Starting my second week at Silver Lake

 

Someone asked me to show them where all the campgrounds in FL are that I'm staying at this year. The map on the left shows their location and below is the actual schedule and my planned locations.

Of course nothing ever goes as planned. I just got an e-mail from my next campground, Oscar Scherer, they said they are now open but my campsite might not be available on 12/21 and I should call them before heading down. I may have to stay at Silver Lake for another day or at another Lowes near Sarasota.

The weather is finally warming up. On Thursday the morning low was only 36o and but it got 10o  warmer every morning but the highs each day have been in the 70's. 

On Friday I did a 30 mile round trip to Brooksville on the Good Neighbor Trail and picked up some vegetables at Walmart.

I saw a Gopher Tortoise along the trail. These guys really get big and live for 100 years. Every few days they dig huge dens that eventually become homes for all kind of animals and snakes.

It was windy on Saturday morning but I still decided to go kayaking. 

The water level has been slowly dropping about 10 CFS/day. It is now down to 475 cfs and it is no problem paddling in either direction since I have no easy way to set-up a shuttle so I could just paddle downstream. I see other campers with kayaks but I haven't seen anybody else on the water.

The river is a little wider going downstream from camp and I usually see lots of birds, like these Ibis, and a few turtles but I didn't see any gators.

Withlacoochee River Ibis

About a mile before Hog Island I found that a big tree had blocked my way, I didn't try to portage around it and turned around. I did see 4 kayakers heading downstream with camping equipment. They planned to camp by Hog Island, I warned them but they figured they could find a way around the tree.

Luckily, when I got back to Silver Lake from my 5 mile paddle the headwind had died down.

Sunday I will have a rest day watching NFL football games.

The next 4 days are supposed to be between 60 to 80o and then another cool down comes in for next weekend.

First week of my two week stay in the Withlacoochee State Forest

I'm finally back on my original winter trip schedule. I like the campground, called Cypress Glen, for several reasons. The three campground complex on Silver Lake is both on the Withlacoochee River and the 46 mile long paved State Bike Trail, so it provides access to many outdoor activities.

See the map, I can bike the trail south for 10 miles to Trilby or north for 14 miles and beyond to Floral City or West for 10 miles to Brooksville on the Good Neighbor Trail.

I can also kayak south to Ridge Manor or north to Nobleton.

View from campsite to boat launch

Closer view from Campsite

When I got here I found out that the hurricane had knocked down a lot of trees at the small beach in front of my campsite where you can launch your boat. Here are some before & after pictures.

Big trees blocking the path

Crawl under fallen tree to launch

My first bike ride on Saturday was a 21 mile round trip ride to Trilby, a nice cool day on the trail, I didn't see much tree damage although this part of the trail was closed for a few weeks after the storm.

I watched NFL football games on Sunday but on Monday I headed north to Floral City for a 31 mi round trip bike ride. I was looking for a tool to tighten the Schrader valve core on my RV tire that had loosened and was leaking.

Schrader Tool

A motorcycle shop had an old valve cap with prongs that worked just fine, but when I take my bike ride over to Brooksville on Friday I'll look for this tool at Harbor Freight and buy some peppers at a Walmart.

Silver Lake

The weather warmed to the high 70's on Tuesday so I decided to kayak upstream from my campsite on Silver Lake to see how far I could make it up the Little Withlacoochee River which is a tiny creek that flows into the main river. There was a lot of tree damage so I could only make it about ¾ mi upstream where it was blocked by a large tree. So I headed back and up the main river instead to Crooked River Campground, the 3rd camp in the Silver Lake complex. The short 5 mile paddle was enough for me.

I decided to stay in on Wednesday and make some home-made chicken soup with my leftover Sam's Club rotisserie chicken. I added carrots, celery, onions, noodles and spices. 

The forecast was for rain and turning colder to the 30's for a day. Then starting Friday it is supposed to get back in the high 70's for a week. It turned out to be a heavy rain but it only lasted for about 30 minutes.

Heading back North on Friday to Withlacoochee State Forest

The weather started out warm here near Tampa but then a cold dry spell came in. It was about 40o every morning but warmed to close to 60o by late in the afternoon.

Typical Trail near small lakes and wooded areas

I had nice sunny weather for biking on all the FishHawk Ranch trails. I biked over 75 miles over the last 12 days. 

