Enjoying the weather here on Tampa Bay

Even though EG Simmons Campground is usually full, there have been campsites available everyday so far this week. We did two short canoe trips around the bay and a couple of bike rides around the campground. If you hit every road in the camp and picnic grounds you can actually pedal about 5 to 6 miles.

We saw this raccoon in one of the picnic areas, he acted like he was used to people feeding him and started to approach us while we sat at a picnic table.

Here is a view of Tampa from the picnic area. One note about our location if the wind is coming across the bay, the wind really chills, since the water temperature is only 60^oF.

Wednesday was still a little windy but it was sunny so I mapped a 8-1/2 mile bike route from our campground to the Apollo Beach Manatee Viewing area at a big power plant. I knew the warm water attracted the Manatees but had no idea it was so popular with both the tourists and the Manatees. There were hundreds of both. We did a little grocery shopping at the brand new Publix which is only 2 miles from our campground right at the corner of US41.

Peggy swimming with the Manatees.

Three Days in the wilderness and now back to class A campground

After 14 days we finally left one of our favorite campgrounds, WP Franklin on the Caloosahatchee River. We like Myakka River State Park but it is impossible to get into without reservations made 11 months in advance. While looking at the FL map I noticed a small FL State Forest west of Port Charlotte near the Myakka River. There isn’t any river or bay access there but it looked like the park had a rustic campground, similar to Piney Mountain in MD that we used to love to camp in. It has 4 RV sites, 4 tent site and a pit toilet scattered in a FL scrub forest. You had to make on-line reservations but I did it early enough that there was no problem getting a site. It has a 3 mile gravel road that also accessed a nearby housing development that had miles of paved roads but only a few houses, along with a crowded community of nice houses along the Myakka River Bay. We took two bike rides in the beautiful warm & sunny but windy weather. There were all kinds of birds here but the only wildlife we saw were a few armadillos.

My niece Pat Foos and her husband Tom flew in to the Tampa airport and were driving to Naples, we told them to stop by and experience some wilderness before hitting the crowds in Naples. Years ago we used to take Pat and her sisters on camping trips but they are not now campers so were not impressed by our campsite that hadn’t a view of any other campers.

We had no trouble without electric power as my solar arrays had the batteries recharged by mid afternoon after watching TV at night and early morning. Peggy did not like the lack of shower facilities and was glad we only stayed here for 3 nights.

We left early Sunday morning for EG Simmons campground on Tampa Bay. They have 100 campsites in two campgrounds with all sites having water access to canoe or kayak the bay. This is a Hillsborough County Park like Lithia Springs but it is more popular so it is harder to get into. They don’t take reservations and have a 14 or 28 day limit depending on which sites you choose. They do have an 8 campsite overflow area that has no electric power. We figured we may need to spend a day or two there but 3 nice sites opened up, so we made camp after sitting in the lot for an 1-1/2 hrs. making sure none of the overflow campers wanted to move,

Sunday was a beautiful day. There are paved roads to the camps, picnic shelters, boat launch and kayak rental that make it easy to do a 6 mile bike ride without leaving the park. After last nights 2” rain we are trying to decide whether to canoe or take a 15 mile bike ride to Apollo Beach area where all the Manatees gather near the warm water discharge from the big power plant. A cold front came in bringing a little wind, so we took a 3 mile canoe paddle out into the bay We found it a little rough so we headed back around the mangrove islands along the marked canoe trail. Looks like we will have a few cool days before it warms again.

Damn Government Shutdown Closes Campground

We made reservations to stay at this US Army Corps of Engineers Campground for 14 days. Our wonderful “Representatives?” didn’t care who suffered by shutting down the government for 3 days. Luckily we got to stay through the weekend but on Monday morning they threw everyone out. Even though the place is run by volunteers who were told they had to leave also.

I’ll bet no one ever saw this campground empty. We were the last to leave on Monday at noon and spent the day shopping in Ft Myers and spent the night at a quiet Lowe's parking lot with free Wi-Fi. We drove back in the morning and we were the first RV back. We will stay here 2 more nights as planned.

This past week we took a few more bike rides on our nice tandem bike and we paddled 6 miles up and back on Telegraph Creek. There were a lot of trees down between the two bridges but north of  that it wasn’t as bad until we came to a tree totally across the river. Peggy did not like all the maneuvering that we had to do, but we saw lots of birds and turtles.

