The Caloosahatchee River at the Ortona Lock is a narrow canal with high banks and does not look good for paddling our canoe. We like rivers that wind through wilderness areas. This river has nothing intersecting it either except for canal ditches from the nearby Orange Groves and cow pastures.

So we decided to do some biking in the nearby development, that I talked about in our last blog.

But sometimes we forget things.

So every other day we rode out of our campground and down the highway to this totally empty development with paved streets.

We tried to go on different streets on each of our 4 rides. The map shows where we went and the total length of the ride from our campground.

We found 1 house, 1 RV and one lot with a picnic table and I sure there were at least 2000 tiny lots.

I understand that all these lots were sold by a developer years ago but it is too far from any town where you could shop or go to school. It has no sewers or electric utilities. Anyone that bought here got screwed because now they are paying $300/year in taxes and the lots would be impossible to ever sell, unless you can find another sucker.

 

Every day the Hang Glider group was there doing their thing, so we stopped to take a our rest break and watch them have fun.

A truck pulls them down the road to launch and on these breezy days they can stay up there a long time.

If you look closely in the picture where the guy is being pulled up into the air you can see two others already up in the air already. Those aren’t birds.

The weather finally got warm and the temperature next week are supposed to go above average. January this year is at least 10^o colder than last year.

We left Sunday morning at 7:15 AM and drove to Tampa Bay. It was very foggy but traffic was light. We got to EG Simmons County Park hear Apollo Beach by 10:15 AM.

We planned to get here early to get a campsite. They do not take reservations and that’s why we try to get there on a Sunday morning when any weekenders may be leaving.

Wow for the first time ever there were 15 sites available, everyone was heading home after the weekend. So we picked site 79 which is a big site with easy bay access from our campsite.

We then drove off to do our grocery shopping for the week. We didn’t want to stop along the way since we wanted to be assured we got a campsite. We will probably stay here for 2 weeks. They changed the rules again, 30 day limit for any site.

The weather has been perfect for our first four days. A few more campers came each day but it has still not filled.

We watched the NFL games on Sunday and decided to catch up on some canoeing the next 3 days. We paddled about 3 miles each day following the marked canoe trail and paddling out in the bay when the wind was light.

The trail is well marked on posts around all the mangrove islands but they don’t even provide a map so that paddlers have some idea how long the trail is and where it actually goes. So I copied our path on a Map Your Ride App on my phone  and created this map.

Click map to make it bigger. Feel free to copy.

If you follow the numbers in order from 1 to 20, it is a 2 mile paddle. At that point you can actually pick up your boat and carry it across the road back to the start. Or you could just paddle directly back which only adds another mile, for a 3 mile trip.

We did get to see a small Manatee in Manatee Bay, it surfaced right next to us and scared us while exhaling.

At high tide you can paddle right over the sandbar at the entrance to Manatee Bay.

 

 

We got campsite 79 in the East campground which has bigger campsites than the West campground and is closer to better wind protected paddling around all the mangrove islands.

 

There are miles of paved roads in the park so it is easy to take a 6 mile bike ride without leaving the park. When the weather cools in a few days we plan to do some long bike rides around the towns of Ruskin and Apollo Beach.

Peggy looking at the St Petersburg skyline from Dickman Point

On Friday things cooled off again so we decided to do a nice bike ride in the area.

We went out of the campground but the gate to Dickman Island Private Drive was closed so we biked around the block past Julie’s Fish House.

They serve all kinds of fried fish & shrimp outdoors on picnic tables. We may eat here on another day but today we we headed to Shell Point & Bahia Beach. We then found our way back into the private drive that we initially tried to enter. It’s easy to avoid the back gate on this hard packed sandy road.

At the Dickman Point I took a picture of Peggy looking at the St Petersburg skyline.

The zoom on my cell phone works pretty good, on this nice clear day. We biked back to the main gate and waited until a car came by to sneak out the gate and back into E.G. Simmons Park. This shortcut actually saves 5 miles of biking. After a ride around the park we biked back to our campsite. Overall it was a nice 15 mile ride in the cool 60^o weather.

The campground almost filled up this nice warm weekend. We paid for another week up to Super Bowl Sunday, we will probably stay beyond that.

 

They are now forecasting some cool weather for the first week in February, so on Sunday we decided to take a bike ride over to Apollo Beach where you can go to see the Manatees at the Viewing Area near the power station. Here is a 16 minute video produced by the power company that describes the area and the Manatees.

