Biking & a Hike along Blue Ridge Parkway

Galax TrailIt was a cool sunny drive to Galax, VA, a few miles off I-77. Our plans were to do a section of the New River Bike Trail that starts in Galax and goes to a long bridge over the New River. It was cold about 45oF and cloudy. We decided we would try it anyway. We dressed warmly and had gloves, but being our first bike ride we felt we had gone far enough so we turned around at 9 miles, uphill back to our RV. We loved the trail, but I forgot to take pictures.

The weather report called for light rain on Monday so we decided to skip going up to the VA Creeper Trail, which we had done about 20 years ago.

BRPW View at Moses Cone HouseWe decided to go up to the Blue Ridge Parkway which we had enjoyed about 40 years ago. Therefore one must keep alcohol at bay while using anti-impotence drugs. viagra without prescription Read More Here These tablets fall into the tadalafil cialis india category of PDE-5 inhibitors. Another generic tadalafil 5mg effective medicine to treat erectile dysfunction is Apcalis. Considering this factor, in 2001, Ajanta pharmaceuticals started producing the sister drug of buy generic cialis, known as Kamagra. We got off when it started to drizzle and got foggy at Boone, NC and spent the night at another Walmart.

We got back on the parkway and stopped at the first craft shop and visitor center. We found out that all the other campgrounds and visitor centers had closed at the end of October.BRPW Linville Falls

The weather started to clear up so we took a short hike to Linville Falls.

The day got more sunny and the views were spectacular. Very little traffic and we did not see one RV. I’ll bet this place is a zoo in season.

BRPW Peg ViewBRPW RV View.

You can only average about 35 miles/hour, so it turned into a long day, we had only travelled about 120 miles to Hendersonville, NC and another overnight at a Walmart.

If it warms up this morning, Tuesday, we will try biking again on a local bike trail that follows along a local creek.

Later we will head over to our friend’s, Greg and Sandy Lewis, home in the South Carolina mountains.

Enjoying our stay in Upstate South Carolina

We did try what was supposed to be a nice bike trail in Hendersonville, NC on Tuesday. It finally warmed to near 50o around noon.

We decided to start at a park on the south end and head north since it was only a few miles from where we camped. It was a nice park with lots of parking, a nice paved trail that was about 3-1/2 miles long each way. We headed off and went around the corner and found the trail underwater. I know it follows a creek but not in a creek. However the exact quantity of folks affected by ED buy viagra dig this or how they will be able to overcome it. Reasons for immobile joints and weak bones include excessive acid level in blood, poor circulatory system, poor diet, dysfunctional liver and kidney, lack of vitamins and minerals cialis uk leads to the deficiency of essential nutrients in the body. The various kinds of issues that are being treated by a urologist in Dallas, Texas such as blood in the urine, testicular cancer that leads to male infertility, abnormalities in the amount of PSA or Prostate Specific Antigen, pain in the testicles due to abnormal testicular mass or even cheapest cialis in canada abnormalities in the kidney which in the long run may lead to kidney or bladder stones. I’m acupuncture4health.ca pharmacy viagra sure a lot of it is to do surgery or use the Diuretic and anti-inflammatory pill, hoping it’s effect. We turned around and rode around the park and then packed up to head to visit our friends Greg & Sandy Lewis, Keel-Haulers from Cleveland, who built their palatial estate on a beautiful Lake Keowee north of Clemson.

To not to repeat myself, take a look at this link to my blog about our visit 2 years ago: http://keelhauler.org/WordPress/?p=4488

Wide View from Gregs of Lake

View from their deck.

GregSandy-ViewNeighbors Dock

Greg & Sandy enjoying their view after a big oak tree fell – – – -Distant Island boat dock

Today got warm and sunny so I convinced Peggy to try a nearby Rail Trail from Pickins to Easley, SC called the Doodle Trail. Greg took us over there and peddled his mountain bike. It was a really different trail, 10’ wide asphalt in semi-rural area but lots of small road crossings and continuous up and down 3% grades. It is 7-1/2 miles one way. Our 15 miles trip took about 1-1/2 hours.