I only got in one short kayak paddle on the Lower Alafia River.

Finally tomorrow I will get back on my original trip schedule, I will drive about 60 miles north to Cypress Glen campground on Silver Lake.

Pileated Woodpecker near my campsite

It sounded like that area was possibly more devastated than here, and the river is still on the high side. I haven't heard whether any parts are not passable. In the past 30 days the river flow has dropped from 2000 cfs to 550 cfs. The normal flow at this time of year is only 250 cfs.

Settling down for 12 days at Lithia Springs Park

 It was cold at Magnolia Springs, 30’s in the morning but sunny and high 50's by the afternoon. but I did get a short 6 mi bike ride on their trails. The trails were hard packed and were free of branches. The trail went around the lake and past lots of empty cabins. The trail was scenic and free of hikers at this time of year.

I left on Saturday morning and drove 5 hours from Ga to East of Tampa. After some grocery shopping I stayed overnight at a another Lowes parking lot in Valrico, FL, since it is only 20 minutes away from Lithia Springs. I love this park and have been coming here for years since they don’t take reservations and if you get here early when the gate opens you can usually find a campsite. I got campsite #38 across from the riverside campsites which were all full.

I usually camp here over Christmas time, and was not planning on coming here this year until late February. 

My plans were to stay in Northern FL in the Osceola National Forest and then drive over to the Withlacoochee State Forest in December. Since the National Forest was closed due to Hurricane Helene, I headed 60 miles south of the Withlacoochee, where I have reservations for first two weeks in December.

Sandhill Cranes on Fishhawk's bike trail

I like Lithia Springs because you can paddle, hike or bike ride. It is on the Alafia River, which is very wild and scenic. I’m not sure what I’ll run into this year since the storm and flood may have blocked the river with large trees. But I’ll try exploring the river later this week. Lithia Springs County Park has a large spring which is their swimming area. The water flows into the Alafia River. This is another favorite campground I have camped here 17 different times over the past 25 years.The biking is mostly on miles of concrete sidewalks that run through the natural forested areas and small lakes in the large housing development next to the park  called Fishhawk Ranch. Here is a map, I created of all the trails in the development and beyond, where I like to ride. Fishhawk Ranch Trails

Three days at Magnolia Springs SP in GA

On Sunday I headed to Augusta hoping that some part of the Savanah River Trail would reopen but there were hundreds of trees down and they were doing a major cleanup. The TV news said it may not open until after the New Year. So I stayed overnight  at a Lowes and left the next morning for a short 1 hour drive to Magnolia Springs State Park,. The last time Peggy and I were here was in 2018 when we were on our way to Jekyll Island.

There are a couple of trails to walk or ride a trail bike but there were too many branches on the trail for me to attempt. So I rode my bike around the park roads and took a short trail walk. The skies were cloudy but it hit 70o on Monday & Tuesday. A very light rain came in on Tuesday night and it was damp and cool on Wednesday so I wrote this blog.

This was the site of the largest Confederate prison during the civil war. Camp Lawton, near Millen, Georgia, housed 10,000 Union prisoners at the end of the Civil War. When General Sherman’s forces approached in his “March to the Sea”, prisoners and guards quickly fled leaving the remains of the camp—and even its exact location—lost to history. But a Yankee prisoner had descriptions and sketches allowing them to locate the approximate site location. PBS did a story about a group of archeologists who spent 3 day here 16 years ago with a team and helped locate artifacts and its exact location. 

This is a nice clean park that is probably popular in the summertime, but it was pretty empty at this time of year,

I will leave tomorrow for another short 3 hour, 140 mi drive to Laura Walker State Park near Waycross, GA near the northern edge of the Okefenokee Swamp

A big cold front is coming in tonight and even though I’m heading south near the FL border, it is expected to be breezy and high around 60o. Peggy and I were last here in 2017 and did a little hiking & biking. I played a round of golf when we were here in 2008 on the course that is part of the park.

2008 Golfing at Laura Walker State Park in GA

My new travel plan is to drive 4-5 hours on Saturday to near Tampa, camp at a Lowes in Valrico, FL and then on Sunday morning see if I can get a nice campsite at Lithia Springs County Park. They don’t take reservations so I always try to get here by 8 am on a Sunday morning in order to get a good campsite after the weekenders leave. However it looked like many more campers left on Monday morning than on Sunday.

