We only stayed 2 nights at Juniper Springs in the Ocala Nat’l Forest since Peggy does not like that they have no electric power. We can watch TV at night and run our microwave to cook and our battery power never dropped more than 15% from fully charged. As long as your campsite is in the sun the batteries recharge during the day with my solar panels. It’s only a 2 hour drive north to I-10 to Osceola National Forest. We got here on March 1st the same as last year but last year we never were able to get a campsite with power. There are only 19 power sites and 30 without power but have water hookups and 18 rustic sites.. At this time of year there are lots of northern campers starting to get ready to head back home. There were about 5 campers leaving the power sites but even though we were here at 10:30 AM we thought we missed out at getting a power site again. But there were two guys that just decided to leave one of the nicest sites right on the water of the two mile wide circular lake called Ocean Pond.
When I put up my hammock I heard a lot of wood chopping right behind me, it was a beautiful Pileated Woodpecker.
Last year we only stayed here for 5 days and then headed for home. Last year early March was much warmer in Cleveland. This year the forecast does not look so good, so since we had this beautiful campsite we decided to stay here at least 10 days before driving up near Augusta. GA to Aiken, SC State Park. We have never been there but it looks like we won’t need to make reservations at this time of year. It is 5 hours closer to home. It’s a an easy two day, 5 hour per day, drive home from Aiken. It is on the scenic Edisto River so we could do some canoeing as well as biking before we leave for home.
Like the other times we have been at Ocean Pond we intend to do a lot of bike riding on our tandem. We have peddled almost 500 miles on our tandem already this winter.
Here is a map of two rides we took already. I added our last two rides here as well.
We will need to do some shopping in a few days so when we drive over to Lake City we may take the paved Woodpecker Bike Trail in Big Shoals State Park. You can also hike and view the largest rapid in FL on the Suwannee River.
The campsite is beautiful
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your tandem miles. That's a great start on the year! Lovely campsite at Ocean Pond, too. We're in the Orlando area and due for some more chilly nights in the next week, so I think you were smart to delay your trip back to Ohio...shiver!
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