After a great big breakfast at our friends, Paul & Helen in Inverness, we had a short 40 minute drive to our campsite #47 in the Cypress Glen Campground. Silver Lake is a wide spot on the Withlacoochee River. Last spring they re leveled all the campsites and put in new picnic tables. Some of the site pads used to be sloping suitable only for tents, now they are level and larger. We like this site since it is only a short carry to the launch. We can paddle upstream or downstream from here in the slow current.
The other nice thing about the campground location is that it is right next to the 46 mile paved bike trail from Trilby to Dunnellon in the Withlacoochee State Forest. There are 3 separate campgrounds, the first one is in the shadow of I-75 and the last is a rustic tent camp with no hookups. We prefer Cypress Glen, the middle site. They take reservations and in the winter months they are usually full on the weekends. Now only 5 sites are occupied.
You access the rail trail at milepost 9, so you can make a nice 20 mile round trip heading south. If you head north you have the option to take the new Good Neighbor Trail which opened last year and goes to Brooksville. This makes a 25 mile round trip, or you can keep heading north up to Floral City another 25 mile round trip. Of course in all three directions just turn around whenever you want. The trail has a gentle slope in deep woods in all directions since it follows an old abandoned railroad.
On Monday we did a 16 mile round trip bike ride to Lake Townsen Regional Park in Nobelton. We saw one Gopher Turtle right next to the trail.
On Tuesday we canoed down the Withlacoochee River
We stopped for lunch at a scout camp but I think Peggy is shrinking, she barely can lean on the picnic table.
We continued down and around Hog Island which made it a 9 mile up & back paddle from our campsite.
We saw lots of large birds and a couple of turtles and one huge gator.
The river doesn’t have much current but the wind was also against us coming back which gave us a good workout. So I think Tuesday will be a rest day since a little rain is forecast for the morning.
A cold front came on Tuesday, so we decided to stop in Silver Springs to do some grocery shopping. The Wal-Mart there had good Wi-Fi and cell service. I spent a few hours catching up on my e-mail and website and blogging. We found a really quiet spot behind the store, so we had dinner and spent the night. We woke to 40oF clear skies. and we drove over to one of our favorite campgrounds, Juniper Springs.
Juniper Springs is in the Ocala National Forest and of course has no Wi-Fi or even a phone signal. The campsites are on pavement but they don't have electricity or water. They do have very nice hot showers. It is usually booked on most weekends but mid-week there are plenty of campsites available, some that, once occupied, you can stay for up to 14 days without reservations.
I looked up when we had been here years before with our kids. We had camped and canoed here in 1969, 1973 & 1975. The spring does not look very different from 50 years ago. The whole place was built by the CCC in 1936 and has been well maintained. Over the years whenever we are in FL we try to canoe here. Last year they would not allow canoeing because of trouble they were having with a bear so we decided to go to Alexander Springs, but we did not paddle at all.
Juniper Springs is a constant 72oF, which is too cold for swimming except on hot days. It is the source of the river that we canoed on Thursday.
We decided to get an start early on Thursday morning. They do a shuttle for private paddlers for only $12. I used to do a bike shuttle, it is only 8 miles but on very busy state highways with narrow bike lanes. Years ago unless you had a second car, this was your only option and early morning traffic was light. But now, we just drive our RV to the put-in, drop Peggy off with the canoe and I drive to the take-out parking lot where there is room for my RV, if you get there early. The park service then drives you back to the put-in.
We launched at 9:15 AM when it was only 38oF and the 72oF water was a little foggy until the day warmed. We saw about 6 deer standing next to the stream at several places along the way but only one alligator jumped in without us catching a glimpse. We saw four huge turtles and a few great herons. It got to 70oF under bright sunny skies at the take-out. The parking lot was full of paddler's cars, we were glad we started early, we had the beautiful winding river to ourselves. They don't allow anything disposable and they do a cooler check at the beginning, so the river is pristine.
The river is not for beginners, it is very narrow and full of fallen trees that need to be avoided for the first 3 miles. They tell paddlers that this 7 mile run will take them 4 to 5 hours to complete and they close the put-in at 11:30 AM. We paddled slowly and only touched one submerged log. It took only 2-3/4 hours. In the past when we watched some rental boats launch and the lack of paddling skills exhibited by some of those paddlers, I believe that they wouldn’t even make it in 5 hours. This year I noticed that they put mileage markers every mile. The early part of the trip is slow and will take at least 45 minutes/mile. After that the river widens but still flows fast.
About 1-1/2 miles before the end of the run there is actually a little rapid that they say appeared there about 6 years ago caused by some fallen trees. You need to run on the right side through the biggest waves to avoid trouble.
