A day paddling the Ichetucknee River

 

Date: 1/12/2014

Location: Ichetucknee River State Park

We’ve not had the best weather lately here in Florida. On Saturday it rained, the wind blew and it was pretty chilly. Not the best weather to do any outside activities. But on Sunday it was supposed to clear and the temps were projected to rise some. So, we decided to take out the kayaks for the first time in many months.

Last year we kayaked the Ichetucknee River for the first time. We found this to be a beautiful river to paddle, one of the best in Florida that we’ve been on. There’s no development at all along the section of the river we were on, so that make it very peaceful.

There is a north entrance and a south entrance to the Ichetucknee River state park and you can put in at either location. We like to start at the south location, paddle the 3+ miles upstream and then do a leisurely float/paddle back to our starting location. The flow of the river is somewhat strong, but nothing to strenuous for the paddle upstream.

This is the launching point on the north entrance. It’s just below one of the many springs that feed this river. With all the springs along the way, the water in this river is very clear.

 

The paddling is pretty easy and I think this was the only tree blocking the way, but no problem getting under this one as we made our way back down river.

 

And what would a day on the water in Florida be without a few sunning turtles. Most of them were pretty brave and didn’t dive into the water as we passed. I think they are very used to seeing humans. During the summer this river is a major tubing run and kayaking / canoeing is not allowed (and you’d probably not want to go even if you could). Late fall, winter and early spring is the time to paddle this river.

 

We saw a good variety of birds along the way and even saw a few river otters. I wish I could have gotten a picture of them, but they are much to quick.

 

Although hard to see, this is the Devil’s Eye spring which you can kayak over and take in. A few of the springs are fenced off to prohibit people from entering as a way to preserve them.

Some sections of the river have a ton of air plants up in the trees. The picture below shows one of these areas.

 

Today’s time on the river was mostly quiet and peaceful, but with the day before being rainy, today had a lot more people on the water. Going upriver we would quickly pass a few groups here and there. But on the way back down we encountered several groups that were very boisterous with lots of yelling and hollering. I guess it’s good that they were having a good time on the water and it’s hard to really get mad at them, but we like the quietness of the river. Sound really travels on the water and we’d hear these groups for a long time before and after we passed them. Not much we could do about it and we enjoyed our time anyway.

This is the docking area at the south end of the river. It’s totally roped off with buoys, so no way you could go by and miss the take out location.

 

Here is the GPS route showing the north to south track we took as we floated/paddled back down river.

A day kayaking on the Ichetucknee river at EveryTrail

A weekend camping trip to Tomoka State Park

 

Location: Ormond Beach, FL

Dates: 1/3/2014 – 1/5/2014

Julie and my plan was to camp more this fall, winter and spring. Try to get as much camping in as possible before the hot Florida weather arrives again. Well, our last camping trip was back in October in Cedar Key. How can time fly by so fast and why are we too busy to get out and camp?

Anyway, we finally did make reservations (necessary in Florida State parks in the winter season) at Tomoka State park near Ormond Beach. We got there late afternoon on Friday, the weather was “cold” and it had been raining some. It was not the best camping weather, but we were happy to be finally getting out and stay in the camper.

Tomoka campground is one large camping loop with about 90 – 100 sites. Most of the sites have adequate vegetation surrounding them with makes for mostly private sites. But I wouldn’t call this campground big rig friendly. Although there were some larger RV’s staying here, most of the campers were in tents or small to mid-size trailers. The campground road has some rather large oak trees very close to the road. When backing into my site (#4) there was a tree making it difficult for me to swing the front end of the truck around. It took me a few tries to finally get into the site without hitting anything.

Tomoka State park is surrounded by water and it really a place made for people who like to fish or have a boat to get out on the water. We didn’t bring our kayaks on this trip, but would have been nice if we had.

 

They have a nice boat dock in the park for launching boats, canoes and kayaks.

Tomoka campground is a short drive from the Ormond beach and the Atlantic ocean. On Saturday we took a driver over that way, but the weather didn’t cooperate. The wind was blowing hard and the temps were still cool. We tried to get out of the car a few times to check out the beach, but the wind made us do a quick retreat!!

Here’s a picture of the large status of Chief Tomoka which resides within the state park.

