Eleven Days at Ocean Pond in Osceola NF

The weather has not been the best this year. This week started very cool but sunny. When it finally warmed up on Thursday we took a 14 miles ride around the lake.

The map above above shows the various bike routes that we have taken. Most are on sandy forest roads and a few are on paved park roads without much traffic.

We stopped by the Train Station Museum in Olustee but it was closed. The sandy roads were not too bad this year and we visited the rustic Hog Pen camp, which keeps getting bigger each year but it only has a pit toilet and no water for $2/night. It was full.

On Friday we took a ride over  to Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park. Each year they say a bigger visitor center is coming but nothing yet. This year they had an excellent new movie that described the one day battle where the Confederate troops drove back the Union army back to Jacksonville. Each February the have the largest reenactment in the Southeast. We stopped by another rustic but popular campground called Cobb to complete our 12 mile bike ride. It was also full. After a very rainy weekend we decided to go around the lake again on Tuesday for a 13 mile ride. We stayed on the main highway to avoid some of the sandy roads but because of the rain the road north was very hard to pedal through the sand so our speed on that road was cut in half.

The map on the left shows our routes from 1.Okefenokee (Stephen Foster SP) to 2.Ocean Pond NF Campground near Lake City, then on Thursday to paddle the Ichetucknee Springs River and then over to camp at 3.O'Leno State Park and then to 4.Payne's Prairie State Park just outside of Gainesville for next weekend.

The distance as the crow flies is only 80 miles but by our routes it is about 175 miles.

This part of Florida is very scenic but on the cool side in November. It could go down to freezing and as high as the low 80’s. But for biking and canoeing, temperatures in low 60’s are great.

It’s been cooler and wetter then normal so far this year, if it were not for the camping reservations we made we should of headed south sooner. It’s better to be reservation free to remain flexible but the further south you travel the harder it is to find a campsite.