We found out that because of Covid the area was closed so we went over to the Apollo Beach Nature Preserve instead. It was a 17 mile round trip bike ride mostly on neighborhood roads with good bike lanes. When we were along the busy US41 we had a nice sidewalk to ride on.

 

This is Apollo Beach and the view of the power plant, but you can’t get anywhere near the manatees.

There is a beach access from the parking area and a large tower, you can see in Peggy’s picture below, that must provide some area views but we did not want to go up the crowded stairs.

It was a windy ride but the temperature was perfect for a long bike ride.

The storm arrived last night, 3/4” rain and Monday is cool and windy, a good day to do a Blog.

 

 

Some of my blog readers were wondering where all these camp spots were in South West FL I made this map of where we have been since early December.

1. Silver Lake – Brooksville

2. Lithia Springs – SE Tampa

3. WP Franklin – Ft Myers

4. Pioneer Park – Zolfo Springs

5. Myakka SP – SE Sarasota

6. Ortona – La Belle

7. EG Simmons – Tampa Bay

8. Lithia Springs – SE Tampa

9. Silver Lake – Brooksville

This Covid year has been much different with respect to camping. We found some parks completely closed, some only using 50% of their sites and some parks, that in the past were always full. This winter, they were not totally full even on weekends.

We took another short canoe paddle around the mangrove islands on Friday. We wanted to try to avoid the wind but even though we did not go out into the bay it was no fun paddling in the strong winds.

On Friday night three US Bombers came by 3 different times practicing for their Super Bowl flyby. They need to fly over the stadium exactly at the end of the Star Spangled Banner at 6:15 on Sunday. They came from 3 different airbases hundreds of miles away and were making sure that they could coordinate their arrival time.

The weather like most years was unpredictable. December was warmer than normal, January was colder, so we were glad we headed south a little sooner than previous years. February, so far,  has been above normal temperature. We probably have had less than 1” rain and almost all of  it has  fallen at night.

So we were surprised on Saturday when we took a 18 mi bike ride over to the Apollo Beach area. We were almost back when a light rain started to fall, so by the time we got back to camp we were pretty wet. It was warm but getting more humid. An hour later it was sunny again.

On Super Bowl Sunday morning we were awakened by another thunderstorm that lasted all of 15 minutes. The rest of the day we had beautiful sunny skies  and low humidity.

The Tampa Chamber of Commerce must has made a deal with the devil, to end up with such beautiful weather for the Super Bowl.

We decided to stay on Tampa Bay at EG Simmons County Park for the Super Bowl Weekend and then next Tue or Wed try to get a campsite back at Lithia Springs after another grocery shopping trip.

I decided to update our trip progress and schedule. See the chart on the left.

On Tuesday morning we stopped for our bi-weekly shopping trip on our way to another Hillsborough County Park – Lithia Springs. We were here over Christmas time this winter.

We arrived around noon and found that there were plenty of campsites available. We picked Site 35 across the street from the river since it has an easy area to take-out of when canoeing the Alafia River.  It also has the shortest carry to our campsite.

When we were here in December we didn’t get to paddle the river since we couldn’t get anyone to help us with a shuttle.

I noticed that the campground host, that shuttled us last year, jeep was at his site. So he again agreed to haul us and our canoe to the put-in at Alderman Ford. We really appreciated that he did this even with the Covid protocols, we all wore our masks on the ride.

The rain that fell a few days ago brought the river up a little and on Thursday it was still running at about 275 CFS, which is a nice paddleable level. All the little shallow shoals are covered and none of the dozens of fallen trees are too hard to maneuver around.

Peggy was feeling a little tired and not up to her normal go-go attitude but she still wanted to canoe the 9 mile run. The river has a good current and in the past, depending on water level, it would take us from 2-3/4 to 3 hours with a short lunch  stop at Duck Landing.

Our paddling time was still about 3 hours since the current was a little faster. We did take a longer rest stop for lunch than usual. The sunny skies and warm weather brought out the alligators and turtles who all dove into the river to avoid us as we approached.

On Friday, our old friends Ron & Shelly Tomallo stopped by for a visit and to see what the park was like. They have been travelling with their RV and Toad (A car towed by RV) for the past month. They like the FL State Parks since you can make reservations. However you need to do that 11 months in advance and we never know what we want to do that far in advance. And if you don’t tie down a reservation early you are unlikely to get a site at any State Park south of Ocala, FL.

If you look at our schedule above, the X means they don’t take reservations. 90% of the time it has not been a problem especially if you time your arrival early in the week and early in the day.

Saturday was one of the first rainy mornings that we had on this trip, but it looks like while those back home are getting hammered by snow storms and low temperatures we may get a few unsettled weather days, but no cold spell.