A quick trip to Snowshoe WV for a little winter fun

Date: 12/28/2013 – 1/2/2014
Location: Snowshoe, WV
My younger daughter was on winter break from college and wanted to take a trip to see some snow. I decided to take some time off from work and do a father / daughter trip with her. She’s a senior in college and about to start her last semester before graduating. So, who knows how many more chances we’ll have to do spur of the moment things like this.
About 10 years ago we had made a family trip to Snowshoe, WV and stayed for a short time and did some skiing. We enjoyed this trip and have some fond memories of that adventure, so we decided to give Snowshoe resort another try. I made reservations at the Silver Creek Lodge at Snowshoe for three nights. This would give us time to do some snow activities as well as do a little skiing. Being from Florida we don’t hit the slopes very often, so a day of skiing is enough for us.
Driving up and getting close to West Virginia we were a little worried as there was no snow on the ground. They had just had a few warm days of weather and a day of heavy rain. But as we got to the base of the mountain we found the temps were dropping and the snow guns were out in full force. Snowshoe’s resort is at the top of the mountain, so as we drove up the mountain things changed to a winter wonderland. There was snow (man made and real) everywhere and all the trees were coated in a thick coating of snow. It’s exactly what we were hoping to see when we thought  up this trip.
It was cold and the wind was blowing at the top of the mountain, but it was the winter wonderland that we had hoped to see.


The first full day that we were at Snowshoe we had planned to do a few of the “adventures” they offer for their guests. The first of which was the RZR off-road adventure. This was a blast as it was freezing, the snow was blowing and they took us on some very cool back roads that wound around and up the mountain.
I made my daughter drive the first part of this tour. I didn’t know how she would do since she’s never done anything like this, but she did great and had a lot of fun barreling down the back roads through the snow.

They did a few photo stops along the way, but with the snow and wind the views of the mountain were not the best. Here’s one picture of my daughter and me at one of the stops.

Here’s the GPS track of the off-road adventure that we took.
Snowshoe Mountain WV RZR ATV Trip at EveryTrail



That evening, once the main slopes were closed for the day, we took a snowmobile tour. They take you around many of the slopes that are used for skiing. This was another fun adventure, except for my snowmobile kept stalling every time I let off the gas. They eventually gave me another machine that ran much better.

And the track that we took for this tour.
Snowshoe Mountain WV Snowmobile Trip at EveryTrail








We went out and celebrated New Years at the main downtown/square area of Snowshoe. They has some music and other activities going on. We did make it till mid-night (amazing for me!) and didn’t get to bed until way past what I had planned on. But we had a lot of fun, so that made it worth it. On New Years day we were schedule to do some snow skiing for the day. We didn’t get as early a start as I had hoped, but still had a full day of skiing. For a couple of Floridians we did pretty good and nobody got injured!!! Always a good thing.

Biking the Nature Coast State Trail

 

Date: 11/3/2013

Location: Fanning Springs, Fl

It was a beautiful Sunday morning with the temperatures in the low to mid-sixties. Perfect fall weather in Florida!! Julie and I decided to bike the one section of the Nature Coast State Trail that we’ve not yet done. In the past we did the Trenton to Fanning Springs section as well as the Fanning Springs to Cross City section, but today was the Fanning Springs to Chiefland spur which is about a 20 mile round trip ride.

The Nature Coast State Trail is built upon old abandoned rail lines. So, for the most part they are fairly straight with very little elevation change and this was especially true of today’s ride. The trail from Fanning Springs to Chiefland is straight as an arrow (see gps track below) and very flat. I can’t think of any section of today’s ride that seemed like it was peddling up or down hill. And since we don’t bike ride a lot, that’s very much appreciated!!

Three of the four trail heads on the Nature Coast trail are built at the location of the old rail stations. So, they all still have the depot buildings that have been restored. Fanning Springs is the only one that does not have a rail station, but the picture below is of the Chiefland train station (also used as the Chamber of Commerce facility). This was the end of the line for us today and was where we turned around and headed back.

 

The Fanning Springs to Chiefland section of the Nature Coast trail is well shaded for the most part but there are some sections that are in full sun. Even though today was cool, we still appreciated riding under the tree cover which made it very comfortable. I can’t say that this trail is overly scenic as it travels between US-19 and CR-207 and you do hear a bit of traffic noise from the highway, but it’s still a nice ride. The trail is well maintained and very wide and there’s not many other bikers to worry about. We did pass by some horse farms and large pastures. This ride also gives you a good look into life in rural Florida which is much different than many of the more populated sections of the state.

This is pretty much the look of the trail, but with some areas being more shaded.

