Here are my 2022–23 trip plans

I’m heading to FL again this winter. I did the trip in 2021-22 without Peggy who I lost on 10/19/21 to Cancer. 

I did not want to do a blog while I was mourning the loss of my wife and companion, we were married 62 years.

I may not add much this year but at least here is my schedule.

I am recovering from my Open Heart Surgery, to replace a aortic valve and bypass some plugged arteries.

I went to 20 weeks of Cardiac Rehab.

I bought a new bike and now I’m ready to leave.

 

I left at 7:15AM Saturday while the sun was almost rising for this year’s winter trip. My plan was to make it at least to Wytheville, VA for the first night. The early start and very light traffic allowed me to make it all the way to Johnson City, TN. I got here at 3 pm and I stayed at a Sam’s club and had dinner at Cheddars Restaurant next door. I never ate at one before but other than good service the food was not good.

I got another early start on Sunday but it was drizzling and foggy, not a nice drive but I got myself setup myself since they were not back from church yet.

Greg found me in my camper when they got home.

Since it was still cloudy and drizzling we stayed in and Greg cooked up a nice lunch and later a great dinner.

Sunny skies were predicted for Monday so we decided to take a strenuous 2 hour hike to Lake Keowee-Toxaway State Park. It was a beautiful hike with underground creek and steep hills. And my new heart repairs did good, I felt good after the hike.

Tuesday morning at 6:30 AM just as the sun came up I said goodbye to Greg and drove 375 miles in 8 1/2 hours to Macclenny, FL. It was another sunny day with light traffic and I made it to my planned Walmart stop in Macclenny, FL I did some shopping and had a Subway sandwich for dinner. Temperature was now in the mid 50’s.

I got another 7:30AM start on Wednesday and planned to do some biking on the Santos Bike path, actually called Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway. Someday it may cross FL, it’s the former route of the proposed 110 mile long Cross Florida Barge Canal, from Palatka, FL though Ocala and Dunnellon, FL. https://www.floridastateparks.org/learn/history-cross-florida-greenway

My start and turnaround this year are the two blue dots. It was a 23 mile ride which took me two hours. It is a hilly, asphalt bike path. I peddled the entire trail last March is was a 32 mile ride. There is no parking lot where it ends on the west end by SR200 so I parked up the road in a Walmart parking lot. I felt good but I was slightly slower than last March. One interesting aspect of the ride is that it crosses over I-75 on what they call a land bridge. Many animals get safely across the highway this way.

It looks like the weather here near Tampa is going to be below normal over the next two weeks. They say it will be the coldest Christmas in years. 

The river here is very pretty and you can paddle upstream or downstream from our campsite but since I plan to leave early on Sunday morning for Lithia Springs near Tampa and will not take my kayak down to go paddling here. I hope to get a good campsite at Lithia Springs County Park. They don’t take reservations but usually have available sites on a Sunday morning.

Lithia Springs is a county park near Tampa that is on the Alafia River for paddling, it contains a natural spring for swimming. It is next to a large upscale residential development (Fishhawk Ranch) with over 40 miles of concrete bike trails that wind through all their natural areas. A trail starts near the park entrance.

They do not take reservations but when you find a campsite they  allow you to stay for 30 days or just 14 days if you pick a popular riverside campsite.

I got here by 9 am on Sunday morning and of course it was full but several people would be leaving before noon. I wanted to get a riverside site but none would be available so I took site 15. I will watch for anyone moving out near the river and move for the remainder of my planned 2 week stay.

This is a photo of the spring swimming area.

This is typical bike path scene, the Sandhill Cranes are very tame and wander all through the development and are not frightened by bikes or people

I rested and watched the World Cup soccer match and some NFL football games on Sunday. 

On Monday and Tuesday I took two bikes rides totaling 37 miles, gotta keep doing my Cardiac Rehab. It is cool about 70^o each day, we are getting some light rain on Tuesday afternoon. Here is a link to a map I created for trails in the area https://bcpoa.org/FHMap.pdf

Judi & Larry Fordyce are supposed to stop and camp with me for a few days starting on Christmas Eve. Hope it doesn’t get as cold as the weather reports are indicating.

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.