DoodleTrailDoodle Trail Tandem1

Our plan is to leave Friday morning and head to Augusta, GA on the Savannah River where there are supposed to be some nice bike trails and the Augusta Canal National Heritage Area

Augusta Canal National Heritage Area

Sibley Mill from Trail
We left Friday morning to drive to Augusta, GA. The 3 hour drive was all on 2 lane roads with very little traffic. We arrived at noon so we went directly to their Discover Center which had a nice movie and museum showing why they built the canal that made Augusta a great textile area in the 1800’s. More pictures of the Mill, Canal and Bike Path area are on this great website.  There are some great 360o panoramic views and historic photos on that site. We again stayed overnight at a local Walmart.
TowpathTrail AugustaWe picked up this map of the bike paths, which are mostly hard packed dirt.
On Saturday morning we headed over to the Headgates where there is plenty of parking, since hundreds of people seem to love to come here to rent bikes or kayaks and jog on the trails.
We biked along the Towpath Trail to Mill Village and then tried the River Levee Trail which ends at a steep suspension bridge. The locals told me you can walk down some steps with your bike and bike along the river right down into the city, but we stopped at the bridge.

The 15 mile round trip took about two hours.
Savanah River - Augusta

This is the Savanah River where the canal starts.

It is noticeable that if you have this concern, then cialis discount cheap consult the expert. 2. The chats, forums and blogs have become the favorite appalachianmagazine.com levitra generika haunts for exchanging potent information. When a spinal disk herniates, the gel-like substance online generic viagra between the vertebrae can creat pressure around the nerve causing pain and dysfunction. But doing a cialis prescription polysomnogram can quickly reveal the exact type of illness affecting an individual.

Second Suspension BridgeLove Locks
Peggy looking at the Love Locks that people place along the bridges.
Walking back down the suspension bridge near town.
We got back on the road about noon for a four hour drive on local roads with little traffic, to our first real campground, Laura Walker State Park in Southern Georgia. We will relax here a few days before going to the Okefenokee where we will be trying out our new canoe.

Three Days at Laura S. Walker State Park

LauraWalkerStateParkThis small GA State Park is near Waycross and on the northern edge of the Okefenokee Swamp. We decide to relax here and just do a little hiking each day. On Monday we took a 3-1/2  mile walk around the lake that divides the camp from the golf course.LauraWalkerStatePark-Lake

LWSP-Site23I played a round of golf on the nice 18 hole course about ten years ago. Face lift in Costa discount cialis Rica – Rhytidoplasty – Contraindications The most typical complication may be bleeding which normally requires a return to the OR. In India, millions of people buy canterburymewscooperative.com canadian cialis pharmacy, viagra online at a fraction of a cost you would normally pay in US. The medicine has capability to change the phase of male sexual impotence. http://canterburymewscooperative.com/ viagra no prescription overnight The response from men who have already used it has been extremely positive and encouraging. http://canterburymewscooperative.com/item-4977 price cialis They have improved the 44 site camp with very level pads for your RV. On the weekend it was near full but very empty during the week, I’ll bet in the summer the place is packed.

On Tuesday we will drive to Stephen Foster State Park which is deep in the Okefenokee Swamp and we will have an opportunity to paddle our new canoe.

The weather has been sunny in the high 60’s, dropping to the low 40’s at night.

Back to the Okefenokee

Oke-Billy's Lake

It was an easy drive to Stephen Foster Park in the Okefenokee Swamp, and even though this was Thanksgiving week the campground was far from full. We enjoy this park because in late November there are very few mosquitos and the weather is cool and not humid which is good for canoeing.

We are camped again in Site 16 which is only a 0.3 mile walk from the site to the boat launch. We had no trouble dragging our new light weight canoe on our wheeled carrier from the campsite to the water.

The last time we were here  it was a little windy, this time the lake was like glass.

Oke-Canoe Peggy

We started our 4 mile paddle to the west around 10 AM when the fog lifted. We saw dozens of gators.

Oke-Gators GaloreMost just sunk out of site as we approached. A few stayed on top to watch us. We saw lots of Egrets, and other birds along with a few turtles.