Hurricane Helene has caused big changes to My Plans

 I left Greg’s home on Thursday after the overnight rain ended at 2pm. It was only a 1 hr drive to North of Greenville. This is the beginning of the beautiful wide paved Swamp Rabbit Trail that goes though Greenville. I parked at an Ingalls Super Market parking lot where they said overnight parking for the trail was OK. I left Greg’s home on Thursday after the overnight rain ended at 2pm. It was only a 1 hr drive to North of Greenville.

This is the beginning of the beautiful wide paved Swamp Rabbit Trail that goes though Greenville. I parked at an Ingalls Super Market parking lot where they said overnight parking for the trail was OK.

So I did my 25 mile bike ride to Unity Park and back. It is mostly downhill heading into Greenville so I peddled about 3 mph slower coming back. I checked out where I could park my RV when I did the next part of the trail past Reedy Falls and past the zoo. I got back about 3 pm and it was nice and sunny and warm. I decided to stay overnight here again and start working on my new plans.

Reedy Falls in 2023

It was hard finding places to camp that would have something to do since many of the GA campgrounds were closed for all of next week. The only ones I found available were Magnolia Springs SP south of Augusta and Laura Walker SP on the north side of the Okefenokee near Waycross GA. Next week that’s where I’ll stay but I still have about 10 more days to find camping spots.

On Saturday morning I decided to drive to a Walmart near the trail in Greenville, it was only a 20 minute drive and I could park there and plan my next few weeks before my next confirmed reservations at Cypress Glen campground near Brooksville, FL. It took me all day to get reservations and complete my planning so I’ll not get back on the trail until Sunday morning. After that I’ll drive a couple of hours to Augusta to see if parts of that trail have reopened.

I just found out that Lithia Springs County Park near Tampa has reopened but that will take me 2 hours further south than Cypress Glen but it might be the only nice place to bike & paddle. So this is my new Tentative Trip Schedule.  

At Greg's beautiful home in Sunset, SC

I left at 8 am on Monday morning, the overnight rain had ended, from Forest City, it was on;y a 2 hour drive to Greg & Sandy's home in Sunset, SC. It turned out Greg had just got back from a tennis tournament in Memphis, TN and Sandy was in CA for a funeral. I plan to be here 3 days visitng and biking,

Greg Lewis is a long time paddling buddy originally from the Cleveland area that I have known for almost 50 years. He and his wife Sandy built this beautioful home in the mountains above Lake Keowee almost 15 years ago. 

Peggy and and I have often visited them when they were home and did some hiking and biking with them in the area.. 

They would visit us at our cabin in WV and Greg & I spent many days paddling the Upper Yough. We biked with Sandy on the GAP Trail along the Casselman River.

When we first bought our Tandem Bike, Peggy, Greg and I headed over to Pickens, SC to peddle the Doodle Trail, an 8 mile long paved trail that goes to Easley, SC.

It was cool on Monday but Tuesday was a sunny 75^o F day.

So on Tuesday Greg and I decided to do the Doodle Trail. I had forgotten all the small hills. Our 16 mile ride had over 800 feet of elevation changes to traverse. It was a good workout. We decided to have a late lnnch at a nearby Mexican restaurant and skip dinner. On Monday Greg had cooked me a great fish dinner.

Greg is painting the inside of his garage this week so when they come to do a colorful chip floor he doesn't get paint on it. I'm trying to catch up on all my e-mails and plan to leave on Thursday.

I was going to do the Doodle Trail on on my way to Greenville, SC, but the weather forcast is for a rainy Thursday, so on Friday I will do the Swamp Rabbit Trail that I also did last year. The weather is supposed to warm again to the mid-70's.

I heard parts of the trail may still be closed from Hurricane Helene. I think I'll stay at a Walmart in Traveler's Rest and start at the North end of the trail and see how far south toward Greenville I can go until I need to turn around.

Galax and the New River Trail

 I decided to leave a day early because of the heavy rain forecast for Cleveland on Sunday. That turned out a good choice since Saturday was sunny & cool. Since I was planning to visit my friends Greg and Sandy Lewis in SC on Monday I had an extra day and that worked out well also. I did the same thing I did last year. Overnighted at a Lowes in Galax, VA, it was very quiet and had good Wi-Fi. A mile down the road there is a great Mexican restaurant and had the same Mexican stir fry as last year. 

