Author: keelhauler

The river level has been good for the Alafia River that runs right through the park. However I’m still at campsite 15 which is a long way from the river. I wanted to move to a closer site but the campground has had people in line to get a site everyday and I figured I wouldn’t try to move yet. Maybe after Christmas one of the river sites will become available, then I’ll work out a shuttle and try paddling since it’s going to be freezing for a few days anyway. It looks like we will only have 3 cold days and then we will warmup next week back to near 80^oF with lows in the 60’s.

It’s been very nice temperature for doing biking (Cardiac Rehab). I’ve paddled two more days on the winding paths for about 32 miles  through the Fish Hawk Ranch housing development. A few of the creek crossing bridges are still closed from the hurricane a couple of months ago. 

One good thing about this campground is the internet service from my tethered cell phone. It is fast and always working. Also, we are only about 5 miles from all the tall TV towers so we get great TV service. I must get 80 different digital stations including all the major networks without even raising or aiming my RV’s antenna.

Here is the campsite I’ve been at in the past that I’m hoping to move to.

Site 40 – Lithia Springs

Before the cold weather hit FL late Friday I was able to get in another 15 mile bike ride through the bike trails of Fishhawk Ranch. Then I had:

Christmas Eve Visitors

 

Judi & Larry Fordyce, longtime friends, were down in Cape Coral with Larry’s mother and are now heading back to Cleveland and then  out west for their winter ski trip. 

They have a new Winnebago RV that will carry their bikes, canoe and skis. They decided to stay with me for a few days over the Christmas holidays and take some bike rides.

However it’s going to be a little cold for a few days, with morning lows around 32^o.

Here is what the inside of their RV looks like.

We took a cool hike around the park and Spring and on Christmas I watched football games on TV.

They took a picture of me sitting in the front of their RV.

Finally it warmed to near 50^o on Monday so we took a nice 14 mi bike ride over the trails in Bell Creek Nature Preserve, some are old paved roads some are sandy grass trails with very few markers, so we got lost once.

Here I am bundled up and ready for our ride on my new bike.

Site 15 – Lithia Springs

We finally found our way out of the unmarked trails and Judi spotted some Peacocks along the way.

 I wonder if someone has some pets or they just roam around the area.

Dinner at La Villa

When we got back Judi & Larry took me out to dinner to my favorite Mexican restaurant in FL. A real taste of Mexican cooking that I’ve enjoyed since they opened about 5 years ago.

It is just up the road from the campground and Peggy and I used to ride our bike out to dinner there.

But early Tuesday morning I had to say goodbye to my friends.

I finally snagged a campsite closer to the river so I can paddle down the Alafia River, and take-out right next to my campsite #35. Now I’ll have to see if I can arrange a shuttle up to Alderman’s Ford Park.

My new campsite is right across from this little beach take-out.

The river runs through Lithia Springs park and was one of Peggy’s favorites. It has a nice current and at low flows has little limestone shoals to maneuver through. It usually has lots of fallen trees and if they haven’t cleared the blockage could result in having to portage around them.

On Wednesday the temperature was finally going to be in the 70’s so I got the campground host, Chris, to throw my kayak on top of his Jeep and shuttle me to the put-in at Alderman’s Ford. 

This will be my first paddling trip this winter. The river had a lot of deadfall but I was able to make it without getting out of my kayak to portage anywhere.

 I stopped for a short lunch break at Duck Landing and completed the 8 mile run in 2-1/2 hrs. Faster that I usually paddled in my canoe with Peggy. The park says it’s a 4-6 hour trip.

I plan to be here until at least Monday after New Year’s day, so I hope to get on the river one more time unless the river drops too low. 

The flow was 200 CFS, last year when I paddled with Barry Adams, it was only 175 CFS but was still OK. 

There is a chance of rain Saturday so maybe I should wait until Sunday and hope for a higher water level.

Picture of my new campsite closer to the river.  

Site 36 – Lithia Springs

The temps are going into the high 70’s today so I decided to leave about 11 AM and take another 2 hour, 18 mile, bike ride through the Fish Hawk neighborhood paths again,

On Thursday and Friday I took 2 more bike rides around Fish Hawk Ranch bike paths about 35 miles. This makes 7 different rides on various trails for about 120 miles. I’m getting good Cardiac Rehab here. 

The picture is a good picnic spot at Shadow Run Park on the way to Bell Creek Nature Preserve

On New Years Eve I couldn’t get either MI or OH State games on my TV but I watched the play by play on Yahoo. Not so good but I got to see both of them lose. It took all the way to 2023 to finish the heartbreaking end to a game that Ohio State led all the way.

