Cool Days at Lithia Springs Park

We left Cypress Glen Campground almost a week ago, on 12/19. We did a 20 mile round trip bike ride on the Van Fleet State Trail that runs from Polk City, FL to a place called Mable on SR-50. It is a 30 mile long paved rail trail and goes through a wilderness area which is the headwaters of the Withlacoochee River. The trail has parking at both ends and two places 10 miles from either end. It has one curve and is flat so it is a little boring although it goes through a beautiful wild area. It is popular for group rides. We had peddled it twice before, once from each end, so this time we started in the middle which allowed us to complete the entire trail, we made good time on the trail and averaged over 13 mph.

We were able to get some Propane in Polk City, did some shopping in Lakeland and spent the night at a Walmart in Valrico. We didn’t want to try to get a campsite on a Saturday afternoon so we got to Lithia Springs County Park at 8 AM on Sunday morning, to make sure we would get a nice campsite when the weekend campers left.

 

There were two empty sites and by the end of the day the place was very empty. Christmas week must not be popular for camping. We took site 36 which has easy access to the river. However the next day we got 2” of rain which brought the water flow up from about 200 CFS to over 1000 CFS, we decided to wait until it had dropped to below 600 CFS before we tried to paddle. We took  4 bike rides on the nice concrete trails that start at the campground and find their way through the big housing complex called Fish Hawk Ranch. It is over 3000 acres and has over 6000 homes, but it has many natural areas and retention ponds.

Most of the bike trails are very winding and pass through these natural areas where you can see Egrets, Ibis, Sand Hill Cranes, Turtles and Alligators.

Some of the trails pass over wooden walkways and along residential streets as well. We are always surprised that more of the residents are not on the trails.

Judi and Larry Fordyce our paddling and traveling friends for years, stopped by for two nights and took the campsite next to us. They were not interested in attempting to paddle the 60^oF water since they only had sit-on-top kayaks.

We joined them on a 10 mile bike ride through Fish Hawk, they were surprised how wild most of the area is. If you look at the map you can see our 60 miles of bike rides and only a few of the trails were duplicated.

On Christmas morning when Judi & Larry left, it had cooled to the low 40’s and on Saturday it is supposed to go down to the 30’s. At least we don’t have a 10” snow like they got last night in Cleveland.

Cypress Glen– Paddling & Biking

The temperatures have been below normal since we got to Cypress Glen on Sunday 12/6.

On Wed afternoon 12/9 we took our first 16 mile bike ride on the Withlacoochee bike trail to Lake Townsen Park. We didn’t see many other bikers.

Then on Thursday we paddled our canoe upstream and into the Little Withlacoochee River and with the higher river level (350 cfs) we were able to go a ways upstream. It is a narrow creek often blocked by fallen trees. It was about a 3-1/2 mile paddle and took a little over an hour.

Saturday was a rainy day so we waited until Sunday 12/13 to take another bike ride.

It was cloudy but warm and we headed south to the end of the trail near Trilby.

Peggy calls this here mountain ride since we have to go up and over US-98 on the bike trail bridge. She never could make it when she peddled her mountain bike but on the tandem with 2 people power we made it right up and over.

Since it was a warm Sunday we saw dozens of bikers enjoying the trail.

We took our lunch break at the end of the trail, it was a 21 mile round trip and we averaged over 12 miles/hour. This is twice as fast as we used to average when we both peddled our mountain bikes.

On Monday 12/18  a cold front passed through in the morning which brought an hour of light rain.

By noon it warmed into the high 70’s so we decided to  paddle downstream to Hog Island and back. We took a short lunch break and paddled back upstream, the water level had dropped to 290 cfs and the wind was light so we didn’t get too tired on our 7-1/2 mile, 3 hour paddle. We saw one big alligator, a few turtles and lots of Heron & Ibis. We never saw any other boats or fisherman anywhere.

 

 

 

 

Cypress Glen Camp at Silver Lake for 11 Days

We left Paul & Helen’s on Sunday morning to drive only 25 miles to one of our favorite campgrounds. The area is called Silver Lake which has 2 campgrounds with water and electric hookups and one rustic campground for tents. These campgrounds are in a State Forest and they now take reservations. However with the Covid restrictions this year they are only using 50% of the sites so we have lots of room and we are not near anyone. As I mentioned a few weeks ago we had to find different places to camp from our original schedule since Ocean Pond Campground was closed so we added 3 more days here.