For the first time in weeks we have a little rain this morning, so maybe we will spend the day watching all the campers return.
On Thursday morning we will break camp and head to Flying A Wilderness Campground in Myakka State Forest west of Port Charlotte. It has no facilities but it looks like it may be a good place to hike & bike. We made reservations for 3 days. Pat & Tom Foos plan on stopping by on their way from Tampa Airport to Naples. Hopefully it will work out, we love visitors.

On an Island in the Caloosahatchee River

On Thursday we got to W.P. Franklin, Corps of Engineers campground on an Island next to a lock on the Caloosahatchee River. Friday morning two other Phoenix cruisers, the same model as ours rolled in. Quite unusual since they only make about 300/year in a little plant in Elkhart,  IN. The weather turned cool again for a few days but finally warmed a little Saturday.

So Peggy and I rode our nice tandem bike around the nearby neighborhood streets for about 12 miles.

It warmed to the mid-60’s.

We have a nice view down the river from our campsite and have nice sunsets each night.

On Monday it warmed into the low 70’s so our plan was to paddle down river about a mile and then paddle up Telegraph Creek, a narrow winding little creek where we usually see alligators, Llamas and one year even a Florida Panther. It was low tide in Fort Myers and there was a sandbar right in front of the creek, so not wanting to wade across we opted to just paddle to the visitor center on the far side of the lock. Where as you can see Peggy was attacked by a wild Manatee.

Today we plan to paddle upstream from our camp  to Hickey’s Creek and then paddle up Hickey Creek to this little park, About a 7 mile round trip paddle.

Finally–Five great days

The weather warmed each day as predicted. On Saturday we rode our tandem to pick up some groceries at Winn-Dixie, 7.5 miles Round trip on the FishHawk bike trails. We biked again on Sunday around a development called FishHawk Trails. This 14.5 mile ride was in their gated neighborhood, so we just tailgated a car through the gate for access. It was a nice asphalt trail.  But the only place to get on this trail is through their main gate.

The rain we had last week brought the river up from 70 to 120 cfs, so on Monday we decided to paddle upstream and back from our campsite, about 5.5 total miles, to see how the river is at that low level. We found that there was plenty of water to run the whole 9.5 mile stretch from Alderman’s Ford Park We planned to do the river on Wednesday our last day here at Lithia Springs.

On Tuesday morning we got another hard rain for a few hours but by afternoon we were able to get in our last bike ride about 11 miles.

Now we really lucked out as far as water level, shuttle and weather. This picture is from 2 years  ago when the same Campground Host gave our canoe a lift to the put-in. He had just arrived yesterday. The rain had brought up the river to 270 CFS a great level and the park service had cut out a few tress that were across the river. So we had some fun maneuvering and saw lots of turtles and 4 alligators as well as herons, ducks and a few big hawks. The run had a nice current at this level and we made it in 2-1/2 hours. It’s a very pretty stretch, a few houses half way down and a few more near our campground at the end.

We leave on Thursday morning to go to WP Franklin Corps of Engineers Campground at a lock on the Caloosahatchee River near Ft Myers. This is a very hard campground to get camping reservations. You need to get them exactly 6 months in advance at exactly 10:00 AM and you are limited to 14 days.

It looks like it will get a little cooler again but not as cold as last week.

Lithia Springs Campground on the Alafia River

When we got back to Orlando it was sunny and 75^oF, leaving the 5^oF cold in Cleveland. We headed to Lithia Springs a Hillsborough County Park which is east of Tampa. We had lots of grocery shopping to do and didn’t get to our camp until 4 PM on New Year’s Eve. We were not sure if the camp would be full or not but were pleasantly surprised that they had many campsites available including one of the best ones #41 right on the Alafia River which was low due to lack of any rain.

However the very next day the temperatures dropped to near record lows in the 30’s and high barely reaching 50^oF. We plan to stay here 11 days to paddle the river and bike on the concrete bike paths all over  Fish Hawk Ranch, a planned housing community.

The trails connect right to our campground and are routed through the beautiful natural areas and the many ponds in the development. However it’s TOO COLD. Today it is raining, so maybe the river will come up, and by the weekend it is finally supposed to warm up.

Here is what these trails look like. Sand Hill Cranes here, but lots of birds and wildlife are near the trails. Here is what these trails look like. Sand Hill Cranes here, but lots of birds and wildlife are near the trails.

Click Here For Large PDF Copy of FishHawk Ranch Trails