Withlacoochee S.F. FL

 

 I am behind! Not that you, my Faithful Readers, would really notice the difference (much) but I am lagging by almost three weeks in real time. This post, however, encompasses just over two weeks of that time, so it will go a long way toward catching us up. With that, I take you to Withlacoochee State Forest and our first stop there in the Cypress Glen campground.

Our site was long, level, and had pretty good separation from other campers, especially since no one could be to one side or in back of us. We did directly face one other campsite across the road, but it was only occupied half of our total stay. Otherwise, we enjoyed the view and spotting some critters here and there.

 

 There were miles and miles of trails comprised of roads, single-track, and nice wide pathways. They were well-blazed and reasonably well-signed, but no maps, paper or digital, were very good for plotting ahead. The other important little detail is that hunting is allowed in much of the state forest area, so dressing brightly — blaze orange if ya got it — is a darn fine idea.

 

 Across the road from the campground’s main entrance, it was possible to access the Withlacoochee State Trail, a 46-mile paved rail trail. 

 

 It made for some mighty fine biking, at least with the qualities I prefer of longness, flatness, and trafficlessness. Along the way, we saw several gopher tortoise burrows, many with a curious gophie peeking out. They were not as willing to be photographed as those at Koreshan, and if you think tortoises are slow, you should’ve seen how fast they can run backwards to their tunnels.

 

 Our second ride, in the opposite direction, yielded a bit more excitement. As we were returning, a couple other bikers were stopped on trail, obviously looking at something to the side of it. “A rattler!” one of the women told us, “I nearly ran it over!” They were having trouble locating it again. I can’t think why.

 

 

 Remember in my Everglades post when I said I was perfectly fine if I never got to see another Eastern Diamondback? Too bad for me! The women said it had rattled at them, but by the time we came along, it was calm and watchful. Thereafter, every stick or palmetto frond in the trail was a snake until it clearly wasn’t.

 

You don’t suppose this is related, do you?

 

 On our third ride, we took the intersecting Good Neighbor Trail, which connects the WST to the city of Brooksville. We’d briefly flirted with the idea of riding all the way into town, but after three long rides with only two rest days total, bad things were happening in my saddle region, and getting home and off the bike was all I desperately wanted. During the struggle back, we saw a couple weaner pigs along the trail, but, sadly, neither of them was Ziggy the Missing Piggy.

 At camp, a noisy armadillo scuffled through the leaves after dark a few nights, and one morning I looked out to see a big coyote standing in the road beside our site. Upon further inspection, I saw it was two, the younger busy pawing in our fire ring (unused by us.)

 

 

We thought at first she was eating old bones or remnants of trash, but she was chomping up bits of charcoal. The older one wasn’t really interested in eating any but seemed to be keeping watch, so my made-up theory is that the younger one had an upset tummy, and the more experienced one had led it to the best place to find the remedy. It was a miracle that no one came by on the road disturbing them, and the pair of Song Dogs exited into the woods at their leisure.

We didn’t have an official First Day Hike for the year, but we did eat the obligatory pork and sauerkraut, and our first walk didn’t happen until the 3rd.

The two most prominent types of lichen, pictured here, belatedly celebrated the season. The spongy one is called Reindeer Moss and the red form is called Christmas Wreath. The red is surreally bright in places and looks like paint on the trees. 

 On our second to last day, we took a trip up to Homosassa Springs and the state park with the ridiculously long name of Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. Our GPS took us to the overflow lot instead of the main parking area, but that turned out to be a happy accident since a pretty paved trail connects that lot to the main park.

 Besides the first-magnitude springs — in layman’s terms that means lots of water coming out of the springs really fast — the place used to include an exotic animal park. Today, the wildlife park shelters native Florida species that are unable to survive in the wild on their own. The only hold-out is Lucifer (Lu) the hippo, who remains due to public demand that he stay as the park’s ambassador. He is now the oldest living hippo in captivity. Besides the informational signage about Lu, there is this seemingly amusing placard by his habitat.