Canoeing/Kayaking

Beside this being a beautiful area, the two main reasons we come here is for the canoeing and the biking. We are only 100 yards from launching our canoe into a wide spot on the Withlacoochee River called Silver Lake. The river is slow so you can paddle upstream or downstream from our campsite and then paddle back so no vehicle shuttle is necessary. However if you do want to set up a shuttle you can drive down the road about 10 miles to a wayside park in Nobleton, drop off your vehicle and use the paved bike trail to bike back to the campground. You can also paddle upstream and try the narrow winding Little Withlacoochee if the water level is high enough or continue upstream on the main river past the Crooked River Campground as far as you like and then paddle back to camp.

Biking

You can bike 1-1/4 miles through the campground and reach the 46 mile long paved Withlacoochee State Trail at mile marker 9. From that trail here you have 3 options. Pedal south to Trilby the start of the trail, Pedal north toward Floral City & Inverness or go north about 1 mile to the 10 mile long paved Good Neighbor Trail and go west to the city of Brooksville. The map I posted shows the options, the white dots are one mile markers.

This is a view of the river near Crooked River Campground upstream from Silver Lake

Paul & Helen came over to visit us on Friday with their new Chevy Volt. They were so nice and brought over a prescription that I had mailed to them that was supposed to come before we left our visit to their home in Inverness.

We had a nice afternoon talking about old trips to Mexico and the past election. It was a nice rest day and gave me time to write this blog.

Here is a picture Helen took a couple of years ago at the very same campsite.

The Withlacoochee River is very pretty and is lined with Cypress trees and it flows through state forest land without any private homes along the way.

We will be here at this same campsite for 8 more nights. We plan to bike & paddle before we move head a little further south to Lithia Springs outside of Tampa.

A Day with Our Friends in Inverness

Paul & Helen invited us along with Rob & Shirley to their beautiful home for a nice outdoor get together.

    

We all met in Mexico at the Xpu-Ha Campground in about 2012-13, and have been friends ever since then.

   

It was a lot of fun getting together. We did meet here once before about 4 years ago.

It was a cool but sunny day and we kept our social distance so as not to take any risks with Covid-19.

Helen put on a great afternoon Lasagna Dinner with baked apple kuchen desert. She could have fed this crew for a week with her wonderful cooking.

Rob & Shirley are from Martha’s Vineyard and Paul and Helen are from Boston before relocating to FL. So those Nor'easters had to get used to our Ohio accents.

 

Rob & Shirley have been on the road with their Prism Camper since summertime. This is their first time back to FL since they were here 4 years ago.

Big dinner ready for the group, thanks to Helen who is an amazing cook.

Here s the gang in 2020

This picture is from a dinner at Oscar & Lalo's along the Mayan Riviera in 2013. We all look the same, no aging with this group, don’t you think?

Juniper Springs & Silver Springs

We got to Juniper Springs Campground around noon on Wednesday. We arranged a free shuttle for Thursday morning with one of the volunteers in the park. We explored and took some pictures which we posted on our last blog. We found that they again have their perfectly good boardwalk closed, claiming there are some rotted supports. We walked it and found it fine, it is the prettiest walk in the park. They also have the canoe launch boardwalk closed, maybe because they are not renting any boats, but it makes for a very long walk to get from the parking area to the launch spot.

Our campsite was only a few hundred yards from the water, an illegal launch of course. It was only about 40^oF when we launched at 9:30 AM. There were no other boats on the river and it quickly warmed to near 70 when we got to the take-out, 2-3/4 hours later. This river has more maneuvering than any river I have ever paddled, Peggy was exhausted at the end of the 8 mile paddle. She is great at draws and cross-draws, keeping us away from all the stumps and branches.

It was a warm evening and it was 60^oF on Friday morning when we left at 8 AM to paddle the Silver River. They open early but we were the first one to launch. Since Peggy was still tired we only paddled about 4 miles downstream and back. We didn’t see another boat until we were almost all the way back but we did see 10 Manatees. Big mothers and tiny babies. Hundreds of Anhingas, some Heron and Egrets and one alligator. It was a beautiful sunny day.

We got off the river early to do some grocery shopping, and decided to spend another night in a Walmart parking lot.

On Saturday morning we drove over to the 49st parking area for the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway paved bike trail. We have never tried this trail and it passes right through Ocala and over I-75. The trail is very hilly and in a deep woods with all sorts of mountain bike trails crossing .

We took a short ride over the bridge and just beyond where the Santos Trail starts then back for a nice 11 mile early morning bike ride. Temps in low 60’s.

 

Peggy looking through the viewing window to see I-75 below.

They put this bridge in for wildlife. Deer, Bear, Coyotes, and Panthers have been caught in the trail cams.

Then Saturday afternoon we plan to visit our friends in Inverness.

Three Nights at O’Leno State Park and now at Juniper Springs

When we drove over to O’Leno we made on-line reservations for site 12 in Magnolia Campground which is right near the hiking trails.