On New Years Day I again got our campground host, Chris, to give me a shuttle to the put-in at Alderman’s Ford. It is really nice that he does this for me, he used to haul Peggy & I up with our big canoe. In all the years we’ve paddled here I only found two other paddlers who wanted to paddle the river and worked out a shuttle.

It was a warm foggy day to start and even with a 30 minute lunch break, I made the 9 mile paddle in 3 hours. I saw 2 big alligators and lots of big turtles. For some reason it was the most Herons I’ve ever seen on this river.

I’ve been at Lithia Springs 15 nights and decided to try to get a site at EG Simmons Park on Tampa Bay. It is also a County Park that does not take reservations but if you arrive early at the end of a weekend you can usually find a campsite. I left my Lithia Springs at 7 AM on Monday morning and did the short drive over to near Apollo Beach. Not much traffic on a holiday morning. I got there before the gate opened at 8 AM, so I was number 1 on the wait list for any available campsites. 

It looked like there would be at least 8 sites available but they won’t hand them out here until after 11 AM checkout time. I saw that a site I had stayed in before would be available, so I was very happy. I had to do my weekly grocery shopping anyway and a visit to an ATM, since their credit card scanner is not working and they want cash. So here I am at Site #79 next to the water channel to the bay. I have plenty of room. I plan to stay here for 14 days doing both kayaking and biking.

Site 79 – EG Simmons

The weather was hot & sunny and almost set a record, temperature got up to 85^o F.

I have camped at EG Simmons County Park six different times in last seven years. I’m happy that many travelers skip this campground because the park does not take reservations. But I found out that if you come after a weekend rather than before a weekend it is easy to get a site in January.

If fact during the past week there were plenty of open campsites until Friday afternoon. I have never seen that many empty campsites. The have 100 large campsites in two campgrounds. I like the East campground since the sites are larger and it is near the canoe trail.

Canoe Trail

You can hike, fish, paddle or ride your bike around the roads all over the park. They have a nice canoe trail laid out with 20 numbered posts in the water starting in the north channel of the east campground and around the bay in the center of the park. You can paddle 2 miles to post #20 and walk back to the kayak launch or just paddle one mile back to your start. All the campsites in either campground have easy access to Tampa Bay for canoes or kayaks. So far this trip I’ve paddled the trail twice. The weather has been great, temperatures are in the high 70’s. We did have one rainy day.

Area Map

Red, Green, Blue & Yellow lines are my 4 long bike rides & kayak paddle across bay.

But why confine your bike riding to the park. The main road from the park to the different neighborhoods around Ruskin and Apollo Beach has a nice bike lane on a lightly travelled road. The neighborhoods have sidewalks and quiet residential gated communities. I had no trouble going past the gates and then peddle up and down all the beautiful streets in the Apollo Beach area. 

So far I did two 20 mile bike rides, and a 16 mi ride on Sunday, I take a lunch with me and stop at some of the nice park areas and take a rest stop in the shade of their pavilions.

You can bike ride all the way over to a Manatee viewing area built by the power company. Hundreds of Manatees are attracted to the warm water being discharged into Tampa Bay. This in-turn attracts lots of tourists. The last road to the viewing area has no bike lane or sidewalk and some traffic to deal with. 

However even though Peggy didn’t like riding on roads with cars she didn’t mind the sprint up the road to the attraction. 

It looks like we will have nice dry weather for another week. It is  forecast to rain on my birthday weekend.

 I have been surprised that this year the campground has never filled up. It has 115 nice campsites and it seems like I see available sites almost everyday. The weather has been slightly above normal and we only had two rain storms over my entire stay.

I got in 4 long bike rides and several shorter ones around the park and out to dinner one day. I paddled twice around their marked canoe trail and one time across the bay to the Apollo Beach area. I updated the map I posted in my last blog showing all the paths that my “Map My Ride” GPS Ap displayed. Rather than post the map again, here is the link to the updated MAP, or just look at my January 8th blog.

I cook almost all of my meals, always eating good full course meals the same as Peggy & I always cooked on our  previous trips. I ate out when Judi and Larry visited me, but this week on Thursday I biked over to Julies Fish House which is only about 2-1/2 miles from my campsite. 

They prepare nice fish dinners in a casual outdoor atmosphere. You order at the window and share a picnic table or do take-out. This is a photo from four years ago when I was there with Peggy. They are only open three days a week and it is very popular and highly rated. This year I had Grouper which was very tasty.

This last weekend it turned cold, for me. Morning lows are in the 40’s and highs barely reaching into the mid-fifties. It is also very windy so I may not do anymore paddling. I may take a few more short bike rides around the park and watch the NFL football playoff games. Two years ago Peggy and I camped here on Super Bowl weekend which was played in Tampa. The campground was very full on that weekend.

