First Four Days at Ortona COE Campground

We had 2 cool days at Myakka State Park and stopped to overnight at a Walmart in Arcadia on our way south again to Ortona Lock.

This Corps of Engineer campground is at another lock on the Caloosahatchee River which is part of the Cross FL navigable waterway. We will be here for 8 nights.

The campsites are paved with water and electric but only on the far eastern end of the campground do you have easily accessible canoe access.

The weather the first few days was cool and windy so we just took some bike rides.

Our campsite was very large and near t0 the river walkways & fishing access. Each site has a covered picnic table but it was a little too far for my propane hose to reach my stove.

They seemed to have camp sites available at this location compared to WP Franklin. Maybe it is because it’s in the middle of nowhere near Labelle, FL

We found a huge development of paved roads nearby. We could bike on empty roads for miles. I don’t know how long ago they developed the land possibly in the 80’s. There is water but no electric and I think all the lots were sold but only one home was ever built.

It is sort of spooky. I’ll bet you could pull your RV down one of the dead end streets and camp for free but there are no utilities.

It is, as we found out, a destination for hang gliders. On windy days they congregate and use their cars to pull them aloft. Since no one uses the roads, it looked like a good place to do it. We saw one stunt where a two person glider went up and then the passenger jumped with a small parachute and ended up right back where we were watching. We biked 12 mi Sunday and 15 mi on Wednesday, and saw the group both times.

See the line pulling him up as the car drives down the road.