Great Campsite at Lithia Springs

Sat 2/6 was my last night at EG Simmons Park on Tampa Bay. I had two weeks of great weather and no sand fleas. I’ve been here a dozen times in January & early February and only ran into them one time. I think that’s why this campground is not full all the time and much easier to get into, even in peak season. They do not take reservations, so early birds usually can get a site.

My next campground is Lithia Springs which is another Hillsborough County Park. It is very popular and almost always full, so you need to get on the waiting list by 8 AM if you hope to get a site.

So since I needed to do my bi-weekly grocery shopping I couldn’t get there early unless I overnighted nearby on Super Bowl Sunday. I stayed at the same Valrico Lowes store when I was here in November. It’s quiet and they have good wireless internet.

I left Monday at sunrise but found myself second in line when I got to the park. However that worked to my advantage. He chose the only available site at 8am and I waited until some other sites would empty after the weekend. I got site #45, which is the best large secluded campsite in the parks as you can see from the pictures. It overlooks the Alafia River but is a little steep getting to the water to launch my kayak.

I like this campground for a couple of reasons. A great friendly campground host Chris from IL, a scenic river with lots of wildlife to paddle with no crowds and access to over 30 miles of winding bike trails through an upscale housing development.

Click Picture for big map

Chris has always helped me out with a shuttle, to do any downriver trips since I don’t bring a car and it would be hard to use my motorhome. The water level early in the season is usually good but since the hurricanes they have had a drought and the river is only 100 CFS.

So on Wednesday I decided to just put-in at my campsite and paddle down and back up the river to see if the shallow areas are passable.

I paddled downstream to near Bell Shoals bridge without hitting any shallow shoals, but if I had set up a shuttle it would have been much easier to keep on going to the take-out at the Brandon Boat Dock. That would have been about a mile longer than doing an up & back. 

To get back upstream I had to paddle back up about 5 shallow rapids and found that one was too shallow to paddle up so I had to get out and line the kayak back to the top of the rapid. So next time I'm just going downstream.

But I'm glad I did not paddle downstream from Aldermans Ford. 

When I got back I met a paddler from Sandusky, OH that had just come down from there and it took him 4-1/2 hours. He had to carry his kayak around 4-5 trees that blocked the river.

Signing off from MoonPieTown

These are my plans for the next month