We plan to stay here for 13 days and hopefully the rain will bring the river up a little higher and we will get another paddling trip in on the Alafia River. We also plan to bike with our tandem around the bike trails at Fish Hawk Ranch.

 

Our second week at EG Simmons Park the temperature had cooled somewhat but then went above normal for our 12 days at Lithia Springs.

However the rainfall was also above normal, this resulted in the river rising high enough that they closed the launch access at Alderman Ford. The river has a lot of trees that have fallen almost all the way across the river and any novices would be swept into them and could become entrapped in the branches. If there were no trees it would be a nice fast run since it was well within the high banks.

So each day I would check the water level and finally on Sunday before we were ready to leave the flow dropped below 500 CFS. Of course Chris our campground host who help shuttle our canoe to the put-in was gone that day so we never got a second run down the river.

We did take a few long bike rides through the Fish Hawk Ranch on their beautiful concrete bike trails. Occasionally we come across families on Sand Hill Cranes.

We tried to ride further west of the Fish Hawk Ranch area into the Bell Creek Nature Preserve & Trails but couldn’t find a nice circular trip through the area, maybe next time.

So on Sunday morning we left headed off to shop and fill our propane tank in Brandon along the way to Weeki Wachee Springs. We took a short stretch of I-75 and lots of traffic clogged roads, it was not a fun drive.

 

We decided to overnight at a Walmart next to a Sam’s club. We has one of their great Roasted Chickens for dinner.

We have been wanting to try this beautiful crystal clear 6 mile long river for years but it never seemed to fit into the schedule.

I read that you could save a shuttle and start early in the morning from Rogers Park and paddle upstream to the State Park. It was clear water even starting here and got clearer as we paddled upstream against the swift current. About 1/2 mile from the start there is an area called Deep Hole where they say you will see Manatees, and we did. There is a lot of housing developments for the first mile or so but gets more forested as we made our way upstream. The white sandy bottom and clear water made it easy to see hundreds of fish along the way.

At about 2-3/4 mi. upstream you enter into the state park land. This is where the kayaks that were rented in the park now have to take out. We were getting  a little tired from the upstream paddling and a little further after taking our break we decided to paddle back downstream to the takeout. I’m sure if we would have kept going further upstream we would have run into the crowds of kayakers coming downstream.

I’m glad we left early when it was cooler since it was  now getting into the high 70’s. We passed dozens of kayakers heading upstream. There seem to dozens of places you can rent kayaks in the lower part of the river.I can’t imagine what this river is like on a weekend. It is pretty but has too many people to really fully enjoy the beautiful stream. I’m not sure if we will come back, there are other FL rivers that are just as pretty with less development and fewer boaters.

So we headed off to our destination for the next 9 days, Cypress Glen Campground on the Withlacoochee River in the Silver Lake complex. We hope to bike and canoe here as well.

 

After paddling at Weeki Wachee Springs on Monday we headed to our reserved campsite #46 at the Cypress Glen campground on the Withlacoochee River and 46 mile bike trail. We were here in early December on our way south and we are now starting to head north,

 

After relaxing for a couple of days we took a 21 bike ride North on the Withlacoochee State trail on Thursday.

When we were here in December they were only using half the campsites due to the Covid virus, but now all the sites are full on the weekend.

This year many Florida campers are enjoying their parks since there are far fewer out of state campers.

We like this site since we are right next to where we can launch our canoe to paddle either upstream or downstream. There is very little current in the river. We decided to avoid the weekend crowd and paddle on Friday and relax in camp on Saturday.

We decided to paddle past the third campground in the Silver Lake complex, Crooked River. It is a 1/2 mile walk to campground but a 2 miles upstream paddle.

We paddled another mile upstream past the camp and finally turned around. We saw one really big gator and a few turtles but not many birds. Then on Sunday we decided to take the newer Good Neighbor Trail all the way to Brooksville. This is a 26 mile round trip ride and a good workout for us. There is a nice park at the end to relax or continue up the street to some local restaurants.

 

 

Helen & Paul our friends from Inverness suggested that we come and visit them.

So we left a day early on Tuesday and camped there before heading to Ocala to try a 9 mile section of the Marjorie Carr Cross FL Greenway.

We biked from the 49th street access in December but this time we wanted to begin right where the paved trail ends at US200 and peddle past 49th to the Land Bridge over I-75.

There is not good parking on US200 but there is a good 1/2 mile long sidewalk & bike lane from a nearby Walmart.

