At Silver Lake for next 10 days

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.