Starting my second week at Silver Lake

 

Someone asked me to show them where all the campgrounds in FL are that I'm staying at this year. The map on the left shows their location and below is the actual schedule and my planned locations.

Of course nothing ever goes as planned. I just got an e-mail from my next campground, Oscar Scherer, they said they are now open but my campsite might not be available on 12/21 and I should call them before heading down. I may have to stay at Silver Lake for another day or at another Lowes near Sarasota.

The weather is finally warming up. On Thursday the morning low was only 36o and but it got 10o  warmer every morning but the highs each day have been in the 70's. 

On Friday I did a 30 mile round trip to Brooksville on the Good Neighbor Trail and picked up some vegetables at Walmart.

I saw a Gopher Tortoise along the trail. These guys really get big and live for 100 years. Every few days they dig huge dens that eventually become homes for all kind of animals and snakes.

It was windy on Saturday morning but I still decided to go kayaking. 

The water level has been slowly dropping about 10 CFS/day. It is now down to 475 cfs and it is no problem paddling in either direction since I have no easy way to set-up a shuttle so I could just paddle downstream. I see other campers with kayaks but I haven't seen anybody else on the water.

The river is a little wider going downstream from camp and I usually see lots of birds, like these Ibis, and a few turtles but I didn't see any gators.

Withlacoochee River Ibis

About a mile before Hog Island I found that a big tree had blocked my way, I didn't try to portage around it and turned around. I did see 4 kayakers heading downstream with camping equipment. They planned to camp by Hog Island, I warned them but they figured they could find a way around the tree.

Luckily, when I got back to Silver Lake from my 5 mile paddle the headwind had died down.

Sunday I will have a rest day watching NFL football games.

The next 4 days are supposed to be between 60 to 80o and then another cool down comes in for next weekend.

First week of my two week stay in the Withlacoochee State Forest

I'm finally back on my original winter trip schedule. I like the campground, called Cypress Glen, for several reasons. The three campground complex on Silver Lake is both on the Withlacoochee River and the 46 mile long paved State Bike Trail, so it provides access to many outdoor activities.

See the map, I can bike the trail south for 10 miles to Trilby or north for 14 miles and beyond to Floral City or West for 10 miles to Brooksville on the Good Neighbor Trail.

I can also kayak south to Ridge Manor or north to Nobleton.

View from campsite to boat launch

Closer view from Campsite

When I got here I found out that the hurricane had knocked down a lot of trees at the small beach in front of my campsite where you can launch your boat. Here are some before & after pictures.

Big trees blocking the path

Crawl under fallen tree to launch

My first bike ride on Saturday was a 21 mile round trip ride to Trilby, a nice cool day on the trail, I didn't see much tree damage although this part of the trail was closed for a few weeks after the storm.

I watched NFL football games on Sunday but on Monday I headed north to Floral City for a 31 mi round trip bike ride. I was looking for a tool to tighten the Schrader valve core on my RV tire that had loosened and was leaking.

Schrader Tool

A motorcycle shop had an old valve cap with prongs that worked just fine, but when I take my bike ride over to Brooksville on Friday I'll look for this tool at Harbor Freight and buy some peppers at a Walmart.

Silver Lake

The weather warmed to the high 70's on Tuesday so I decided to kayak upstream from my campsite on Silver Lake to see how far I could make it up the Little Withlacoochee River which is a tiny creek that flows into the main river. There was a lot of tree damage so I could only make it about ¾ mi upstream where it was blocked by a large tree. So I headed back and up the main river instead to Crooked River Campground, the 3rd camp in the Silver Lake complex. The short 5 mile paddle was enough for me.

I decided to stay in on Wednesday and make some home-made chicken soup with my leftover Sam's Club rotisserie chicken. I added carrots, celery, onions, noodles and spices. 

The forecast was for rain and turning colder to the 30's for a day. Then starting Friday it is supposed to get back in the high 70's for a week. It turned out to be a heavy rain but it only lasted for about 30 minutes.

Heading back North on Friday to Withlacoochee State Forest

The weather started out warm here near Tampa but then a cold dry spell came in. It was about 40o every morning but warmed to close to 60o by late in the afternoon.

Typical Trail near small lakes and wooded areas

I had nice sunny weather for biking on all the FishHawk Ranch trails. I biked over 75 miles over the last 12 days. 

