Month: January 2020

Back in Florida

After spending 12 days back home with our family for the holidays we are now back in FL. The weather in Cleveland was 10 to 20o above normal and no snow. We flew back on New Years Eve and checked into one of our favorite campgrounds, Lithia Springs Park on the Alafia River. There is a put-in nine miles upstream and we can take-out at our campsite. The campground host offered to shuttle us with our canoe. There are 30 miles of bike paths in the Fish Hawk Ranch subdivision which is connected the the park.  FishHawk Bike Paths

The only campsite that was open is across the street from where we would like to camp and is not too level, so after waiting for the site 50 across from us to check-out on Thursday we switched sites. We plan to spend a full 2 weeks at the park before moving further south. See the map below which show all the places we will be for the next two months. The numbers are the order we will hit them. We have reservations for all the campgrounds except for Lithia Springs which is first come gets a site.

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Settled in at Lithia Springs

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After two days at our first campsite #39, we were able to move across the street, right on the river to site #40, it is larger and more level but is limited to 14 days like the other 5 riverside campsites, which are very popular at this non-reservation campground. We only planned on 14 days, so that was great.


We like the park because of the large shady campsites and easy river and bike trail access.  On Friday we took our Tandem Bike for a 14 mile ride on the west side of Fish Hawk Ranch. The weather so far has been above normal and an afternoon of rain on Sunday brought the river back up to a good level.

We met a woman, April, on site 43 who had just bought two kayaks. She had taken a paddle board down the river but was looking for someone to show her how to kayak down and offered to shuttle our canoe to the put-in. Her friend on campsite 37 agreed to drive her truck back to camp and help me load up. On Saturday, 1/4, the river was running at 200 cfs, a nice level.

Here is what the state says about the Alafia River Paddling Trail; 10 Miles, Beginner to Intermediate From Alderman Ford Park to Lithia Springs Campground. The Alafia River provides the paddler with occasional shoals to get the heart pounding. You will see many large birds along the way; Egrets, Ibis, Limpkin, Anhinga, Wood Storks, Ospreys, Red-shouldered Hawks, Pileated Woodpeckers, Kingfishers, Blue Herons, and songbirds. A few alligators, and turtles can also be spotted. The best WaterLevel is about 180-400 CFS. If above that the current becomes swift and the river is not recommended for beginners. Most of the trail’s shorelines are undeveloped and in public ownership. Occasional snags or strainers may require portaging.

April was a fast learner and we all had a nice day with a lunch at Duck Landing rest stop. We saw lots of birds but no alligators. It took us about 3-1/2 hrs. to paddle the 9 miles back to camp.
Campsite 40 at Lithia Springs County Park
On Sunday we took another 11 mi. bike ride with a stop at the nice Publix Grocery store only 2-1/2 miles from our campsite. When we leave here I’ll post a map of all our bike rides.

 

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.