2019-2020 Trip – Page 2 – Keel-Hauler's RV Travel Stories

Another Warm Week

On Thursday 1/9, our new friend from Wisconsin, Glenn, gave us another ride to the Alafia River Alderman Ford Put-In. We got a little rain on Saturday but by Thursday the level had dropped back down to 190 CFS. This is a good level for beginners but there is less room to navigate the little limestone shoals without touching a rock.

Downstream from the Put-in

Typical River Deadfall

Most of the river has a lot of deadfall from previous storms. They seem to keep a path clear but I’ll bet inexperienced paddlers will have a hard time weaving through the branches. Peggy always picks a good path for us without touching a branch.

Following the Great Heron down the river

We didn’t see as many birds today and no alligators. There was a great Heron leading us down the river (Ahead on the right shore). With a short stop for a quick lunch we made it in exactly 3 hours. It’s faster when the water level is higher.

Sandhill Cranes along the bike path

We took 3 more bike rides on the Fish Hawk Ranch ranch trails. We saw several pair of Sandhill Cranes near the path. They are not frightened by people. The map below shows the 4 rides we took since we got here. This year they wouldn’t let us through the gated neighborhood at Fish Hawk Trails, the Yellow Trail on right side of the map. We couldn’t talk our way in. It is a very nice trail that circles the entire neighborhood.

Map of all 4 of our bike rides at Fishhawk Ranch

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Last last two weeks set high temperature records and we only had one day with rain.

We leave here on Tuesday, 1/14 and drive down to WP Franklin Corps-of-Engineers Campground at a lock on the Caloosahatchee River near Ft Myers, FL It is a really nice campground but doesn’t have all the nice shade and trails like here at Lithia Springs. But several of our Phoenix Cruiser friends should be there again this year.

Birthday at WP Franklin

We got to our next camp, W.P. Franklin Corp-of-Engineers campground on the Caloosahatchee River near Fort Myers by noon after doing our weekly grocery trip along the way. We like this camp because it is a small island by a river lock and has nice big campsites.

Campsite 11 on the Caloosahatchee Waterway

View from Camp

We have been in four different campsites in other years, most had nice shade. The temperatures have been sunny and in the high 80’s, so it is very hot with our south facing site.

River Dinosaur

So on Wednesday we took our canoe out for a 6 mile paddle up and back on Telegraph Creek. We like to think this old fallen tree is a dinosaur.

Gator along Telegraph Creek

We didn’t see many birds but we saw at least 5 alligators, most were small.

Birthday Dessert

Our Phoenix Cruiser friends, Barry & Sue are here, we have seen them here the past 3 years. When they found out it was my birthday they picked up a couple of great chocolate cake slices for Peggy & me. We really enjoyed them for dessert.

I photo-shopped the picture so I could show both of us enjoying our cake.

On Thursday, we took a short 8 mile bike ride through the three developments next to the campground. It was getting hot again so we spent the rest of the day at camp.

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Our Last Day at WP Franklin Campground

Sunset

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Our campsite here had good sunrise and sunset views. We faced due south on the Caloosahatchee River at Franklin Lock.

Our Two Weeks at WP Franklin

On hot days we had no shade but on our second week the temperatures came back down to normal so it was very pleasant.

There are a few small neighborhoods nearby where we could ride our bike for about 8 miles up and down the winding streets, but the main road has no bike lanes and we needed to sprint between the developments to avoid the fast cars. We only biked 4 times, about 32 miles.

There are two nice scenic creeks to explore with our canoe. Telegraph Creek is about 1/2 mi downstream from camp and Hickey Creek is about 1 mile upstream from camp. The Caloosahatchee River has a lot of boat traffic on weekends but it is very quite on weekdays. We did two 7 mile paddles on Telegraph and one 8 mile paddle on Hickey. Both creeks were a little scummy but we saw turtles and small gators on both.