Sunday turned out to be a nice day so we took a short hike, the pictures were in the last blog. It was a stormy cold night and cool morning on Monday, so I stayed in and updated the blog. It was cool and sunny Tuesday so we rode our bike around the park, it was a little too cool for Peggy. Wednesday we woke up to a heavy frost and left at 9:30 AM for the short drive to Juniper Springs, arriving at 11:30 AM. We got our favorite site #15 and will stay for two nights. Here are the temperatures for past few days and next two. It looks like it will be warming up again.

We took a bike ride around the park and arranged for a shuttle on Thursday on the 7 mile Juniper Run. We took a bunch of pictures in the park and found out that they closed all the boardwalks again. We plan to just carry our canoe from our campsite trail to the river  and launch at end of the trail. Click to read  My blog last year which describes an almost identical trip, with some added history.

 

Big Change in Plans

After two days of biking we left Augusta, GA early on Saturday.  Our 250 drive to Mcclenny, FL, was through an off-on rain all day long.. We parked at another Super Walmart and would only be 30 miles away from our planned campsite at Ocean Pond Campground in Osceola NF. We got there at 8 AM and hoped to find a nice campsite.

When we got there we saw this big sign. "THE OCEAN POND CAMPGROUND IS CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE." I had checked a few days ago and it was not on their website. No reason was given. So we parked there and got on the internet to do some new trip planning since we had planned to be here for 10 days.

We quickly found a site for 3 nights at O'leno State Park north of High Springs. It was only a 45 minute drive away and finally we will have electricity and hot showers.

O'Leno is an old Florida State Park on the Santa Fe River where it disappears to go underground for a few miles before rising up again and confluences with the Ichetucknee River and then eventually empties into the Suwannee River

 

We found we could probably get into Juniper Springs, East of Ocala until the next weekend. We love to paddle the river and we have been coming here for 50 years.

So now this is our new Tentative Trip Schedule

We added 3 more days to our reservations at Silver Lake, Cypress Glen Campground. We contacted our friends Paul & Helen Tempesta who live near there in Inverness to see if they would be around on Saturday. Not only will they be there but they were having two friends, Rob and Shirley from Martha's Vineyard, MA over for a visit. We used to camp with all of them at Xpu-Ha in Mexico and it's been 4 years since we have seen them. So it will be a nice reunion.

 

 

Two Days Biking in Augusta

On Thanksgiving morning we made it to Augusta, GA Savannah Rapids Park at 12 noon. This park has large parking lots and trails to view the river locks and canal.

The gravel/dirt Towpath Trail starts here. Because of last nights rain there were some puddles and soft surface but it was fine.

It’s a scenic trail with walkers and bikers with the river on one side and the canal on the other side. They rent bikes and kayaks here for those who want to paddle canal.

We picked up the paved River Levee Trail and made a 12 mile round trip. It turned out to be a partially cloudy a 75^oF day.

    

So we were two turkeys on a tandem

When we finished we went to a Super Walmart about 7 miles away. Everything in the area was closed for the holiday, the parking lot was totally empty but we still parked on the side away from all traffic noise.

We had some leftover Eggplant Parmigiana for dinner and Peggy read her Kindle while I planned our next day bike trip and route south on Saturday.

On Friday, we started at the same place but added the Lake Olmstead and Mill Village Trail.

It was clear and sunny and it got close to 80^o, we haven’t been this warm for a while.

We peddled about 15 1/2 miles, there were a lot more walkers, bikers and kayakers today.

We stopped at Sam’s club on the way back to our quiet campsite and bought a Rotisserie chicken so we could have our Thanksgiving dinner a day late.

They are forecasting a big cool down coming and we expect it will rain overnight and early tomorrow morning.

Our plan is to drive 250 miles to near I-10 in Florida and again overnight at a Walmart. We will leave there on Sunday morning and try to get a campsite at Ocean Pond National Forest Campground which has a limited number of campsites with power, so when a weekend camper leaves we will snag their campsite.

Great Drive to South Carolina

We left Home at 7:30 AM on Monday 11/23 and had clear dry weather all the way to Weaverville, NC, about a 550 mile drive. We got to a Walmart  by 4:30 PM and had some leftover Mac & Cheese. After a good nights sleep we left at &:30 AM and got to our fiends Greg & Sandy Lewis by 10AM. The weather was still clear and dry but a cool morning.

Greg loves to cook in their beautiful kitchen and we stayed two nights. We really enjoyed the two dinners he cooked for us.

We had lots of fun remembering old kayaking, hiking, biking and camping trips.

The weather was cool but dry so we took a short hike near his house on a steep trail called the Granite Dome Trail. It was just the right length for Peggy and their two dogs, Asia and Lilly.