This is a very pretty trail with lots of hills and curves, so the 18 mile ride was a good workout for us. We enjoyed this ride and they put tunnels under two highways so you don’t need to cross any busy roads. If they had a nice parking lot and access at the start it would be perfect. The trail some day is supposed to connect with the Withlacoochee State Trail.

 

 

Our plan after our bike trail ride in Ocala was to overnight at the Silver Springs Walmart. Then on Thursday morning take a short paddle around Silver Springs.

However after the ride, for some reason, I had a stiff neck and it was still sore in the morning, so we decided to make this a rest day and head over to Juniper Springs in Ocala, NF and camp for 3 nights.

Usually we would head north to Ocean Pond Campground in Osceola NF near I-10 in Northern FL. But they closed their campground last Match 15th and it never reopened due to the Covid virus. It was the only campground that we came across that never reopened.

At Juniper Springs they set aside about 30 campsites for First Come First Served. All the remaining campsites can be reserved on-line and are always full on weekends. The reason this park is not more popular is that they do not have electricity or water hookups at each campsite but they do have nice hot showers and a dump station.

The FCFS sites that are available when you arrive can be occupied for 14 days, so usually in mid-week you can get a campsite but on weekends they may be full.

It is a very pretty park and used to have a nice board walk that paralleled the river from the campground to the swimming pool at the spring.

 

The board walk was damaged in a storm 2 years ago and even through they repaired it, they only opened it for a short time and then closed it again. They claim they don’t know if NF or it’s concessioner is responsible for upkeep. We sneak around the closed gates and still walk the boardwalk, but it is a shame they don’t at least fix a few boards and reopen.

Juniper Run is a great 7 mi paddling trip for paddlers that can control their craft, it is not for novices. But since the Covid issues they have not been renting canoes/kayaks or doing shuttles for private boaters.

Some park volunteers may still be willing to give you a hand in dropping off your vehicle at the take-out parking lot and giving you a shuttle back to the put-in.

It was only 41^o on Friday morning and I still had a stiff neck so I think for now we may be done paddling on our trip.

 

This is a picture of Pam, Peggy & Jeff 52 years ago at the same swimming area.

I like to keep track of how many miles we bike and canoe on our vacation trip. The biking was about normal, we biked 475 miles on our Tandem, 26 miles was our longest ride. Our canoeing was a little less than normal, we only paddled about 75 miles.

We were on the road for 106 days this year and our average camping cost was only $14.50/night. We stayed at fewer state parks and a few more nights either with a friend or at a Walmart parking lot when travelling.

The weather forecast is for rain on Saturday and the start of a warming trend back home. So depending on how accurate the weather forecast is, there is a possibility that we would leave Juniper Springs on Sunday Morning and we would start driving north.

Like the last few years we plan to take US301 North to South Carolina before getting on I-77. The map shows our basic plan and where we may stop each night but actual plan will depend on the time of day we get to a nice Walmart overnight stop.

We left Juniper Springs on Sunday 3/7 when a nice weather forecast predicted that we would have 3 sunny days driving home and when we got to Cleveland it would warm to the low 70’s while we were unpacking and cleaning the RV up.

Wow this is 20^oF above normal so we got on our way by 7:45 AM and made it all the way to Columbia, SC by 3:15 PM, a 7-1/2 hr. drive. There was virtually no traffic on US-301 all the way. The only Interstate highway that we hit was when we got to I-77 in Columbia. Of course we stayed at a quiet Walmart parking lot for the night.

On Monday morning we left at 7:30 AM and hit Charlotte, NC with light traffic. Most of the road construction there is now complete. We decided we could make it all the way to Marietta, Ohio, if there were no traffic jams on the WV turnpike. We made it to Marietta by 2:45 PM and we could have made it home in another 3 hours but we decided that that 7-1/4 hours. was enough driving for the day. We stayed at another Walmart for the night

On Tuesday we left before 7 AM and made it home before 10 AM, so we got an early start unpacking. The warm days they had predicted were great, we even got the RV washed with my grandson John’s help. So this week we will fix any minor problems we had and hope we can get a spot at the same storage lot that we used last year in Avon.

This year we had no problems at all with our RV unlike two year’s ago when we had all sorts of failures. See this blog for that story: https://bcpoa.org/wordpress/?p=5367

Some wonder why we come home so early in March. Well we miss all our kids and grandkids who all live nearby. If I can get home with driving in good weather, I don’t mind looking out our windows at home at any bad weather that may come after we get home.

This was Peggy’s Last Trip in our RV, she died of cancer in the Fall of 2021. Say a prayer for her, we miss her dearly.

Here are my 2022–23 trip plans