 

The Fanning Springs trail head is very near the State Park. We didn’t ride into the park, but we did head towards the US-19 overpass as it crosses the Suwannee River. We found an interesting road side park on the south side of US-19 that is right on the river. They had a walkway down to the river where you could take in the beauty of the Suwannee.

 

Here’s a section of the original bridge that was built to span the Suwannee River

  

And on the north side of US-19 we found another park that we had never noticed. This one was also directly on the river but didn’t have any direct access to the water.

  

Here’s the GPS track from our ride today on the Nature Coast Trail

Biking the Nature Coast State Trail at EveryTrail

And a short YouTube video of our ride.

 

A weekend at Low Key Hideaway in Cedar Key

 

Location: Cedar Key, Fl

Date: 10/25/2013 – 10/27/2013

A few months ago we were looking for a weekend getaway location where we could camp with our RV and our daughters could stay in a little more comfort but still be close by. Last spring we camped in Cedar Key, but were not able to get into one of the Low Key Hideaway’s RV sites because they were full. So, we stayed next door at the Sunset Isle RV park. This time we did a better job of planning ahead and were able to get two motel rooms and an RV site at Low Key Hideaway.

Low Key Hideaway is in a beautiful location on one of the keys leading into the big town of Cedar Key. It’s right on the water where you can sit on one of their decks or venture out onto their dock to take in the beautiful scenery, One of their decks was about 15 feet behind our camper and we spent a lot of time hanging out there with our family. We all found it very relaxing. 

Although Julie and I didn’t stay in the motel room, we did check out our kids rooms (4 & 5) and found them very nice and comfortable. The owners of Low Key, Pat and Cindy, have a very “interesting” way of decorating and it works well. The room and surrounding gardens have an eclectic collection of “things” and there’s pieces to look at and take in everywhere, including the wall of super hero figurines. The rooms also have an amazing collection of photos from areas around Cedar Key and I believe they were all taken by Pat.

It’s also interesting to visit the on-site Tiki bar which is open most every day from later afternoon into the evening. The Tiki bar is a fun place to have a few drinks and intermingle with others staying at Low Key as well as many of the locals who stop by. The Friday night that we were there, one lady was cooking food on the grill and then bringing it in to share with everyone in the bar. The Tiki bar definitely has a good vibe.

One of the bonuses of staying in Cedar Key was the night sky. Julie and I like to take in the stars and “try” to identify planets, constellations, etc. Cedar Key, being far away from any city lights, had some amazing star gazing. The nights we were there had extremely clear skies and we hadn’t see anything like that in a long time. The milky way was very easy to see and we had a great time taking in the heavens above.

Just a note about Low Key Hideaway. It is an adult only motel and RV park. So, only those that are over 21 can stay here. But they do allow well behaved pets!  So, bringing Fido is ok.

Here’s the front of Low Key Hideaway and the pathway leading to the Tiki Bar.

 

Looking towards the RV sites from the dock.

 

The Tiki Bar and the dock out to the water.

 

Me and my two girls enjoying some beautiful weather and Cedar Key surroundings!

 

My daughter and a college friend posing for a picture on one of Low Key’s decks.

 

Here’s a picture of my wife and two of her sisters from Colorado enjoying a walk out onto the deck to enjoy the view.

 

We didn’t do much besides hanging around and enjoying our family time, but we did venture out to Cemetery Point Park to walk on the boardwalk leading through the marsh and wetlands.

 

The area behind the Low Key Hideaway was prime location for bird watching. This area is very shallow, with mud flats being exposed during low tide. So, this was an area that really attracted a large variety of birds. 

 

And of course being right on the water allowed us to view some beautiful sunsets.

 

On Sunday we checked out of our RV site and headed the 60 minute trip back home. We had loaded up our kayaks and brought them to Cedar Key, but it was a little too windy and we were too busy to do any paddling. So, since we got home and unpacked early in the afternoon, we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and get the boats wet. We did our old stand by/go to paddle of the Santa Fe River to River Rise State Park. We usually don’t see any other boats on the water when we do this section of the river, but today we saw about 10 other people out there. I guess we weren’t the only ones who felt the need to get out and get a little exercise!

 

Here’s a short video of our time on the water today. Most of it shows Julie pulling away from me and leaving me in the dust. She had more paddling enthusiasm than I had today..

