Slight Change in Plans

As I feared, when we got to Lithia Springs Park on Friday morning we found there was no available camp sites for the weekend. None of the other Hillsborough County Parks had any sites available. I looked at my maps and figured since it was still early in the day and the weather was finally warming back up, maybe we should take a bike ride and try for a free camp somewhere.

We had never tried the 29 miles long paved Van Fleet State Trail which runs from Polk City a little east of Lakeland, north to SR50. It was easy to get to. The trail is not as busy as the Withlacoochee State Trail and had less walkers. So the bike groups like it because they can run at 20 mph without worrying about running into someone coming around a curve. This trail is absolutely straight with one gentle curve.

We did an 18 mile round trip up and back to the next access parking lot and never passed anyone. The trail was in partial sun and it was a windy day.

Our plan was to then overnight at a Walmart parking lot in Gibsonia north of Lakeland. When we got there the lot was full of signs that said no RV parking. So we kept on going to Zephyrhills where we knew there was a quiet Lowes that we could park.

We had a good night’s sleep but needed to find something to do and where to camp for the next two days. We knew our campsite at Silver Lake was not available until Monday.

We found the Withlacoochee River Park nearby, I called and they said they had an available site but when we got there someone had taken it. He told us no problem the recreational field has 25 empty sites with water and 30 amp hookups but no tables.  It was out in the bright sun on this cool day so it was fine but other that a few short hiking and biking trails there was not much to do so we only stayed overnight on Saturday.
I suggested that we are still very close to the North end of the Van Fleet State Trail so lets go over there around noon on Sunday, and try that end of the trail.


This time we did a 19 mile round trip from Mabel to Bay Lake Trailhead. Being a Sunday we saw more people but it was an easy fast ride on a flat trail. They have toilets at the 4 parking areas and benches or picnic tables at one mile intervals. This end is through a swampy area but was still very scenic.

We had one more night to find a place to stay and we knew there was a Cracker Barrel Restaurant only a couple of miles from Silver Lake Campground where we had reservations for the next 6 nights starting Monday night. We had a nice dinner and stayed in their parking lot for the same price as the last campground charged. Of course it was right next to noisy I-75 but we were tired and slept well.

Early Monday we got our site in the Cypress Glen Camp loop and had another rest day. On Tuesday we will bike the Withlacoochee State Trail to the post office in

Nobleton where we can mail Joan and Meg’s birthday cards. As usual we will miss both their birthdays.