Haha, heehee — wait —

Luuuuuuuuu!!! Gross!! Boy hippos fling their poo. Why? To mark their territory and impress females. I’m not sure how that makes me feel about female hippos.

It was fun-sad to see the captive native animals, but the main attractions for us were the free natives in the warm, crystal-clear spring water.

Floaty potatoes! And plenty of them!

They were numerous and visible from several viewing points throughout the park, and it was hard to make ourselves move along to see other things. It was also hard not to just jump in and hug one. Look at those faces! Obviously, they wanted me to.

Our next stop was a very short distance to the north at a campground in the same state forest, Tillis Hill.

 It is mostly set up to be a horse camp, with a nice row of double stables and dog kennels (no dogs allowed in the campground area.) On the day we arrived, the small campground was nearly empty, and even though people showed up over our three-day stay, it never felt crowded or noisy. The weather had become chilly, and we didn’t do much more than catch up on tasks we couldn’t complete with limited internet at Cypress Glen and take walks. My favorite part was all the birds singing their songs in the mornings, a red streak here, a blue flash there. It may seem odd that we’d feel like needing a break from what probably seems like a perpetual break, but our short stay felt like exactly that, with nowhere really to go and nothing pressing to do. I think that’s the definition of relaxation, no? 

 COMMENTS:

   Sue Floaty potatoes!!!!! I love it, floaty potatoes is exactly what they look like!

Chasing Dirt  I’d like to say that I totally made that up, but I read that description somewhere long ago, probably an uncredited meme. It was just too cute and accurate not to repeat!

strebor117  The coyote eating the charcoal reminds me of our little black dog from years and years ago. Spotless became lethargic and obviously very sick. Pets and children always get sick on the weekend requiring much more expensive visits to the ER. $150 later an x-ray revealed a mysterious granular substance in her stomach. It was moving through her, but not quickly enough. IV rehydration and an overnight stay at the vet brought her back. Charcoal was the culprit. She treated herself to some Kingsford from the fire pit. Hope the coyote didn’t need a vet!

Chasing Dirt Damn dogs! Yeah, the charcoal briquets would be bad news for doggies. I’m glad your pooch made it! I don’t think there were any briquets in the fire pit, just the charred wood remnants which *should* be OK for the woofs. We had a pup who treated herself to some delicious dark chocolates on Christmas Eve one year (speaking of always on weekends/holidays!) and charcoal at the Emer-Vet was the cure. I’m telling myself that the coyote was trying to achieve the same benefit.

placestheygo Nice new adventures. It’s amazing how many gopher turtles there around. They seem to love bike trails. That is one huge hippo!! Interesting poop fact! Love, love the floating potatoes!! It’s good to have kick back relaxing time.

Chasing Dirt There sure were a lot of burrows along that trail and even throughout the forest trails, which was nice to see, knowing they’re endangered. That darn hippo IS a biggun all right! The vultures hung out with him when he came out of the water and seemed to like his saliva. Animals are delightfully weird. That is *probably* the last time we’ll get to see manatees in the wild, at least for a long time anyhow, so it was a great place to see so many. Those crystal-clear waters are just amazing!

Laurel Oh, the manatee! I always love seeing them! It’s funny how something that truly does look like a floaty potato can make me so happy. Your campsite at Withlacoochee was perfectly located for biking. I’m with you…flat and long and no traffic makes for the best biking. And a good seat, LOL. Poor Ziggy. I hope Ziggy got found.

I have a fun nature fact for you (which you might already know, given your encyclopedic knowledge of nature). I was delighted to find out several years ago that the lichen on trees is a sign of good air quality. Something else that makes me happy!

Chasing Dirt I can’t imagine anyone looking at those sweet faces looking back up at them and not feeling completely captivated. They’re just so calm and gentle. I hope Ziggy got found, too! Poor little piglet.

