Category: 2023-2024 Trip

Rainbow Springs, like Silver Springs used to be a private park and zoo. But years ago FL State Park bought the spring and park in Dunnellon, FL It’s been years since I have been here, I used to camp at the park right on the river but they reworked the campground and we never came back. I camped in a quiet spot at Walmart and got to the park at 8:30am. It is a long walk from the free large parking lot to the put-in ramp and swimming area. I have a nice canoe cart and had no trouble getting my kayak to the launch. There is a nominal $2 fee per person to walk into the park. I walked back and waited for Erin & Kathy to arrive. While they were running the shuttle, I dragged their kayaks down the trail with my cart as well. 

It is only a 5 mi paddle to the free take-out. Many paddlers put-in 1-1/2 mi downstream at KP Hole County Park and paddle up & back to the spring. This is a very popular place to paddle, scuba dive or swim in the 72^o spring water. However the right side of the river all the way to the take-out is loaded with houses, the left side is more wild and scenic.

There is a newer bike trail that connects to the 46 mi Withlacoochee State Trail and crosses the river near the take-out. They eventually plan to connect this bike trail to the Cross FL Greenway that I peddled yesterday.

 

After staying overnight with my friend’s Paul & Helen, I planned to shop and stay overnight at a Lowes near the campground so I could get to campground early on Sunday morning and get a campsite when the weekend campers leave. This campground does not take reservations. 

When I got near Tampa the forecasted heavy rain started, I thought that will chase the weekend campers away, so I decided to go directly to the camp at about 11 AM Saturday. I got campsite #50 near the river take-out beach trail.

Barry & Kimberly arrived on Sunday afternoon and we paddled the Upper Alafia River on Monday at a flow of 315 CFS. Which was great since it had been very low the past two weeks.

This is another favorite campground I havestayed here 15 different times over the past 24 years. Lithia Springs County Park has a large spring which is their swimming area. The water flows into the Alafia River. 

 

There are two sections we paddle. I like the upstream section from Alderman Ford to the campground which is a 9 mile paddle with a good current and little sandstone rapids. The difficulty for beginners is not the rapids but there are dozens of fallen trees to duck under, or paddle around.  Turtles, large birds and alligators are easy to see.

We had our campground host Chris drive Barry’s van and our three kayaks to the put-in and then he dropped the van back at our campsite. 

Here is a picture of Chris last year with my kayak. He used to take Peggy & me along with our canoe with his jeep. I really appreciate all the help he has given me.

The lower section starts from the campground and is almost 7 mi to the Brandon Boat Ramp. No fallen trees, just limestone riffles. The last 3 mi has some big houses and some small motor boats, so I don’t like it as well as the upper, but if the river level is low it is still paddleable.

 

The river level was dropping fast; we ran the upper at the peak flow of 315cfs on Monday and decided to paddle the lower on Wednesday which already had dropped to 215 cfs. The lowest I ever run the lower was 140 cfs. 

Barry dropped his car at the boat ramp take-out and peddled his bike back to camp, only an 8 mi ride on bike trails and neighborhood streets.

 

On Tuesday we took a 19 mi bike ride through all the concrete trails at Fish Hawk Ranch. As usual even though there are thousands of homes very few residents use these beautiful trails in their natural areas.

The weather all week was cool, 50 in morning and 65 for highs but finally on Thusday it is getting sunny and warmer.

 

Peggy checking out the FL Sandhill Cranes on the Fish Hawk trails.

On Thursday I decided to rest and work on my blog while Kimberly left early for a long bike ride and Barry left after lunch for a short bike ride.

On Friday we wll all take another long ride through the trails in Fish Hawk Ranch.

The Alafia River should still be high enough on Saturday for another upper run. The temperature are forecast to warm into the mid-seventies with sunny skies.

After Barry left to head back to
Pittsburgh I did 3 more bike rides totaling 40 miles around the Fish Hawk area.
I thought I would bride in the opposite direction to see if the little Mexican restaurant (La Villa) was still in
business. It was there with a similar menu but with much higher prices than 2 years ago.

