Author: keelhauler

 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.  

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.

 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’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.

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.

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

Very Wooded Campsite #72

As I mentioned in my last blog this park was not scheduled
to reopen until the day after the first day of my two week reservation.

So I needed to find a place to stay for one night. I drove to Bradenton, FL on Friday afternoon and found another great spot to camp at a Lowes store after doing my weekly grocery shopping. It was a level spot with good free Wi-Fi.

The usual check-in time at FL State Parks is 3 PM, but since they have been closed I figured I would try to check in at 10AM. No problem, the place was empty. I’m not sure what is going on but even though 12 months ago the campground was fully reserved, there are at least 10 empty sites here every night No one has stayed more than 2 nights on the site next to me.  

Sarasota Bayfront Park

There are a few good reasons to choose this campground. Most campers have bikes to ride the 30 mile long Legacy Trail a wide asphalt trail that goes between Sarasota to south of Venice.

Venetian Waterway to Shamrock Park

This week I biked 100 miles on four rides; south to Shamrock Park, North to Sarasota Bayfront Park, into the beautiful neighborhoods of Venice and their beaches and along Casey Key, a barrier island, which is near the campground.

Nokomis Beach near Casey Key

I have never tried kayaking along South Creek which flows by the campsites. The jungle between the sites and the creek is almost impenetrable and the parks launch is across the creek which is too far unless you drive. The creek just flows out to the inland waterway and is too
far from any access to the Gulf of Mexico.

Here is where I rest after my bike rides

The weather has been great, starting out in the 60’s in the morning and reaching the mid-70’s by the time I finished my bike rides.

I checked into WP Franklin Corp of Engineers Campground on an island at a lock on the Caloosahatchee River by noon on Saturday.

Here is an aerial view, this is the 3rd time I got campsite #8.

The campground is northeast of Fort Myers in a quiet neighborhood.

For paddlers or fisherman there is a lot to do. You can fish from the dam area, launch a boat from the boat ramp upstream into fresh water or go downstream through the lock and fish in salt water.

For paddlers, about a mile down stream, you can paddle up the narrow Telegraph Creek about 3 miles , beyond that it is very narrow and often blocked by fallen trees. 

I expected to see hurricane damage this year but everything looked normal, except I saw no large alligators but many more smaller ones.

There were plenty of birds and a few turtles. 

Paddlers can also paddle about 1-1/2 mi upstream from our campground and head south up Hickey Creek, a wider and deeper creek, to a park with a landing and a picnic area and  pavilion. You can continue upstream another mile or so but it narrows and you will again be blocked by fallen trees.

For bicyclists you can bike around the nearby neigborhood streets which will require short rides down River Rd which has no bike lanes but light traffic. I try to wait for no traffic and sprint to the next street. It is not hard to get in a 8 to 10 mile trip. There is a regional park 2 miles down River Rd that has mountain bike trails. If you have a car you can drive 10 miles over to Babcock Ranch which has miles of paved bike trails through this newer growing planned community.

You can also get some pretty sunrise or sunset pictures from your campsite.

I am nearing the end of my two week stay at the beautiful campground at Franklin Lock on the Caloosahatchee River east of Fort Myers, FL. I got to paddle two more times on sunny days; Once, down the big river a couple of miles but I headed back when it started getting windy. 

And once upriver to Hickey’s Creek another small river that goes through a small park with a hiking trail that crosses over the river twice. It eventually narrows and is blocked by deadfall. This year I paddled up the creek about 2-1/2 miles making it about a 8 mile round trip from the campground.

Snow in the FL Panhandle

This week the big polar vortex storm that brought below zero temperatures back home and record heavy snow to the Florida panhandle, pushed all the way down to SW Florida bringing rainy days and temperatures that never got to 60o. Cold and rainy is not conducive to outdoor activities. 

I felt cooped up looking out my windows watching it rain and listening to the howling wind. Tomorrow they are predicting frost warnings north of here.

My plans are to leave here
Saturday and drive to Tampa Bay and hope to get a nice campsite at EG Simmons County
Park, they don’t take reservations so maybe the bad weather will cause some campers to go home early. 

EG Simmons East Campground Site #79

The forecast is finally calling for an end to the cold spell and promising temperatures back into the high 70’s later next week.