After the run we drove about 4 miles east on SR40 where we could get cell service and get our e-mail. We decided to stay for a third night and leave early on Saturday morning to paddle the Silver River in Silver Springs State Park.
Since the State Park took over at Silver Springs they allow you to drop a canoe off right at the headwaters of the spring and paddle down the river as far as you care to and then paddle back or you could run a shuttle and paddle 5 miles down to the Ocklawaha River where there are docks and a boat launch at a roadside park on SR40, or do like we did for years, start at the roadside park and paddle up against the strong current to the spring and then float back.
In the 40's movie makers brought in monkeys that still occupy both sides of the river and efforts to remove them have been unsuccessful. You will see more wildlife on this river then most FL rivers and the river is crystal clear.
We got to the launch in the park by 8:30 AM, there was only a small group that had just got there, the parking lot was empty and we could park very close to the put-in. We paddled down river with the current for 3 miles.
There were dozens of Anhingas and Great Herons. No one was on the river at that time. It was cool to start but warmed nicely as we were on our way back.
We saw 3 small Manatees along the way. They must spend their entire life here since we are a hundred miles from the ocean.
On our way back to the put-in about 25 racing canoes and kayaks flew past us, they must have been doing a 5 mile up and back race.
We headed off for shopping and are on our way to Inverness to visit Paul & Helen for the night.
We got to the campground about noon and checkout time is not until 1 PM but we know that many campers leave earlier so we had no trouble getting site #72 that we wanted since it is an easy walk to the spring. I can canoe and bike with no pain but walking really causes a lot of Sciatic Nerve Pain, so I don’t like to walk very far anymore. I plan to get a epidural shot when we come home for Christmas.
We had hoped we would get good TV reception so we could watch the Cleveland Browns-Pittsburgh Steelers game but we only got PBS and no internet at all. I don’t know who won and now I can’t post any blogs that I have been writing.
They have a nice boardwalk here that goes to a dock on the Suwannee River where we did see a small Manatee in spite of the warm weather when they are not usually seen coming into the spring area to keep warm.
Along the walkway we heard the banging of a Pileated Woodpecker and people trying to get a good picture. Here is mine.
We actually did not get any rain late yesterday as predicted and temperature on Monday got into the high 50’s. Warm weather is supposed to come back by Wednesday but the lack of internet & TV has made us change our plans and head to Silver Springs area on Tuesday night before we drive over to Juniper Springs.
After we left here on Tuesday morning we headed into town where we could get access to the internet at the local Walmart and was able to post 3 blogs. I found out that if I had walked over to the boat house at Manatee Springs that they had free Wi-Fi. I should have asked somebody sooner.
After two days of paddling Peggy wanted to rest and read, so we had a relaxing day and later walked over the St Mark’s River bridge to a popular Oyster Bar restaurant. Even though it wasn’t even 5 pm and only 2 tables were full it took us an hour to get our food. Peggy’s shrimp was fine but my two little fish were not good. I’d skip “Oust Too” if you are in the area. We heard that Savannah's Restaurant, which was about 4 miles away and right next to the rail trail, had a great sea food buffet but we didn’t get there.
On Saturday morning we drove the RV with our bike to the Wakulla Station Trail-head which was about in the middle of the 16 mile rail trail. It had plenty of parking and a friendly attendant that would watch the vehicles. The 12’ wide paved trail , with other trails leads all the way to Tallahassee and has covered benches about every two miles. I was surprised that even though this was a Saturday morning we saw very few bikers considering how nice the trail is. It was in the woods the entire way.
We decided to bike south to St Marks and then biked over to the small San Marcos de Apalache State Historical Site. Established by the Spanish in 1680 and taken over by USA in 1820. They have a small museum & short walking trail to the top of a hill that was an old gun magazine that was never excavated. We planned to get back to the park by noon so we biked a few miles past our start for a total of 18 miles and then enjoyed a light lunch and rest while watching Ohio State beat Michigan in the comfort of our RV. At half time we headed back to camp to watch the rest of the game. We had planned to here stay for another day and bike out to the lighthouse which was on a road right across from our campground but the weather forecast called for morning rain and temperatures dropping into the low forties the next day.
So we moved up our itinerary to head to the 32 mile long paved Nature Coast State Trail which runs from Cross City to Chiefland on Sunday morning. They were predicting 80oF and partly cloudy skies.
There is a good parking lot access to the trail across from Fanning Springs. We biked North about 4 miles to cross the bridge over the Suwannee and then back into Fanning Springs State Park. They charge $6 per vehicle to see the spring but let us in on our bike free since we were just heading in to take a picture and come right out. We biked about 10 miles on this very pretty wooded trail.
We then drove to go grocery shopping before checking in at Manatee Springs State Park. It’s usually booked on weekends but sites are readily available from Sunday to Thursday.
