an early start so it was not crowded when we paddled up the river from Rogers Park about 2-1/2 miles. We hoped to see some Manatees but no luck, they didn't need to come upstream to the warm spring water.Peggy in February 2021 on Weeki Wachee Springs River |
I was able to leave by 7:30 AM on Sunday morning for a sunny 3 hour drive to Ocean Pond National Forest Campground between Jacksonville and Lake City, off I-10. They don't take reservations but even though it is now Spring Break time, I found 3 open sites in the camp with 120v power, but those sites all had the power broken so they were only charging the same as the non-power sites, $10/night, I grabbed a favorite site #11 and saw that the camper behind me was using the 50 amp power plug in his site, so I asked him if I could run a long 30 amp cord to his unused 30 amp plug. He said fine, that's what he did last week when he was in #11 and then moved to #6 when it became available. I was in site #6 for 10 days last November. Both these sites are large and nobody is around you. I noticed there were a dozen empty water-only sites available when I arrived.
Saturday, March 2, 2024
Lithia Springs County Park for 1 week
River Launch at my campsite #40 |
On Friday morning I noticed that the river had dropped down to 130 CFS, which is the lowest I had ever paddled it. I like the first 3 miles of the Lower Alafia River so I decided to paddle downstream 3 miles and then back to my campsite eliminating the need to run a shuttle. There are a lot of shallow shoals and I wasn't sure if I could paddle back upstream through all of them but I made it. It took me almost 30 min longer going back upstream to my camp. It took a little over 2 hours with no breaks.
This is a map of the 7 mile Lower Alafia River. Click Here to see Florida Paddling Trails Association's River Info and bigger maps.
Saturday, February 24, 2024
Now ready to start moving north
Here is Peggy 5 years ago at the riverside campsite. |
Saturday, February 17, 2024
Finishing my First Week at the WP Franklin COE Campground
Campsite #5 at WP Franklin |
Aerial View of WP Franklin |
On the way to WP Franklin on Sunday morning I stopped at the growing Babcock Ranch Development where I enjoy all the bike paths and have biked here for the past 3 years.
Click for larger map of Babcock Ranch Bike Rides 2023 (Red) & 2024 (Blue)
The eastern area is all new this year. Lots of homes but very few businesses and restaurants considering how many people now live here.
On Tuesday I paddled from my campsite up Telegraph Creek and back (7 mi) and on Wednesday I did a 13 mil bike ride through the neighborhoods near our campground.
The weather has been sunny with temps in the high 70's all week. However they are forecasting lots of rain coming in late on Saturday and all day Sunday. So I decided Friday would be a good day to get in some more kayaking.
Hickey Creek Mitigation Area |
I paddled about 1 mile up the Caloosahatchee River to Hickey Creek, and then 2-1/2 mi as far as I could make it up the creek. I had to turn around where a big fallen tree blocked my way. I checked, it was the same place I had to turn around last year. I came back to the kayak landing and had lunch, then I paddled back to my campground, a 7 mi round trip.
Here is a picture of Peggy and Bob Nicholson who paddled up here with me 7 years ago.