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.
Those turtles are huge! Glad you're finally getting to do some kayaking!
ReplyDeleteLove Meg
i am glad to hear the weather is improving and that you are getting in some kayaking! Love Pam
ReplyDeleteHappy Holidays looks so nice and relaxing!
ReplyDeleteThat tortoise is so cool!! Reminds me of when You, Mandy, Grandma, and I found that box turtle at the cabin many years ago!
ReplyDeleteLove, Leah