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.