My plan is to leave here on Monday morning and do my bi-weekly shopping. You can’t check in at Oscar Scherer State Park until after 2 pm so I have plenty of time to get there. It is only 60 miles south of here, between Sarasota and Venice, FL Last year I was able to get a campsite there for 3 nights and enjoyed that it is on the Legacy paved bike trail that goes from downtown Sarasota to south of Venice with a new spur all the way to North Port. One thing about FL State Parks is that they are always reserved 11 months in advance and give no discount to out-of-state campers. So I was lucky to get a site and I hope to enjoy my two week stay here. My friends Barry & Sue from MI plan to be here during the same period.

Sunday was my birthday and while I was doing a zoom call with my daughters who were at Joan’s home celebrating a belated Christmas my three tooth bridge fell out of my mouth. It was feeling loose all week and it finally let go.

So I started to explore where I could find a dentist near Osprey, FL. Well just down the street from my new campground, about a mile, was a very large dental provider called, Dental Care at Casey Key. 

On Monday 1/16 I checked into my campsite #88, it was small but private behind the palms and mangroves and right across from the bathrooms.

Oscar Sherer campground is a hidden gem surrounded by housing developments and major highways, and it is right on the paved Legacy Bike Trail.

I was able see the dentist on Tuesday afternoon. I took a 14 mi bike ride to shop which included the 2 mile ride to my appointment. 

They took lots of x-rays and said they could not put the bridge back in and to prevent infection I would need to see an Oral Surgeon to remove two old teeth which were under the missing bridge. So they made an appointment on Thursday to have them removed. 

I called my Westlake dentist and he concurred with their approach. He felt I could wait until I came home in late March to make a new crown and the new bridge, since there would not be enough time to have one made while I was still here in the area.

So now I had Wednesday free to explore the Legacy Trail, which was the reason I decided to come to this park for two weeks.

The trail now runs from Sarasota to south of Venice with a new spur all the way over to North Port. Below is a link to a really good very detailed interactive map that shows Parking, Dining, Water, Restrooms, Bike Shops and Lodging and can be zoomed in to great detail.

Friends of the Legacy Trail Interactive Map

On Wednesday I peddled to south of Venice, another 19 mile round trip ride on the trail.

On Thursday it was time for pullen. The Oral Surgeon’s office, Suncoast Specialists, was much further away in Sarasota but it still could be reached by using the Legacy Trail. So I didn’t have to take any bike lanes on busy highways, I took a longer route to get there and back which made it about 22 miles. He did the extractions in 30 minutes and I slowly biked my way back to camp. So now Friday became a rest day for me to get the healing to begin.

By Saturday I decided I would jump on the trail again to shop for food and some sealant to seal some cracks in the old sealant on my 10 year old RV roof. It was cooler and I enjoyed the 18 mile shopping trip, stopping at Lowes, Walgreens, Walmart and a large RV dealer near the campground.

On Sunday, my RV friends, Barry & Sue are supposed to arrive, the have E-Bikes, I hope I can keep up with their speed when we go bike touring.

This is for Meg who loves Florida’s Critters

 I came to Oscar Scherer State Park again this year to explore the Legacy Trail and all the new extensions. Last year I was only here for 3 days and did the whole trail but now they have extended it both North & South. They have also added a spur East all the way over to Deer Prairie Creek Preserve near the town of North Port. Here is a short 5 minute video which describes a little bit about the trail.

Legacy Trail Video 

I like that they have picnic tables along the trail at one mile intervals and many parking lots for trail access. They are also building more playgrounds and deluxe rest area like this park at Ashton Rd where I stopped for lunch. 

One interesting fact is there are a lot of Amish near this park, most of them on E-Bikes, here is one couple using the air pump and tools on a post in the park.

The Legacy Trail has been extended North and now ends in downtown Sarasota near Payne Park about 13 miles north of Oscar Scherer Park where I am staying. They also just completed a 1 mi long protected bike lane in both directions, east along Ringling Blvd. On Monday I decided to head north but I should have looked at the map closer before I did my 29 mile trip. 

I was hoping to get on the Alphabet Trail which is a dirt trail that goes south to a new bridge that they just put in place but I found the trail was closed when I got there.

So I ate my lunch on a park bench by the closed gate and decided that was as far as I cared to bike since I  didn’t want to go any further along the noisy I-75 freeway. There were bikers on the nice new paved trail, I probably saw a dozen pass by while I was eating lunch. A few nice bikers wondered why I was sitting on a bench in the middle of nowhere and stopped to ask if I needed any help. 

My total bike trip was a 30-1/2 mile round trip ride and when I got back to the Legacy Trail, Barry & Sue biked past me going south. So we stopped and chatted before they continued south and I headed back to the campground and a nice shower.