A weekend camping trip to Silver Springs State Park

 

Location: Silver Springs State Park, Ocala, Fl

Date: 10/12 – 10/14/2013

Well, after a five month break because of the hot and humid Florida summers, we finally had nice enough weather to get out and do some camping. With Monday being a holiday for some (Columbus Day) Julie and I decided to take a long weekend camping trip to Silver Springs State Park in Ocala. This is an easy hour drive from our home and we were able to get there, checked in and set up before it got dark on Friday.

This is a Florida State Park that we didn’t know existed until recently. We’ve lived in Gainesville for 30+ years, but had never heard of this park, which is too bad since it is a very nice campground and park. The sites are all very large, level and for the most part well spaced out. Although we don’t have a large RV, this campground is definitely big rig friendly with most of the sites being pull through.

Just in the past few week, Silver Springs State Park joined with the old and now closed Silver Springs Theme Park. So, with your entry fee you can get into both parks. Even though these two parks are adjacent to each other, there is currently no way to get from one park to the other (well unless you canoe or kayak). So, you have to exit one park and drive the few miles to the entrance to the other. The ranger we spoke with said there are plans to link the two parks with a trail or road sometime in the future.

One of the main draws for this park in the Silver River which is a clear spring fed river whose head spring is at the Silver Springs Theme park. The concessioner, who used to rent kayaks and canoes from the campground location has now moved to the theme park location. From here you can also pay $4 per canoe/kayak and launch you own boat. We wish we had brought our kayaks this time, but will definitely camp here again and make sure we bring them.

You can also launch your canoe or kayaks from the Silver River Campground. But be prepared to carry your boat a long way from the parking lot to the river as it is a .6 mile hike between the two.

A nice trip, if you have two vehicles, is to put in at the head spring or at the campground and float down to the Ray Wayside Park (SR 40 E of Silver Springs). This is an easy float down a very nice and scenic river. Julie and I did this trip a few years ago, putting in at the Way Side park, paddling upstream to the head spring and the floating back. The current is not too bad and paddling upstream is definitely doable.

Our camper at site #43 which was a large pull through site. Getting set up Friday evening was almost too easy with no backing into the site and no leveling required.

Silver Springs State Park has a lot of defined hiking trails that wind around this large area of land. Most of these trails a very nice and most do allow biking as well as hiking. We did some off road biking and enjoyed it, that is until we got to some sandy areas that were difficult to peddle through. There were also some areas (very few) that were torn up by wild hogs. It’s amazing how much destruction these animals can do to an area.

All of the trails a well marked and easy to follow. We find this is not always the case in some parks we visit.

 

This is the canoe launch on the Silver River. It’s a beautiful launch area, but it is long haul with your gear from the parking lot.

The campground also has a natural history museum (we didn’t check it out) as wells as an old Florida Cracker Village that you can walk around. During the weekends they have volunteers, dressed I period clothes, giving talks about the life in old Florida.

    

    

Here’s a short video of the campground and Silver River

 

 

Barr Hammock Preserve Hike

 

Date: 10/6/2013

Location: Gainesville, Fl

We’ve hiked the 6+ mile loop trail at Barr Hammock Preserve several times. It was Sunday morning, we didn’t feel like loading up the kayaks for a paddle or going on any long road trip to a park, so we decided to do this hike once again. The weather had been teasing us with a few cooler morning recently, but unfortunately this morning was not one of those and it was a little warm for this walk. We decided to hike this loop going counter clockwise and get the sunny northern part of the trail out of the way first. The southern side is more wooded and shady and would be more comfortable as the day warmed even more.

Being a large wetland, there were many birds to be seen out on the preserve. We also came across several alligators soaking up the warmth of the sun. One large male (about 7+ feet long) caught us off guard as we didn’t see him near the edge of the water, but he saw us and made a mad dash and buried himself in the mud and brush. We also say several mom gators with their small babies and they also dove for cover as we approached.

 

The entire hike is on an old levee that surrounds the wetlands.

 

They have added several new covered benches along the trail. There’s now three for four locations where you can sit and take in the scenery.

 

With so much water around, I’d have thought that we would have seen more snakes, but this is the only one we came across. He (or she) wasn’t too concerned about us and just stayed in this sunny spot as we passed.

 

We’ve not had any cold weather to cause any color change in all the vegetation, but with all of the fall flowers that were blooming and some of the summer plants dying off, there was some nice colors around.

Here is the GPS track from our hike at Barr Hammock

Barr Hammock Preserve Hike at EveryTrail

 

And a short YouTube video taken a several spots on the trail