So far this winter there has been almost no rain wherever we were. We woke to a little drizzle this morning but before noon everything was dry. We had two cold and windy days so we headed into town for shopping and for an early dinner at Carrabbas Grill using our Christmas gift certificate from Jeff & Marcie.

So tomorrow 1/28 we will be heading about 70 miles to Myakka State Park for two days. It has been 12 years since we were able to get a campsite here, it is a very popular park. We hope to paddle down river to Deep Hole and see all the gators.

Myakka River State Park

It has been 12 years since we last stayed here. It is a popular park and the reservations fill up moths in advance. They have three campgrounds. We were able to get a small site #39 in Old Prairie Campground for just two days. So we planned to get here before 10 AM even though check-in time is not until after 1 PM. We were able to get a permit to canoe to Deep Hole from the launch right at the campground entrance. The large picnic ground had a 500’ sidewalk to the river so we could easily wheel our canoe cart to put-in from the large parking lot.

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Myakka River Gator

The narrow river flows two miles south to the large Lower Myakka Lake. Right at the start near the highway bridge were some of the biggest alligators we have see on the trip, we counted 2o before we got out of site of the highway. I think we even hit a large gator that swam under us.

The river was very low and we had to walk across a sandbar to get into the lake where we saw a flock of white pelicans.

White Pelicans

There were more large birds along the way than we have seen anywhere else.

It is about a mile to get across the lake and to find “Deep Hole”. The beach and water here of full of hundreds of large gators.

Even without a boat the permit allows you to hike 2-1/4 miles to a nearby beach that you can view the crowd of gators. They only hand out 30 permits/day to either paddle or hike. We were the only boat we saw on our early morning paddle.

Deep Hole Gators

When we saw all the gators in the water as well as on the beach we decided to turn around and head back. It was a harder paddle back against the wind and the current in the river. We made it back to the ranger station just after 1 PM and got our campsite permit. The only site that we were able to book was a 20’ site for our 27’ RV. However the lengths they publish must include a car since there was enough room.

Our our second day we decided to bike the rest of the park taking the park road to the north gate that is only open on weekends. We had a snack there and cars and campers were wondering how to get into or out of the park. There were no signs that told them how to get to the main entrance 28 miles away. These people were following their GPS which didn’t know that this is not the normal entrance. We tried to explain to these drivers that they needed to drive over 20 miles out of their way. The nice 7 mile long 25 mi/hr park road was full of bicycles that they rent at the Upper Myakka Lake. It was a pleasant shady bike ride and the cars were slow and careful of the bike and pedestrian traffic.

Last night we had a little rain but they are predicting another dry day. We leave latter this morning for a short 70 mi drive to Highland Hammock State Park near Sebring, FL. We will stay there for three nights, again that’s all that was available.

Highland Hammock State Park

I know we have visited this park but I’ll bet it was over 30 years ago. I couldn’t remember what we did, that’s why I like creating these blogs. At least it reminds me what we did and if we liked the park.

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The park first opened in 1931, it was developed by CCC in 1934 and became one of the first Florida state parks in 1935. The 140 site campground is crowded under a large canopy of trees, it feels like you are jammed in pretty tight but they do have 30 amp power & water at each site. Some large RV’s may have trouble finding a site they could fit in.

They have a bunch of short hiking trails, some raised on boardwalks that can be reached from the 4 mile paved bike trail that winds through a jungle like setting including a claimed 1000 year old oak tree.

There are some longer bike trails that are on old gravel roads. There is also a 3 mi asphalt trail that parallels the main road all the way to Sebring. We rode about 18 miles on our tandem bike on all the various trails.

We camped here for three days and enjoyed the small CCC museum visitor center that is run by the volunteers.

Saturday we had a light rain that curtailed our activities.

On Sunday we will head south to Lake Worth, FL near West Palm Beach and watch the Superbowl game at John Prince County Park.