There is a housing development (River Hills) here which surrounds a golf course and has some hiking trails in the forest
along the Alafia River. I decided to see if I could find them. I couldn’t find
the start at the southern end since it involved crossing a golf cart path. but
that was the right way to go. 

After some bike riding around I
found the north end of the trail and started walking it when I saw a sign that
said bikes yield to hikers. I went back and decided to ride on the very narrow but
hard packed trail with no mud or big roots to jump over. Where it was swampy the
trail uses a narrow boardwalk with no railings. It was a good trail but narrow and goes along above the river. The trail is very scenic and well marked. There were other
loop trails off the main orange trail but I didn’t try them. My 14mi ride was
mostly on neighborhood streets and walkways.

On Sunday 1/7 I left at 7am to go to EG Simmons Park, I got there when they opened the gate at 8am and found they had a dozen empty sites to choose from. I like the east campground since the sites are large and the canal is behind the campsite to launch my kayak.

This week had unusual weather for January in FL. It was very changeable going from stormy rainy to cold, to warm weather making it hard to decide what to do. I never took my kayak down since the warm days were also very windy.

A river runs through it when it rains

I was able to get in 3 nice bike rides totaling 29 mi, around the park and around the streets of Ruskin, FL.

The weather has been very unusual this year; it would change
every three days from cold mornings in the 40’s, to some rain during the day
and then a warmer couple of days in the low 70’s. There were no bugs or sand
fleas at all, but it limited some of my activities. But at least it was warmer
than back home with snow and temperatures near zero degrees.

I only got to paddle my kayak twice, once around the canoe
trail and on a calm day along Tamps Bay over to Bahia Beach.

I had trouble getting a prescription shipped to local Ruskin
post office. I rode my bike over there twice and once over to the Apollo Beach
PO where it was eventually shipped but lost. I finally got them to reorder
it from a Walgreen’s which was in Sun City Center about 10 miles away. I had to
take a busy local road with narrow bike lanes until I got to the golf cart
lanes in the 50+ community. I was able to shop at an Aldi’s and Walmart near
the Walgreens so that was good. I made the ride twice and it drizzled on me
both times.

So during my 2 week visit I rode my bike almost 100 mi and
paddled about 10 miles. The weather forecast is finally predicting temperatures
in the 80’s at my next campground south of Sarasota.

Some of the things Peggy and I always did didn’t happen. We
liked to ride our tandem over to the Manatee Viewing Center in Apollo Beach. 

and Peggy liked to get some Grouper at Julies Fish House an outdoor restaurant about 3 mi from camp.

 

My CampSite #71

This is a very popular campground for bicyclists because it is about in the middle of the popular 25 mi long paved Legacy Trail. and the trail along the Venitian Waterway Park. 

On Sunday 1/28 my plans were to watch the NFL playoffs. My friend Doug Smith had
planned to stay with me before he headed up to near St Petersburg on 2/1. He
called from just past Atlanta and was slowly heading south, I suggested he
could hurry down to my campground and watch the games with me. Well he made it
in time to watch Buffalo and Detroit both lose their games. 

He spent the next 4 days with me enjoying the cool dry weather, hiking, cooking, shopping and both of us telling lots of stories. He hadn’t brought a bike but I was able to borrow an e-bike for him from a camper I met. 

So on Tuesday we took our bike ride south on the Legacy Trail and stopped at the small train station museum and watched the small planes landing at Venice, FL.
He was glad I got him an e-bike so that he could keep up and bike the 18 mile round trip. 

 

We cooked dinner every night but on his last day Doug took me out for a great lunch at the nearby, on the water, Casey Key Fish House. We both had an excellent Grouper dinner.

After Doug left, on Friday I took another 29 mi bike ride south to Caspersen Beach and then north through the million dollar neighborhoods up to Venice Beach. 

I decided to stay in the beautiful primitive campground. It has no hookups but my solar power is all I need since I picked a sunny site next to a small fishing lake, where the Ibis & Giant Egret keep me company.

View of lake next to my campsite

Adjacent to the campground is the Florida Cracker Museum and a series of old FL buildings. They have stories and artifacts about the original settlers in FL called Crackers. They say the name was from the crack of their buggy whips. Each year during the last few weeks in February a big festival is held here.