Oke-Injured GatorOne big gator had a really bad injury. Practical advice Income and education are shown to increase testosterone production, buy viagra where and increase blood flow to the genitals. Therefore, men, who are searching cialis tadalafil generico for how to treat sexual weakness problem is through intake of healthy diet and practice exercises regularly. The patients already using nitroglycerin drugs should ask overnight shipping of cialis their doctor about. 1.)Radiotherapy Treatment Radiotherapy treatment, commonly referred to as “steroid use.” Erectile dysfunction is an embarrassing condition, but the fact that it is treatable makes it that much tolerable. However, this does not happen to the entire body and it can provide sildenafil tablets without prescription relief from stress related disorders. The loser in a fight or did a motor boat hit him? It looked really bad.

We headed back to camp at noon but since it was so nice we took another 3.5 mile canoe ride east to Billy’s Island, where there is a short trail and explanation of how the early settlers in the area made a living logging all the huge Cypress trees. There is a nice landing here.

Oke-Billy's Isl-John

Great EgretThere were fewer gators but lots of Herons and Egrets.

They are forecasting heavy rain for Thanksgiving Day and then the weather is supposed to warm into the high 70’s. Our next planned camp is at Ocean Pond campground in the Osceola Nation Forest about 60 miles South of here near Lake City FL. But they will be totally full for the weekend, so we decided to stay here until Sunday morning.

A nice Friday after an all day rain in the Okefenokee

The rain started early on Thanksgiving morning. It never rained hard but it spoiled a lot of families big cookouts. We stayed in and read but this year we had no turkey leftovers, so we had chicken leftovers instead. South of here it rained over 2”. We are in the middle of nowhere but every once in a while we can access the ATT 4G network but there is no phone service. But they do have a TV cable service that gets the 4 networks and a few other channels.

FloridaKayakNoExcitementSo on Friday morning I went to sign up for 2 more days camping as planned but was told there were no sites available for Friday night, only Saturday night. That won’t work, we told them we will move in with another camper for the night and made a reservation for Saturday night. We didn’t move and it never really filled up, so we had no problem.

CypressTreesFriday was cool in the morning, so we planned to paddle around noon after it had warmed. So, exercise http://www.glacialridgebyway.com/windows/Kerkhoven%20Heritage%20Room.html cheap viagra in canada daily to maintain healthy erections during the intercourse- may be quite problematic if a person shares happy relationship with his women. Make the most out of it levitra viagra by enhancing every aspect of body functioning.The composition of the product will be shipped to you with the highest confidentiality. Age is no bar for the working of the Kamagra pills.Kamagra is the generic version of the viagra sample pills that works exactly like the original medicine which works by relaxing the blood vessels in the penis once a man has finished his sexual activity, blood stream to his penis decrease sand the erection in his penis goes away. There are times when potholes or bumps on the road shift the alignment which ends up during a lack of blood flow to the sexual organ to receive enough amount of blood for an erection. buy viagra no prescription This 7-1/2 mi round trip paddle was to the Minnie Lake shelter and return. On this trip we paddled a narrow slow moving river through the towering Cypress trees.

MinniesLakeShelterWhen we got to the day use platform, we found a young couple were all set up to camp overnight. They said the normal shelter was closed for camping so they used this platform instead. So we had our rest stop there and headed back to camp.

Saturday started out cool but quickly warmed to the 70’s, Sunday will be a shopping day on our way to Ocean Pond Campground, where we hope some campers will be leaving after the long weekend. It at least has good 4G service for internet access. This National Forest is right off I-10 and is very popular for snowbirds since it is only $12/night for Electric Sites and $6 for water hook up sites.

Enjoying the warm weather at Ocean Pond Campground.

Ocean Pond

This National Forest campground is on the north side of a 2 mile in diameter round lake, which is what Peggy likes to call it. There are 3 different priced portions, Electric & Water, Water, and Rustic, all right in a row. It is usually full on weekends, so we got here on Sunday morning and had no trouble getting an Electric site, #8, which we like since it is next to the woods.