I only got in one short kayak paddle on the Lower Alafia River.

Finally tomorrow I will get back on my original trip schedule, I will drive about 60 miles north to Cypress Glen campground on Silver Lake.

Pileated Woodpecker near my campsite

It sounded like that area was possibly more devastated than here, and the river is still on the high side. I haven't heard whether any parts are not passable. In the past 30 days the river flow has dropped from 2000 cfs to 550 cfs. The normal flow at this time of year is only 250 cfs.

Settling down for 12 days at Lithia Springs Park

 It was cold at Magnolia Springs, 30’s in the morning but sunny and high 50's by the afternoon. but I did get a short 6 mi bike ride on their trails. The trails were hard packed and were free of branches. The trail went around the lake and past lots of empty cabins. The trail was scenic and free of hikers at this time of year.

I left on Saturday morning and drove 5 hours from Ga to East of Tampa. After some grocery shopping I stayed overnight at a another Lowes parking lot in Valrico, FL, since it is only 20 minutes away from Lithia Springs. I love this park and have been coming here for years since they don’t take reservations and if you get here early when the gate opens you can usually find a campsite. I got campsite #38 across from the riverside campsites which were all full.

I usually camp here over Christmas time, and was not planning on coming here this year until late February. 

My plans were to stay in Northern FL in the Osceola National Forest and then drive over to the Withlacoochee State Forest in December. Since the National Forest was closed due to Hurricane Helene, I headed 60 miles south of the Withlacoochee, where I have reservations for first two weeks in December.

Sandhill Cranes on Fishhawk's bike trail

I like Lithia Springs because you can paddle, hike or bike ride. It is on the Alafia River, which is very wild and scenic. I’m not sure what I’ll run into this year since the storm and flood may have blocked the river with large trees. But I’ll try exploring the river later this week. Lithia Springs County Park has a large spring which is their swimming area. The water flows into the Alafia River. This is another favorite campground I have camped here 17 different times over the past 25 years.The biking is mostly on miles of concrete sidewalks that run through the natural forested areas and small lakes in the large housing development next to the park  called Fishhawk Ranch. Here is a map, I created of all the trails in the development and beyond, where I like to ride. Fishhawk Ranch Trails

Three days at Magnolia Springs SP in GA

On Sunday I headed to Augusta hoping that some part of the Savanah River Trail would reopen but there were hundreds of trees down and they were doing a major cleanup. The TV news said it may not open until after the New Year. So I stayed overnight  at a Lowes and left the next morning for a short 1 hour drive to Magnolia Springs State Park,. The last time Peggy and I were here was in 2018 when we were on our way to Jekyll Island.

There are a couple of trails to walk or ride a trail bike but there were too many branches on the trail for me to attempt. So I rode my bike around the park roads and took a short trail walk. The skies were cloudy but it hit 70o on Monday & Tuesday. A very light rain came in on Tuesday night and it was damp and cool on Wednesday so I wrote this blog.

This was the site of the largest Confederate prison during the civil war. Camp Lawton, near Millen, Georgia, housed 10,000 Union prisoners at the end of the Civil War. When General Sherman’s forces approached in his “March to the Sea”, prisoners and guards quickly fled leaving the remains of the camp—and even its exact location—lost to history. But a Yankee prisoner had descriptions and sketches allowing them to locate the approximate site location. PBS did a story about a group of archeologists who spent 3 day here 16 years ago with a team and helped locate artifacts and its exact location. 

This is a nice clean park that is probably popular in the summertime, but it was pretty empty at this time of year,

I will leave tomorrow for another short 3 hour, 140 mi drive to Laura Walker State Park near Waycross, GA near the northern edge of the Okefenokee Swamp

A big cold front is coming in tonight and even though I’m heading south near the FL border, it is expected to be breezy and high around 60o. Peggy and I were last here in 2017 and did a little hiking & biking. I played a round of golf when we were here in 2008 on the course that is part of the park.

2008 Golfing at Laura Walker State Park in GA

My new travel plan is to drive 4-5 hours on Saturday to near Tampa, camp at a Lowes in Valrico, FL and then on Sunday morning see if I can get a nice campsite at Lithia Springs County Park. They don’t take reservations so I always try to get here by 8 am on a Sunday morning in order to get a good campsite after the weekenders leave. However it looked like many more campers left on Monday morning than on Sunday.