I decided not to bike on Wednesday and write this blog instead since Barry & Sue said they may want to bike with me to Sarasota on Thursday.

On my last blog I mentioned I would bike on Thursday with Barry & Sue on their E-Bikes to Bayfront Park in Sarasota. We all enjoyed the views of the Sarasota Causeway Bridge and it was certainly worth extending the bike ride off the trail on the new Ringling Parkway’s sheltered bike lanes. Only the last 1/4 mi is missing but the traffic is very light. It was a 30 mile ride and we stopped at a Rally’s on the parkway for lunch. That was my only ride with them as we seemed to always have different plans.

Venetian Waterway

Circus Lift Bridge on S Tamiami Trail

On Friday I did a 22 mi bike ride south along the Legacy Trail to the Venetian Waterway which has trails on both sides but very few options to easily cross. I found the easiest and safest way to cross was over the Circus Lift Bridge which has nice wide sidewalks. I headed to the end of the trail at Caspersen Beach on the Gulf of Mexico.

Site 24

My two weeks at Oscar Scherer State Park was over on Monday and did my bi-weekly shopping on the way to WP Franklin Locks on the Caloosahatchee River just East of Fort Myers. All their sites are on the river, either in the freshwater upstream or salt water downstream of the lock.

It was very hot, temperatures are forecast too be in the mid 80’s for the next two weeks. I plan to do more kayaking than biking here since there are very few options for nice bike rides.

So on Tuesday I paddled the Caloosahatchee upstream  about a mile to Hickey Creek. This winding creek has many homes along it but finally ends in a nice park which was a good place for lunch.

On Wednesday I rode my bike around the neighborhood housing developments and even did a trail ride in Telegraph Creek Preserve which has hiking trails right across the road from our campground. 

They allow bikes and it is hardly used by anyone. When people get to the end of the campground driveway at River Rd (SR 78), they see the 55 mph traffic with no bike lanes so they turn around, but you only need to use the road for less that 1/4 mile. I was able to bike through the 3 neighborhoods for about 9 miles and did the 1-1/2 mi trail shown in green, beyond where I stopped it got sandy.

On Thursday I again kayaked upstream past all the million dollar homes with their big yachts out front to the Caloosahatchee Regional Park which is a rustic park with mountain bike trails and a tent campground, no RV’s. It has more than a  mile of frontage along the river and has one tiny place where you can stop and enjoy a lunch at a picnic table.  The shore is lined with large boulders and this was the only place to stop.

Next week I hope to be visited by my niece Pat and Tom Foos who are staying at his mother’s condo in Naples. Then I hope to see my kayak friends, Kelly & Brent, who are also my next door neighbors at Beaver Creek. They are flying in to visit Brent’s parents near Post Charlotte.

Sunset on the Caloosahatchee

Lock & my camp

My campsite, shown in the picture, is at a Lock on the Caloosahatchee River, the locks allow boats to cross the state of FL from Fort Myers to West Palm Beach. It’s a popular campground but each year I have been able to reserve a campsite.

Telegraph Creek Dinosaur

Last Saturday I paddled 3/4 mi West of the lock to Telegraph Creek. Each year I look for the  Telegraph Creek Dinosaur. Well after all these years I guess the flood after Hurricane Ian took him out, no more Dino.

 

 

 

The creek was low and I did see a really big alligator. He didn’t move when I paddled past him going upstream but when I was coming back I stopped to take a picture, he slowly sank into the water.

On Monday, Pat & Tom Foos arrived with their E-Bikes. Our plan like last year was for them to load up my bike and the three of us will explore all the bike paths in the nearby development of Babcock Ranch. From their brochure:  “Babcock Ranch spans over 17,000 acres of land and will eventually consist of 19,500 homes. Planned healthcare options and new medical facilities designed to support a larger population of residents and an abundance of parks open spaces, additional golf, and 50 total miles of trails, will create an open invitation to stay active and well.” 

Right now they are building new homes like crazy, prices are $300 -$600K and up. We explored the outer perimeter of the development on many of their wide bike paths. In the new areas we biked down the newly paved roads. We started at the big Publix Grocery store and when we finished our 17 mile ride we stopped for lunch next door at a great little restaurant, M’Xuma Tacos.

Nine Mile Ride

On Wednesday I did another 9 mile neighborhood bike ride but it required me to go about a mile down River Road to get there. I did short sprints using wide spots and waited until there was no traffic to do the next sprint. I made a good fast pace on the long dead end roads.

On Thursday my friend’s Kelly & Brent stopped by to say hello. They were heading to Brent’s parents who live about an hour north of here. Brent was in Palm Beach all week and drove over to Fort Myers airport to pickup Kelly who just flew in from Chicago this morning.