Withlacoochee River Paddling & Bike Ride

We are here at Silver Lake for 12 days. The weekend crowd was non-existent. They must be all staying home this weekend since the place was packed on the weekend after Thanksgiving.  

Silver Lake is really just a wide spot in the Withlacoochee River. On Saturday we decided to take our canoe down river for a long paddle. We paddled downstream and went around Hog Island and then paddled back upstream to our camp.

We passed 2 kayaks and then a group of 7 who were camping overnight on Hog Island. It was a long but beautiful day. It took us 3-1/2 hours to paddle the 10 miles.

 

We saw lots of birds, like Ibis, Egrets and Herons. Mostly near the island, so it was worth paddling that far downstream. If you only wanted to paddle downstream past the island to Nobleton. There is a canoe livery there where you could rent a canoe for this section or have them shuttle you and your boat back. If you have a car you could spot the car and bike back to camp. We have done this, also when our kids were little, I took the youngest and hitched a ride back to camp. Everyone stops for a little kid.

We rested Sunday and watched some football. On Monday we decided to bike on the paved Withlacoochee Trail that parallels the river but you can’t see the river from the trail. We biked all the way downstream to Townsend Park and back in two hours. It was a 16 mile round trip. Peggy didn’t want to go that far but she did fine.

Besides passing a lot of bicyclists on the trail we saw several large turtles. One was digging a deep hole, I not sure if that one was a Gopher Turtle but he could dig really fast and sand was flying everywhere.

The weather has still been great. Temperatures in the low 80’s but tonight they are forecasting a little rain. But we will see, it hasn’t rained here for almost two months.