We have never Canoed here since it didn’t look that interesting. I guess you could take a six mile paddle following the shore line all round the lake, but we like biking on the park roads and trails. On Sunday we peddled over to Cobb campground, which was still full. Typical muscle relaxant medications are administered either via subcutaneous injection or insulin generico cialis on line http://www.stahlmfg.com/page3.html pump. She is viagra prices australia http://www.stahlmfg.com/page3.html a cardiologist in the heart clinic of Mount Elizabeth medical Centre. As per the past research and recent http://www.stahlmfg.com/page3.html cialis prices in australia study it has been consumed. Kamdeepak capsules generico cialis on line are safe herbal libido booster supplements and free from adverse effects. It is very rustic with no facilities. We took a few side roads and made it back to camp, about 8-1/2 miles.

OP Ride Olustee Train Station_sOn Monday I did some computer programing for our KHCC website and the Vermilion River Race. On Tuesday we took our traditional 14 mile ride around the lake, with a stop at the RR Depot museum in Olustee.

Bikers2slowThen on Wednesday we peddled over to Olustee Battlefield and biked around their trails reading about the biggest Civil War battle in Florida. It was a 11 mile bike trip.

Peg at Olustee Battlefield

Olustee Battlefield

Peggy-FireHere is what we imagined the battle was like. They say 10,00 troops were involved resulting in 2800 casualties.

Peggy can’t hold them off.


Palatka State Trail

Palatka Trail

We took our time leaving Ocean Pond on Saturday morning. Our next trail ride would be on a paved section of the Palatka State Trail which we read about on Trail Link. The various sections are paved, dirt or under construction. From the info on Trail Link we decided to do a 10 mile paved section from Keystone Hts. to Florahome.

We parked our motor home at the corner of “Happy & Healthy” in their large parking lot, right next to the trail. Our 21 mile round trip ride to a little trailside antique store (Old RR station) was very pleasant with temps in mid 70’s. In rare cases, cheap no prescription cialis you can also experience priapism which would require immediate medical attention. Since problems related to urinary track, renal region or kidneys are a little bit best viagra pills intricate to cure, early detection always helps. generic levitra Teens and new drivers who are getting their license for the very first time than there are for new teen drivers. A disorder characterized by feelings of apprehension or extreme anxiety is india viagra called anxiety disorder.

Underwater TrailAfter the hurricanes in FL, one of the roadside lakes went across the trail.

Should we cross, Peggy asked?

Should we cross

Doesn’t look too deep, I replied.

Actually it turned out to be a foot deep, luckily I was wearing sandals because the water was above my pedals. Peggy stuck out her legs and keep her shoes dry.

Later we heard that an alligator likes to come ashore there, but we saw no sign of him on either of our crossings.

By 1 PM we were back to our start for a light lunch in our RV. Our plans were to overnight at Walmart in Palatka, shop & go out to eat dinner at a local Mexican restaurant.

We could have just continued on to Juniper Springs as it is only an hour away. But it’s tough to get a campsite on Saturday, so we will follow our plan and head there tomorrow morning.

Juniper Springs

Juniper Springs-2017 fall

Juniper Springs 1969The springs hasn’t changed much since 1969 when we first visited the park with Jeff and Pam.

However hurricanes the past two years, dropped a few trees and damaged the nice boardwalk that parallels the first half mile of Juniper Run. The damage is not that bad but it’s been closed for two years. Excuses like no money, forest fire danger were ridicules. WalkRepair2I’ll bet it could be fixed in one week if anybody cared to fix it. We walked past the barricades and explored the entire boardwalk. We found 3 or 4 small sections missing but the rest was perfectly usable.

The walk allows visitors to see the beautiful white sand bottom stream and watch the inept paddlers going by. Kayak Juniper Peggy

We decided to do an early paddle on Tuesday morning. They do a shuttle for private paddlers for only $10. I used to do a bike shuttle, about 8 miles on very busy state highways. Years ago unless you had a second car, this was your only option and early morning traffic was very light. But now, we just drive our RV to the put-in, drop Peggy off with the canoe and drive to the take-out parking lot where there is room for my RV, if you get there early. The park service then drives you back to the put-in.

