Legacy Trail Exploration

 I came to Oscar Scherer State Park again this year to explore the Legacy Trail and all the new extensions. Last year I was only here for 3 days and did the whole trail but now they have extended it both North & South. They have also added a spur East all the way over to Deer Prairie Creek Preserve near the town of North Port. Here is a short 5 minute video which describes a little bit about the trail.

Legacy Trail Video 

I like that they have picnic tables along the trail at one mile intervals and many parking lots for trail access. They are also building more playgrounds and deluxe rest area like this park at Ashton Rd where I stopped for lunch. 

One interesting fact is there are a lot of Amish near this park, most of them on E-Bikes, here is one couple using the air pump and tools on a post in the park.

I posted this map of the trail in my last blog.

The Legacy Trail has been extended North and now ends in downtown Sarasota near Payne Park about 13 miles north of Oscar Scherer Park where I am staying. They also just completed a 1 mi long protected bike lane in both directions, east along Ringling Blvd. On Monday I decided to head north but I should have looked at the map closer before I did my 29 mile trip. 

I took the bike lane down Ringling Blvd but when I got to this point in the picture, it said bike lane ends so I turned around and headed back to the Legacy Trail. I now realize I could have taken the sidewalk for another 1/4 mile to Sarasota's Bayfront and Marina Island Parks which has a trail that goes over to the Ringling Causeway Park. The bridge goes to all the offshore keys. 

Here is a view of the bay I missed.

So my plan Thursday is to bike a little further and explore the sites along the Bay, it shouldn't add more than a few miles to the trip.

On Tuesday, Barry & Sue, were still not going to get on their E-bikes so I decided I would try the new trail that goes to North Port and through the Deer Prairie Creek Preserve. It leaves the Legacy trail about 4-1/2 miles south of Oscar Scherer Park and then follows along some sidewalks, bike lanes and zero traffic roads for 10 miles to the Alphabet Trail in Deer Prairie. It parallels I-75 for about 4 miles to the Alphabet Trail and then goes 2 more miles along the freeway before heading south to North Port. 

I was hoping to get on the Alphabet Trail which is a dirt trail that goes south to a new bridge that they just put in place but I found the trail was closed when I got there.

So I ate my lunch on a park bench by the closed gate and decided that was as far as I cared to bike since I  didn't want to go any further along the noisy I-75 freeway. There were bikers on the nice new paved trail, I probably saw a dozen pass by while I was eating lunch. A few nice bikers wondered why I was sitting on a bench in the middle of nowhere and stopped to ask if I needed any help. 

My total bike trip was a 30-1/2 mile round trip ride and when I got back to the Legacy Trail, Barry & Sue biked past me going south. So we stopped and chatted before they continued south and I headed back to the campground and a nice shower.

I decided not to bike on Wednesday and write this blog instead since Barry & Sue said they may want to bike with me to Sarasota on Thursday.

My First Week at Oscar Scherer State Park was very busy

 

Sunday was my birthday and while I was doing a zoom call with my daughters who were at Joan's home celebrating a belated Christmas my three tooth bridge fell out of my mouth. It was feeling loose all week and it finally let go.

So I started to explore where I could find a dentist near Osprey, FL. Well just down the street from my new campground, about a mile, was a very large dental provider called, Dental Care at Casey Key. 

On Monday 1/16 I checked into my campsite #88, it was small but private behind the palms and mangroves and right across from the bathrooms.

Oscar Sherer campground is a hidden gem surrounded by housing developments and major highways, and it is right on the paved Legacy Bike Trail.

I was able see the dentist on Tuesday afternoon. I took a 14 mi bike ride to shop which included the 2 mile ride to my appointment. 

They took lots of x-rays and said they could not put the bridge back in and to prevent infection I would need to see an Oral Surgeon to remove two old teeth which were under the missing bridge. So they made an appointment on Thursday to have them removed. 

I called my Westlake dentist and he concurred with their approach. He felt I could wait until I came home in late March to make a new crown and the new bridge, since there would not be enough time to have one made while I was still here in the area.

So now I had Wednesday free to explore the Legacy Trail, which was the reason I decided to come to this park for two weeks.

The trail now runs from Sarasota to south of Venice with a new spur all the way over to North Port. Below is a link to a really good very detailed interactive map that shows Parking, Dining, Water, Restrooms, Bike Shops and Lodging and can be zoomed in to great detail.

Friends of the Legacy Trail Interactive Map

On Wednesday I peddled to south of Venice, another 19 mile round trip ride on the trail.

On Thursday it was time for pullen. The Oral Surgeon's office, Suncoast Specialists, was much further away in Sarasota but it still could be reached by using the Legacy Trail. So I didn't have to take any bike lanes on busy highways, I took a longer route to get there and back which made it about 22 miles. He did the extractions in 30 minutes and I slowly biked my way back to camp. So now Friday became a rest day for me to get the healing to begin.

By Saturday I decided I would jump on the trail again to shop for food and some sealant to seal some cracks in the old sealant on my 10 year old RV roof. It was cooler and I enjoyed the 18 mile shopping trip, stopping at Lowes, Walgreens, Walmart and a large RV dealer near the campground.

On Sunday, my RV friends, Barry & Sue are supposed to arrive, the have E-Bikes, I hope I can keep up with their speed when we go bike touring.

This is for Meg who loves Florida's Critters

Nearing the end of my two week stay at EG Simmons Campground

 I have been surprised that this year the campground has never filled up. It has 115 nice campsites and it seems like I see available sites almost everyday. The weather has been slightly above normal and we only had two rain storms over my entire stay.