John Prince County Park

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John Prince Park in Lake Worth, FL is a few miles south of West Palm Beach.
This is a large county park with 300 tightly squeezed campsites. Many sites can be reserved for the entire winter season, those along the lake have a 14 day limit.
Since we were only staying for 12 days that’s where we had hoped to get a campsite, but no luck they put us in a compact section with almost all French speaking Quebecers.

The campground has 300 sites all with electric and water and some with full sewer hookups. There were several reasons we came here. It is pretty far south so the temperatures are usually near 80oF.

The campground is part of a very large city park right off I-95 that has a beautiful 10 mile long paved bike trail that goes entirely around Lake Osborne.

You can also bike into a gated community around a golf course. It is close to grocery stores and shopping centers as well.

We stayed here for a week 4 years ago but we decided it is too unlike the “Real Florida”. We like wild nature and even though there are Wood Storks, Egrets and Herons along the bike path and lake, it is much too civilized for our taste.

There was even a big festival in the park this weekend, called the Garlic Festival, with carnival rides, entertainment and food like garlic ice cream and donuts. Luckily it was a mile away so we were not bothered by any noise. We did not attend.

We will be here until Valentine’s day this coming Thursday and we head back to the west coast to stay again at WP Franklin Corps of Engineers campground on the Okeechobee River which is a cross FL waterway from West Palm beach to Fort Myers.

Slowly heading North–Back at WP Franklin

North Bound FL Trip Map

The FL map above shows our next four planned camping spots. Yesterday we headed north (only 10 miles to #2 – WP Franklin Corps of Engineers Campground where had stayed last month. We will stay here two weeks before heading North to #3 – Lithia Springs County Park for 5 days and then North to #4 – Silver Lake Park in Withlacoochee State Forest for 4 more days and finally to #5 – Ocean Pond Campground in Osceola National Forest.

We don’t plan to drive on any interstate highways until be reach NC. We find that the state and local highways have less truck traffic and in the south are in much better condition than our northern roads and therefore much more relaxing to drive.

After Ocean Pond we will begin to check the weather in Cleveland as well as the road conditions for driving through GA, SC, NC, VA, WV & OH. We usually plan to get home about mid March.

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Two weeks of warm weather near Fort Meyers

View From Our Campsite #6

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We got to our campsite on Valentines day. It is the same campground we were at in January but we got a much nicer campsite. It is under a nice big shade tree , however now we can’t see the sunrise or sunset like we could in our other site#11. At least it is not out in the hot sun and it is more private with a better view. We occasionally see Bald Eagles in the tree directly across the channel.

Because of the hot weather and the windy days we only paddled twice up Telegraph Creek for a 7 mile paddle, but the river was also very low since there has not been much rain. Telegraph Creek can be paddled upstream for about 3 miles or so and there are a lot of birds and a few turtles.

Right before it empties out into the Caloosahatchee River there was always a big alligator hanging out. On the opposite bank was a crazy boxer dog that would bark at us and jump into the water. The alligator usually went in also, I figured maybe that was his strategy to grab the stupid dog while he was preoccupied with barking at us.

We also only biked twice around the neighborhood streets and that was only 9 miles each time. I guess we are either getting lazy, getting old or hate biking in 80o weather.

Early on Friday morning we will head north to Lithia Springs Park. We will do some grocery shopping and get some propane in Arcadia, FL.

They don’t take reservations and Fridays are usually not a good day to arrive. It is supposed to be a cold weekend so we are hoping there will be a campsite that we can get.

Hot two weeks but now turning colder

Slight Change in Plans

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As I feared, when we got to Lithia Springs Park on Friday morning we found there was no available camp sites for the weekend. None of the other Hillsborough County Parks had any sites available. I looked at my maps and figured since it was still early in the day and the weather was finally warming back up, maybe we should take a bike ride and try for a free camp somewhere.