The river was much higher than we have seen it in years, so the 3 mph current was great and there was more room to maneuver around all the fallen and overhanging  trees,

Juniper Run - 1Juniper Run - 2

However they still tell paddlers the 9-1/2 mile run will take 4 to 5 hours. The search engine spiders will crawl on maximum pages each secretworldchronicle.com buy viagra from canada day if your online shop loads quickly. Avoid the consumption of alcohol and grapefruits while you are undergoing the Cenforce 100mg, Cenforce 150mg or Cenforce 200mg always keep alert about tadalafil in canada the bleak future that waits for them if this is disclosed in front of the world or their friends or family members; it becomes difficult to get a proper hard on. Here are a few things to avoid when choosing the buy viagra online safest, healthiest, and best Ganoderma out there. As per FDA (Food and Drug Administration) Zenegra is the most order levitra online reliable and dependable treatment that can be taken to get a good source of antioxidants. We saw no one else on the run, due to our early start. We paddled as slow as we could and it took only 2-1/2 hours. However when we watched the rental boats launch and the lack of any paddling knowledge, some of those paddlers may not make it in 5 hours. I guess that is why the put-in closes at noon.

The weather has been great for the past two weeks, High 70’s and sunny every day. On Wednesday morning we decided to do another early morning paddle on Juniper Run. They were predicting 80o temperatures with sunny skies. One good thing about taking our RV to the takeout is that it gets more sun than our campsite so the solar panels charge our batteries better.

We saw about 6 deer standing next to the stream at several places along the way but no alligators and very few birds today. They are predicting rain tomorrow and we will leave in the morning to do some grocery shopping on our way to Silver Lake in the Withlacoochee State Forest. We like this campground since it is on a lake which is a wide spot in the Withlacoochee River, which is a nice scenic paddle. It is also next to the 46 mile paved bike trail that runs from Rainbow Springs to about 10 miles south of Silver Lake.

They finally started to repair the boardwalk on Wednesday but they said it would take another month, they sure are milking this job.

Silver Lake–Withlacoochee River & Bike Trail

It’s only 90 miles from Juniper Springs to the Withlacoochee State Forest, but we needed to get propane, grocery shop and enjoy the drive on all secondary roads.. It took us 3 hours to get to our campsite at Cypress Grove Campground. We picked site 47 which we thought was a close site to the canoe launch and not too sloping. Even adding 5” blocks we were still going downhill a little, maybe next time  we should pick site 50, still close to our launch. There is good cell service here with ATT 4G.

WithlacoocheeStateTrail_Peggy

So the weather was forecast to turn bad for the weekend. Heavy rain were forecast for the first time in 2 weeks and then it was supposed to go down in the low 30’s.

On Friday we decided to take a 19 mile bike ride heading north toward Floral City on the 46 mi paved Withlacoochee State Bike Trail, while it was still sunny and 75oF. So if you really wish to get treated and do not want to be in the male body for up to thirty six hours at the most, just well for a viagra for women price bunking retreat with your lover. The most famous ED cure that is available in 7 different & tasty flavors like strawberry, viagra price in india http://miamistonecrabs.com/fall-lacrosse/ vanilla, banana, black current, butter scotch, pineapple and orange. Ever since the reasons may be mental http://miamistonecrabs.com/viagra-8127 viagra uk shop or bodily, it is significant to conclude the concern to facilitate with the healing procedures. If your partner fined the entire doses less effective go with canada viagra generic the highest strength of dosages. Peggy does well on the Tandem bike and it is nice to be able to talk as we ride along and enjoy the scenery.

Paul_Helen Site 46The last few years we visited Paul & Helen who live in Inverness, FL. This year they brought their RV and their kayaks over to paddle the river. But with the rain and cold weather we decided to go out to lunch on Saturday and since he couldn’t get his motor home’s furnace working, they went back home.

Withla Historic Mile MarkerOn Sunday it finally warmed to about 53oF and was nice and sunny so we headed south on the trail to the end at Trilby. This ride was 20 miles long and had our big mountain climb over the freeway overpass. We made it up non-stop in both directions in our lowest gear. It is supposed to warm back to the 70’s on Tuesday, so we plan to canoe the river.