I got in 4 long bike rides and several shorter ones around the park and out to dinner one day. I paddled twice around their marked canoe trail and one time across the bay to the Apollo Beach area. I updated the map I posted in my last blog showing all the paths that my "Map My Ride" GPS Ap displayed. Rather than post the map again, here is the link to the updated MAP, or just look at my January 8th blog.

I cook almost all of my meals, always eating good full course meals the same as Peggy & I always cooked on our  previous trips. I ate out when Judi and Larry visited me, but this week on Thursday I biked over to Julies Fish House which is only about 2-1/2 miles from my campsite. 

They prepare nice fish dinners in a casual outdoor atmosphere. You order at the window and share a picnic table or do take-out. This is a photo from four years ago when I was there with Peggy. They are only open three days a week and it is very popular and highly rated. This year I had Grouper which was very tasty.

This last weekend it turned cold, for me. Morning lows are in the 40's and highs barely reaching into the mid-fifties. It is also very windy so I may not do anymore paddling. I may take a few more short bike rides around the park and watch the NFL football playoff games. Two years ago Peggy and I camped here on Super Bowl weekend which was played in Tampa. The campground was very full on that weekend.

My plan is to leave here on Monday morning and do my bi-weekly shopping. You can't check in at Oscar Scherer State Park until after 2 pm so I have plenty of time to get there. It is only 60 miles south of here, between Sarasota and Venice, FL Last year I was able to get a campsite there for 3 nights and enjoyed that it is on the Legacy paved bike trail that goes from downtown Sarasota to south of Venice with a new spur all the way to North Port. One thing about FL State Parks is that they are always reserved 11 months in advance and give no discount to out-of-state campers. So I was lucky to get a site and I hope to enjoy my two week stay here. My friends Barry & Sue from MI plan to be here during the same period.

EG Simmons Park - Biking and Paddling

 

I have camped at EG Simmons County Park six different times in last seven years. I'm happy that many travelers skip this campground because the park does not take reservations. But I found out that if you come after a weekend rather than before a weekend it is easy to get a site in January.

If fact during the past week there were plenty of open campsites until Friday afternoon. I have never seen that many empty campsites. The have 100 large campsites in two campgrounds. I like the East campground since the sites are larger and it is near the canoe trail.

Canoe Trail

You can hike, fish, paddle or ride your bike around the roads all over the park. They have a nice canoe trail laid out with 20 numbered posts in the water starting in the north channel of the east campground and around the bay in the center of the park. You can paddle 2 miles to post #20 and walk back to the kayak launch or just paddle one mile back to your start. All the campsites in either campground have easy access to Tampa Bay for canoes or kayaks. So far this trip I've paddled the trail twice. The weather has been great, temperatures are in the high 70's. We did have one rainy day.

Area Map

Red, Green, Blue & Yellow lines are my 4 long bike rides & kayak paddle across bay.

But why confine your bike riding to the park. The main road from the park to the different neighborhoods around Ruskin and Apollo Beach has a nice bike lane on a lightly travelled road. The neighborhoods have sidewalks and quiet residential gated communities. I had no trouble going past the gates and then peddle up and down all the beautiful streets in the Apollo Beach area. 

So far I did two 20 mile bike rides, and a 16 mi ride on Sunday, I take a lunch with me and stop at some of the nice park areas and take a rest stop in the shade of their pavilions.

You can bike ride all the way over to a Manatee viewing area built by the power company. Hundreds of Manatees are attracted to the warm water being discharged into Tampa Bay. This in-turn attracts lots of tourists. The last road to the viewing area has no bike lane or sidewalk and some traffic to deal with. 

However even though Peggy didn't like riding on roads with cars she didn't mind the sprint up the road to the attraction. 

It looks like we will have nice dry weather for another week. It is  forecast to rain on my birthday weekend.

Last Day at Lithia Springs over to EG Simmons

 

On Thursday and Friday I took 2 more bike rides around Fish Hawk Ranch bike paths about 35 miles. This makes 7 different rides on various trails for about 120 miles. I'm getting good Cardiac Rehab here. 

The picture is a good picnic spot at Shadow Run Park on the way to Bell Creek Nature Preserve.

I updated my Fish Hawk Trails Map

On New Years Eve I couldn't get either MI or OH State games on my TV but I watched the play by play on Yahoo. Not so good but I got to see both of them lose. It took all the way to 2023 to finish the heartbreaking end to a game that Ohio State led all the way.

On New Years Day I again got our campground host, Chris, to give me a shuttle to the put-in at Alderman's Ford. It is really nice that he does this for me, he used to haul Peggy & I up with our big canoe. In all the years we've paddled here I only found two other paddlers who wanted to paddle the river and worked out a shuttle.

It was a warm foggy day to start and even with a 30 minute lunch break, I made the 9 mile paddle in 3 hours. I saw 2 big alligators and lots of big turtles. For some reason it was the most Herons I've ever seen on this river.

I've been at Lithia Springs 15 nights and decided to try to get a site at EG Simmons Park on Tampa Bay. It is also a County Park that does not take reservations but if you arrive early at the end of a weekend you can usually find a campsite. I left my Lithia Springs at 7 AM on Monday morning and did the short drive over to near Apollo Beach. Not much traffic on a holiday morning. I got there before the gate opened at 8 AM, so I was number 1 on the wait list for any available campsites. 

It looked like there would be at least 8 sites available but they won't hand them out here until after 11 AM checkout time. I saw that a site I had stayed in before would be available, so I was very happy. I had to do my weekly grocery shopping anyway and a visit to an ATM, since their credit card scanner is not working and they want cash. So here I am at Site #79 next to the water channel to the bay. I have plenty of room. I plan to stay here for 14 days doing both kayaking and biking.

Site 79 - EG Simmons

The weather was hot & sunny and almost set a record, temperature got up to 85^o F.