We had never tried the 29 miles long paved Van Fleet State Trail which runs from Polk City a little east of Lakeland, north to SR50. It was easy to get to. The trail is not as busy as the Withlacoochee State Trail and had less walkers. So the bike groups like it because they can run at 20 mph without worrying about running into someone coming around a curve. This trail is absolutely straight with one gentle curve.

We did an 18 mile round trip up and back to the next access parking lot and never passed anyone. The trail was in partial sun and it was a windy day.

Our plan was to then overnight at a Walmart parking lot in Gibsonia north of Lakeland. When we got there the lot was full of signs that said no RV parking. So we kept on going to Zephyrhills where we knew there was a quiet Lowes that we could park.

We had a good night’s sleep but needed to find something to do and where to camp for the next two days. We knew our campsite at Silver Lake was not available until Monday.

We found the Withlacoochee River Park nearby, I called and they said they had an available site but when we got there someone had taken it. He told us no problem the recreational field has 25 empty sites with water and 30 amp hookups but no tables. It was out in the bright sun on this cool day so it was fine but other that a few short hiking and biking trails there was not much to do so we only stayed overnight on Saturday.
I suggested that we are still very close to the North end of the Van Fleet State Trail so lets go over there around noon on Sunday, and try that end of the trail.

This time we did a 19 mile round trip from Mabel to Bay Lake Trailhead. Being a Sunday we saw more people but it was an easy fast ride on a flat trail. They have toilets at the 4 parking areas and benches or picnic tables at one mile intervals. This end is through a swampy area but was still very scenic.

We had one more night to find a place to stay and we knew there was a Cracker Barrel Restaurant only a couple of miles from Silver Lake Campground where we had reservations for the next 6 nights starting Monday night. We had a nice dinner and stayed in their parking lot for the same price as the last campground charged. Of course it was right next to noisy I-75 but we were tired and slept well.

Early Monday we got our site in the Cypress Glen Camp loop and had another rest day. On Tuesday we will bike the Withlacoochee State Trail to the post office in

Nobleton where we can mail Joan and Meg’s birthday cards. As usual we will miss both their birthdays.

One week at Silver Lake

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We arrived early on Monday morning 3/2 and plan to leave early on 3/9. After our 17 mile bike ride on Tuesday we were surprised by the arrival of our friends, Bud & Pat, from Highland Hts, OH. They own the same model Phoenix Cruiser that we do. They had hoped to spend the winter in FL but a serious illness in their family kept them at home until a few weeks ago. So now they were just heading south while we were heading back north. They plan to camp here at Cypress Glen Campground until Saturday.

On Wednesday we biked with them on the Good Neighbor Trail to Brooksville, FL like we did last year. It is a 27 mile round trip ride and we stopped for lunch at the Main Street Café in the downtown. They both had new bikes, Pat had an E-Bike so she had no problem keeping up with our tandem bike. You have to peddle to make it go but on the level trails it can go 100 miles before recharging. In fact after we came back they both kept biking for another 10 miles or so. They even took a longer ride on Thursday while we rested and read our Kindle books.

Bud and Pat went biking again on Friday. It got cooler and we planned to paddle down the Withlacoochee River. We were dressed for the cool weather but the 25 mph wind made us turn around. It was still windy Saturday but it was supposed to be warmer on Sunday so we decided to paddle on Sunday and stay here one more night.

It was still cool at noon when we paddled downstream to Hog Island. But on the way back it was warm enough to take off our jackets. The last mile of our 8 mile trip found us going into a strong head wind which took us twice as long to cross the lake which was starting to have whitecaps.

The weather the past week and a half was cool to start and finish. But for most of the week it was again above normal temperatures near Brooksville.

When we leave here Monday we plan to do some shopping in the Ocala area and then drive all the way to Ocean Pond Campground in Osceola National Forest near I-10 in Northern Florida. It is only a 150 mile drive. We hope we can get a campsite there with electrical hookups.

We plan to stay there about 5 days while watching the weather reports for the driving conditions for our 950 mile two day trip back home.