2023-2024 Trip – Page 3 – Keel-Hauler's RV Travel Stories

Finishing my First Week at the WP Franklin COE Campground

Campsite #5 at WP Franklin

Aerial View of WP Franklin

On the way to WP Franklin on Sunday morning I stopped at the growing Babcock Ranch Development where I enjoy all the bike paths and have biked here for the past 3 years.

Click for larger map of Babcock Ranch Bike Rides 2023 (Red) & 2024 (Blue)

The eastern area is all new this year. Lots of homes but very few businesses and restaurants considering how many people now live here.

On Tuesday I paddled from my campsite up Telegraph Creek and back (7 mi) and on Wednesday I did a 13 mil bike ride through the neighborhoods near our campground.

The weather has been sunny with temps in the high 70’s all week. However they are forecasting lots of rain coming in late on Saturday and all day Sunday. So I decided Friday would be a good day to get in some more kayaking.

Hickey Creek Mitigation Area

I paddled about 1 mile up the Caloosahatchee River to Hickey Creek, and then 2-1/2 mi as far as I could make it up the creek. I had to turn around where a big fallen tree blocked my way. I checked, it was the same place I had to turn around last year. I came back to the kayak landing and had lunch, then I paddled back to my campground, a 7 mi round trip.

Here is a picture of Peggy and Bob Nicholson who paddled up here with me 7 years ago.

Now ready to start moving north

This has been the second cloudiest winter in FL history, and one of the wettest in the dry season. We had some warm weather but only for a few days at a time.

I decided while I had the time this week I would post a map showing my entire trip including all my campspots.

The Red Numbers are my overnight stops starting in VA to FL, and are numbered from 1 to 18. The Red Lines are my actual routes. Click Here to see a larger map that can be zoomed-in.

This is my actual Trip Schedule.

I am finishing my second week at WP Franklin campground. I took some more short bike rides around the neighborhood streets.

I decided to do another kayak trip from my campsite up Telegraph Creek on Wednesday. My plan was to paddle about as far as you can go and then have lunch sitting on a bench high above the river bank in the Bob Janes Nature Preserve. But hornets in the mud banks changed my mind, so I had lunch on a river sandbar instead, and took this picture.

There were several very large alligators on this section of the creek. They quickly lept into the water as I wound my way up and down the tiny river. It was a 7 mile round trip.

**Here is Peggy 5 years ago at the riverside campsite.**

I left at 7am on Sunday morning to try to get a campsite at Lithia Springs County Park which is about a two hour drive north of here.

My hope is that some weekend campers will be leaving when I arrive. I got here at 9:30AM after some food shopping, I was 4th on the waiting list. I waited and rode my bike through campground to see how many were leaving, 11am is the checkout time. I lucked out a camper was leaving a day early from one of the riverside sites and by the time he left at 11 AM the other campers ahead of me got sites so I got Site 40, a site we have stayed in twice before.

Lithia Springs County Park for 1 week

As I told in my last blog I was able to get a great campsite right on the Alafia River, #40 with easy river access. The river sites are limited to 14 days, while the rest of their campsites are available for 28 days. They do not take reservations but if you get here early in the morning, it seems someone is always checking out.

On Monday, Chris the really great campground host shuttled me and my kayak to Alderman Ford where I could put-in on the Alafia River and paddle 9 miles back to my campsite. The level was low 180 cfs but fine. It took 3 hours with a 30 minute stop for lunch.

This is a map of Upper Alafia River. Click Here to see Florida Paddling Trails Association’s River Info and bigger maps.

On Wednesday I decided I needed a haircut really bad so I biked over to Great Clips and got a crewcut.

Since I was in the western area of Fishhawk Ranch, I kept going to Bell Creek Nature Preserve and returned by Shadow Run Park, it was a nice 17 mi ride.

I’ll bet there are over 30 miles of wide concrete sidewalks that go through all their natural areas, and the trails end at Lithia Springs Campground. You seldom see any other bikers or hikers on these great trails. It does say for residents but that is not enforced.

Fish Hawk Ranch Trails – Click to view High Resolution Map

On Thursady I did another 18 mile bike ride mostly in the eastern area of Fish Hawk Trails. The weather has been perfect all week with lows around 60 and quickly warming to the mid-70’s by late afternoon.

River Launch at my campsite #40

On Friday morning I noticed that the river had dropped down to 130 CFS, which is the lowest I had ever paddled it. I like the first 3 miles of the Lower Alafia River so I decided to paddle downstream 3 miles and then back to my campsite eliminating the need to run a shuttle. There are a lot of shallow shoals and I wasn’t sure if I could paddle back upstream through all of them but I made it. It took me almost 30 min longer going back upstream to my camp. It took a little over 2 hours with no breaks.

