Author: keelhauler

On Monday morning just as I left it began to rain, when I got off of I-75 near Sarasota to refill my Propane tank my GPS suggested I stay on these secondary roads, possibly an accident on my original route to Zolfo Springs. It was a good route and I got to Pioneer Parks by 11:30 am as the rain stopped. It’s been cool and dry since then.

I decided to stay in the beautiful primitive campground. It has no hookups but my solar power is all I need since I picked a sunny site next to a small fishing lake, where the Ibis & Giant Egret keep me company.

View of lake next to my campsite

This is my view of the rest of the empty campground. Campers seem to like the sites in an open field with power & water hookups. Since it has been sunny all week my deep cycle batteries are fully charged by noon each day. I only run my generator for a few minutes if I need to use my microwave oven.

Vultures like to roost each night in the tall trees by the lake

Adjacent to the campground is the Florida Cracker Museum and a series of old FL buildings. They have stories and artifacts about the original settlers in FL called Crackers. They say the name was from the crack of their buggy whips. Each year during the last few weeks in February a big festival is held here.

Campsite #5 at WP Franklin

Aerial View of WP Franklin

On the way to WP Franklin on Sunday morning I stopped at the growing Babcock Ranch Development where I enjoy all the bike paths and have biked here for the past 3 years.

Click for larger map of Babcock Ranch Bike Rides 2023 (Red) & 2024 (Blue)

The eastern area is all new this year. Lots of homes but very few businesses and restaurants considering how many people now live here.

On Tuesday I paddled from my campsite up Telegraph Creek and back (7 mi) and on Wednesday I did a 13 mil bike ride through the neighborhoods near our campground.

The weather has been sunny with temps in the high 70’s all week. However they are forecasting lots of rain coming in late on Saturday and all day Sunday. So I decided Friday would be a good day to get in some more kayaking.

Hickey Creek Mitigation Area

I paddled about 1 mile up the Caloosahatchee River to Hickey Creek, and then 2-1/2 mi as far as I could make it up the creek. I had to turn around where a big fallen tree blocked my way. I checked, it was the same place I had to turn around last year. I came back to the kayak landing and had lunch, then I paddled back to my campground, a 7 mi round trip.

Here is a picture of Peggy and Bob Nicholson who paddled up here with me 7 years ago.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 .

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.

 

 

 

 

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

 

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.

 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

 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. 

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.