Chestnut Creek Falls

The New River Trail starts in Galax and follows the beautiful little Chestnut Creek for 10 miles down to the New River and then  40 miles along the New.

Trail Tunnel

Last year they were replacing 3 bridges so you couldn’t take the trail downstream along the New River. You could only go upstream 5 miles to the town of Fries.

Both Directions Closed

There were no signs of hurricane of flood damage along Chestnut Creek so I was hoping to go downstream 2-1/2 mi to Byllesby Dam. 

It turned out both directions were blocked since the hurricane’s big flood took out parts of the upstream trail. The downstream trail totally washed out hundreds of tons of gravel destroying the trail that they had repaired last year. It may be finished next year a worker told me. 

Conflunce of New & Creek

I decided to drive a few hours to Forest City, NC so I would only have 2 more hours to drive in the morning. My GPS decided to give me a shortcut that I knew would be interesting when I saw a sign that said no semi-trucks. It was a five mile long narrow switchback road down the mountain to I-77. Luckily only a few cars were coming up hill. 

The when I was on I-40 my GPS said road to Forest City was closed and was trying to take me a much longer route to Asheville. This time I ignored it since I wanted to stay overnight in another Lowes parking lot. There were no closed roads but hundreds of fallen trees along the road from the hurricane.

Leaving on Winter Trip - Saturday 11/09/24

 This is my revised schedule.

I am leaving a day early because of forecast rain on Sunday. I started my trip last year here also, it was cool but dry, read Last Year's Story & Pictures

Tentative Plans for 2024-25 Winter Trip

I have a tentative plan for my 2024-25 RV trip to Florida. I made reservations at the places I could and hope to be able to get a campsite in the campgrounds that do not take reservations by getting to most of them early on a Sunday morning. I do not drag a car so anyone that wants to share a campsite with me that has a car or van camper, I'm sure I can fit you on my campsite. Tents are also OK but no RV's. Only one per site. I will update this schedule as I go along.

Click for Tentative 2024-25 Trip Plan You may download and print this PDF file.

After 1/3 of a year my Winter RV Trip has ended and I'm back home

Friends Along the way (click on picture to enlarge)

I left home on 11/11/23 and just got back home on 3/14/24, 124 nites on the road. Things went smoothly and I did a lot on biking-850 miles and 120 miles of kayaking . 

I visited with many friends along the way. You can read about the trip in Chronological Order, Click link Florida Trip 2023-24

When I got to my last campground, Ocean Pond, the previous day's heavy rain made some of the sandy roads that I ride on a little soft but I was still able to bike another 28 miles in two rides around the Lake and through the Olustee Civil War Battlefield.

I like to stop at Ocean Pond before heading for home so that I can pick two sunny days to drive home. The travel window this year was a little tight but as long as I could get an early start and make good time I could beat the storms that were coming to Ohio on late Thursday.

I got a 7 am start both days and only lost about 20 minutes going through Charlotte, so my first day's 560 mile trip took me 10-1/2 hours and I got to Wytheville, VA. 

On Thursday I made the 390 mile trip home in 6-1/2 hours. It was sunny and no rain but two hours after I got back there were thunderstorms and tornadoes in central Ohio. 

Friday was warm to I could wash the winter grime off my RV and got a good start unpacking, especially when my daughter Joan stopped by to help.

  

Of course it now looks like the next 3 weeks here will be cooler than normal. No complaints, it was a nice winter and I was able to do all the things I planned and got in a lot of Cardiac Rehab again. 

I enjoyed all the nice campgrounds and for the entire trip the average camping cost per night was less than $18.

Most of all we all missed Peggy

Back to Cypress Glen for one week

I left early Sunday morning to head north to Cypress Glen Campground. I got to my campsite-48 at 11:30am. 

My plan was to take the Good Neighbor Bike Trail to Brooksville on Monday. It's normally a nice 26 mile flat rail-trail ride, but right before town the trail was blocked and I was detoured to the road, no bike lane and a big hill. I tried a different route back around the detour but it was still hilly. It added a about a mile to my bike ride.

I checked the river level and was surprised that the low water in December (50 cfs) caused by the Fall drought was gone and the winter rains brought the level way up to 240 cfs. It was the wettest winter ever.