This is a map of the 7 mile Lower Alafia River. Click Here to see Florida Paddling Trails Association’s River Info and bigger maps.

I saw 3 nice sized gators enjoying the sunny skies. Most jumped in the water when I approached.

Peggy’s last time at Lithia Springs

On Sunday I will head north about 60 miles back to Cypress Glen Campground in the Withlachoochee State Forest. It’s been 2-1/2 months since I was here on my way south. My travels must not have been far since this is the first time I had to get gas since then.

Back to Cypress Glen for one week

I left early Sunday morning to head north to Cypress Glen Campground. I got to my campsite-48 at 11:30am.

My plan was to take the Good Neighbor Bike Trail to Brooksville on Monday. It’s normally a nice 26 mile flat rail-trail ride, but right before town the trail was blocked and I was detoured to the road, no bike lane and a big hill. I tried a different route back around the detour but it was still hilly. It added a about a mile to my bike ride.

I checked the river level and was surprised that the low water in December (50 cfs) caused by the Fall drought was gone and the winter rains brought the level way up to 240 cfs. It was the wettest winter ever.

I decided on Tuesday I would see how far up the Little Withlacoochee River I could paddle. After about a mile I eventually got blocked by a tree across the narrow
river, so went back and then up the main river to Crooked River Park. I scared
an alligator who then scared me by jumping into the river next to my kayak.

On Wednesday my daughter Joan and my grandson Jake flew in to paddle with me on Thursday at Weeki Wachee Springs. They got a motel room nearby and picked me up. No car rack so I couldn’t take my kayak. We rented a single and a tandem and got an early start so it was not crowded when we paddled up the river from Rogers Park about 2-1/2 miles. We hoped to see some Manatees but no luck, they didn’t need to come upstream to the warm spring water.

We all loved the crystal clear water, and it was sure easier going back downstream with the current. We ran into dozens of paddlers now comimg up the river, I’m glad we got an early start.

Jake takes a break on a small sandbar.

Here we are back at my campsite, it was a fun visit but they had to head back to Tampa for a party with Brian’s mother to celebrate Joan’s and her birthdays.

Joan brought me some birthday gifts including this Biking Jersey.

I wore it with my biking shorts on Friday for my 32 mi roundtrip ride to Floral City. I set a personal record of an average speed of 12.8 mph, one mph faster than when I did the same ride in December. Must have been the jersey.

Picture of Peggy in March 2021 on Weeki Wachee Springs River

I was able to leave by 7:30 AM on Sunday morning for a sunny 3 hour drive to Ocean Pond National Forest Campground between Jacksonville and Lake City, off I-10. They don’t take reservations but even though it is now Spring Break time, I found 3 open sites in the camp with 120v power, but those sites all had the power broken so they were only charging the same as the non-power sites, $10/night, I grabbed a favorite site #11 and saw that the camper behind me was using the 50 amp power plug in his site, so I asked him if I could run a long 30 amp cord to his unused 30 amp plug. He said fine, that’s what he did last week when he was in #11 and then moved to #6 when it became available. I was in site #6 for 10 days last November. Both these sites are large and nobody is around you. I noticed there were a dozen empty water-only sites available when I arrived.

Here is a Link to my Blog when I was here in November.

After 1/3 of a year my Winter RV Trip has ended and I’m back home

Friends Along the way (click on picture to enlarge)

I left home on 11/11/23 and just got back home on 3/14/24, 124 nites on the road. Things went smoothly and I did a lot on biking-850 miles and 120 miles of kayaking .

I visited with many friends along the way. You can read about the trip in Chronological Order, Click link Florida Trip 2023-24

When I got to my last campground, Ocean Pond, the previous day’s heavy rain made some of the sandy roads that I ride on a little soft but I was still able to bike another 28 miles in two rides around the Lake and through the Olustee Civil War Battlefield.

I like to stop at Ocean Pond before heading for home so that I can pick two sunny days to drive home. The travel window this year was a little tight but as long as I could get an early start and make good time I could beat the storms that were coming to Ohio on late Thursday.

I got a 7 am start both days and only lost about 20 minutes going through Charlotte, so my first day’s 560 mile trip took me 10-1/2 hours and I got to Wytheville, VA.

On Thursday I made the 390 mile trip home in 6-1/2 hours. It was sunny and no rain but two hours after I got back there were thunderstorms and tornadoes in central Ohio.

Friday was warm to I could wash the winter grime off my RV and got a good start unpacking, especially when my daughter Joan stopped by to help.

Of course it now looks like the next 3 weeks here will be cooler than normal. No complaints, it was a nice winter and I was able to do all the things I planned and got in a lot of Cardiac Rehab again.

I enjoyed all the nice campgrounds and for the entire trip the average camping cost per night was less than $18.

Most of all we all missed Peggy