 

Peggy enjoyed resting by their fireplace when we returned. Greg & Sandy were great hosts.

We had a heavy rain on Wednesday night but by the time we left on Thanksgiving morning the weather had cleared and temperatures warmed to above 70^oF later in the day.

We got to Augusta, GA by noon and drove right to the Savannah River Locks and canal trails.

 

Still Packing For Our Winter Trip

We  picked up our Motor Home from the storage lot on November 1st. It was good thing we brought our RV home early. I found out that the both battery tray slides had rusted and needed to be replaced. Luckily I had two almost new slides left from my old 2006 Phoenix Cruiser. I had removed the single battery slide-out tray when I went to two batteries. Of course I saved it.  It took a while but I got it done, this time I will lubricate the drawer slides occasionally.

Then last Sunday we had a big storm which took some big trees down on our street, we just lost lots of branches. But we lost power for 48 hours. So for lights, refrigerator and TV we ran an extension cord to our house from the RV. We ran the generator for about 30 hours. We turned it off at night while we were sleeping.

On Saturday we had our annual family party at my daughter Joan's house. We had about 15 people counting all the kids that could make it this year.  Joan & Brian cooked a big Turkey Dinner with all the trimmings to celebrate both Thanksgiving and Christmas. We are not flying home for Christmas like we usually do.

 

We hope to leave early Monday morning and hope to make it to near Asheville, NC for the evening. As usual, when we travel. we will park at a big Super Walmart for the evening. On Tuesday we will drive straight through to our friend’s, Greg & Sandy Lewis in SC, home on beautiful Lake Keowee.

Planning for our 2020-21 Winter Trip

Despite all the problems with Covid in Florida we know we wouldn’t like staying home in another Northeast Ohio winter.

In the past we have taken a flight back for Christmas time to spend time with our large family but we decided that maybe we should stay out of the holiday airport crowds.

So we decided to leave a little later and celebrate with an early Thanksgiving-Christmas holiday with a dinner party with our children, their spouses, and our grandchildren.

On the left is a trip map where we expect to be from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

Here are the preliminary dates and places we have already made reservation for our entire 2020-21 trip. https://www.keelhauler.org/JK/Proposed_Schedule_FL_2020-21.pdf 

We have chosen all public campgrounds that we are familiar with and are near opportunities to bike or canoe. We like to stay active but I also love to relax in my hammock until I fall asleep reading my Kindle.

Like other years, I will post pictures and tales of what is going on with our trip. I hope if any of our friends end up nearby they will drop into to see us. Please let us know your plans. And if you want to camp, bike or paddle with us remember other than another RV anyone can set up a tent or park a vehicle in our campsites since we don’t drag a car with us, and they allow it.

 

Wrapping up our winter trip at Ocean Pond Campground

John & Peggy at Cypress Glen

We got a nice early start from Cypress Glen campground at sunrise, 7:30AM on Monday morning. We stopped at Walmart, Aldi’s and Sam’s Club near Ocala then headed north on US-301 to Ocean Pond campground in Osceola National Forest near Lake City, FL. We were hoping to get one of the 19 sites with electrical hookups and we lucked out. When we got there at noon, someone had just pulled out of site 11. These sites are full everyday but usually from Sunday to Thursday if you get here by 10 AM you can get a site. It seems like these sites are always full on the weekends. There are three camps, the second one has water only and the last one in in a nice woods but not water, better for tent campers. On Friday mornings the three camps are usually full for the weekend.

Ocean Pond Campsite 11

We did a short 11 mile bike ride over to Olustee Civil War Battlefield where every February they do a large reenactment. We like this ride since only about 2 miles are on the paved forest road. The remainder of the ride is om narrow hard pack dirt roads. We came back via Cobb Campground a popular boondock area.

On Friday we took our last bike ride of our winter trip, a short 9 mile ride to Hog Pen campground. This is another rustic National Forest campground on Ocean Pond with individual sites and a latrine.

We biked 475 miles on our tandem bike this winter and we canoed about 110 miles.

We enjoy the old roads without all the fast truck traffic and it takes about the same time since it is a shorter distance than I-95. You feel like a tourist from the past with the little motel-cabin strips and roadside attractions along the way.

You need to slow down in a few towns but the traffic is very light and no big interstate accident delays.

We hope that on a Saturday afternoon the traffic through Charlotte, NC won’t be too bad and we plan to get to Mooresville, NC by dinner time and stay overnight at a Walmart.

We plan to leave early on Saturday 3/14 before sunrise. We love US-301 and will take it all the way north though Georgia and pickup US321 in SC and then to Columbia, SC where I-77 starts.

It has been another warm week with no rain and their forecast is for more of the same for another week.