I decided on Tuesday I  would see how far up the Little Withlacoochee River I could paddle. After about a mile I eventually got blocked by a tree across the narrow river, so went back and then up the main river to Crooked River Park. I scared an alligator who then scared me by jumping into the river next to my kayak.

On Wednesday my daughter Joan and my grandson Jake flew in to paddle with me on Thursday at Weeki Wachee Springs. They got a motel room nearby and picked me up. No car rack so I couldn't take my kayak. We rented a single and a tandem and got an early start so it was not crowded when we paddled up the river from Rogers Park about 2-1/2 miles. We hoped to see some Manatees but no luck, they didn't need to come upstream to the warm spring water.

We all loved the crystal clear water, and it was sure easier going back downstream with the current. We ran into dozens of paddlers now comimg up the river, I'm glad we got an early start.

Jake takes a break on a small sandbar.

Here we are back at my campsite, it was a fun visit but they had to head back to Tampa for a party with Brian's mother to celebrate Joan's and her birthdays.

Joan brought me some birthday gifts including this Biking Jersey.

I wore it with my biking shorts on Friday for my 32 mi roundtrip ride to Floral City. I set a personal record of an average speed of 12.8 mph,  one mph faster than when I did the same ride in December. Must have been the jersey.

Peggy in February 2021 on Weeki Wachee Springs River

I was able to leave by 7:30 AM on Sunday morning for a sunny 3 hour drive to Ocean Pond National Forest Campground between Jacksonville and Lake City, off I-10. They don't take reservations but even though it is now Spring Break time, I found 3 open sites in the camp with 120v power, but those sites all had the power broken so they were only charging the same as the non-power sites, $10/night, I grabbed a favorite site #11 and saw that the camper behind me was using the 50 amp power plug in his site, so I asked him if I could run a long 30 amp cord to his unused 30 amp plug. He said fine, that's what he did last week when he was in #11 and then moved to #6 when it became available. I was in site #6 for 10 days last November. Both these sites are large and nobody is around you. I noticed there were a dozen empty water-only sites available when I arrived.

Here is a Link to my Blog when I was here in November.

Lithia Springs County Park for 1 week

As I told in my last blog I was able to get a great campsite right on the Alafia River, #40 with easy river access. The river sites are limited to 14 days, while the rest of their campsites are available for 28 days. They do not take reservations but if you get here early in the morning, it seems someone is always checking out.

On Monday, Chris the really great campground host shuttled me and my kayak to Alderman Ford where I could put-in on the Alafia River and paddle 9 miles back to my campsite. The level was low 180 cfs but fine. It took 3 hours with a 30 minute stop for lunch.

This is a map of Upper Alafia River. Click Here to see Florida Paddling Trails Association's River Info and bigger maps.

On Wednesday I decided I needed a haircut really bad so I biked over to Great Clips and got a crewcut.

Since I was in the western area of Fishhawk Ranch, I kept going to Bell Creek Nature Preserve and returned by Shadow Run Park, it was a nice 17 mi ride.

I'll bet there are over 30 miles of wide concrete sidewalks that go through all their natural areas, and the trails end at Lithia Springs Campground. You seldom see any other bikers or hikers on these great trails. It does say for residents but that is not enforced.

Fish Hawk Ranch Trails - Click to view High Resolution Map

On Thursady I did another 18 mile bike ride mostly in the eastern area of Fish Hawk Trails. The weather has been perfect all week with lows around 60 and quickly warming to the mid-70's by late afternoon.

River Launch at my campsite #40

On Friday morning I noticed that the river had dropped down to 130 CFS, which is the lowest I had ever paddled it. I like the first 3 miles of the Lower Alafia River so I decided to paddle downstream 3 miles and then back to my campsite eliminating the need to run a shuttle. There are a lot of shallow shoals and I wasn't sure if I could paddle back upstream through all of them but I made it. It took me almost 30 min longer going back upstream to my camp. It took a little over 2 hours with no breaks.

This is a map of the 7 mile Lower Alafia River. Click Here to see Florida Paddling Trails Association's River Info and bigger maps. 

I saw 3 nice sized gators enjoying the sunny skies. Most jumped in the water when I approached.

Peggy's last time at Lithia Springs

On Sunday I will head north about 60 miles back to Cypress Glen Campground in the Withlachoochee State Forest. It's been 2-1/2 months since I was here on my way south. My travels must not have been far since this is the first time I had to get gas since then.