I knew a little about lichen and air quality because of the lichen that grew on the ceilings of the Gila dwellings, but I love when comments pique my interest and have me researching further. Yours did that! Priceless!

Shannon I am so impressed at how you have managed to fashion a tour of Florida that perfectly fits your outdoorsy interests and avoids the tourists traps you dread. You may be single-handedly responsible for convincing a bunch of other travelers that Florida is much more than just the House of the Mouse! I did not know we had such a robust population of coyotes. I guess I’ll have to retroactively stop judging my former neighbor who lived in constant fear that her fluffy little white dog would be eaten by coyotes in our perfectly normal and fairly dense suburban development.

Chasing Dirt Pretty good, eh? LOL I hope I haven’t ruined things for my Florida native friends and family in the future!
Those dang coyotes live in every state now, except Hawaii, and I wouldn’t be surprised if one or more figure out how to stow away to get over there eventually. Wile E was aptly named!

chapter3travels Now that you say it, all I see are potatoes. Big, round, floaty potatoes. HA!

Also, now that you say it, I will make extra sure to never be downrange from a hippo. Boy, girl? Don’t care. Apparently, they make pretty questionable choices and humans just need to steer clear.

Downtime with nothing to do is unquestionably valuable. There is more planning and process in this life than appears on the surface. Sometimes it’s good to just veg.

Chasing Dirt There’s just no un-seeing it now, huh? Contrasted with the similarly-sized land potato of Lu, who not only is a natural-born poop-flinger, but did you know that hippos are the deadliest large mammal in Africa, responsible for more human deaths than any other? That’s saying a lot considering the whole continent is packed with deadly large mammals! Down time is definitely necessary and often overlooked in our lifestyle when we can feel pressured to GO! DO! EXPLORE! every day.

Lowe's Travels I learned something new, the red and the green lichens! I have seen them in our hikes but never bothered to know what they are called!
I enjoyed my alone time at the long name wildlife park on my first visit and dragged Steve on my second visit in 2019. We kayak just outside of that wildpark last year, and so much fun to see those manatees!

Chasing Dirt Aren’t those red ones pretty? They really do look fake. That river would be great to kayak with all those manatee! There were a lot of fisherpeople in boats, and the pelicans were biting their fish when they’d get one on the hook. I wonder if pelicans are tasty.

Sharron @onlytherocks Floaty potatoes ! Love it! And more of those danger noodles. Oh boy. I’ll just let you guys keep finding them. A little sad for Lu the hippo. But that’s quite an interesting tidbit about their poo . So many springs in Florida and wildlife in and around them. Supposedly the Florida Panther numbers are up so maybe you’ll get lucky and spot one of them from a safe distance of course!

Chasing Dirt I think we’re up to six species of rattlesnacks. Imagine if we were TRYING to find them! It would be very cool to spot a panther.

 

 

 

 

Koreshan S.P. FL

 

All apologies, but I have to take you back into 2020 briefly to get us caught up. Don’t be afraid, most of it is good stuff, and there are lots of pretty pictures.

Christmas week found us at Koreshan State Park where our stay began with a near-tragedy. The RV camping loop was tight, but TBG had no trouble motoring around to our reserved space. There was a little head-butting over the maneuvering into the spot, though, but once in, all that was needed was a minor adjustment to get better aligned. That’s when this happened:

Hhhheeeellllpppp!!!!

I was standing outside the rig, watching in horror as the back wheels started to spin and sink. TBG, able to feel that happening, gunned the engine and launched forward in the nick of time. After a little deep breathing and a few vulgar expressions of relief, we returned to the office and explained our predicament. The nice ranger was able to get us set up in what he called an “emergency site,” (an unreserved handicapped i.e. paved space.) All the sites are very jungly, and a kaleidoscope of zebra longwing butterflies surrounded our new space.

Safe in site 7

Koreshan SP was founded in the late 1800s to be a utopian community for a religious group led by Dr. Cyrus Teed. I know I don’t usually recount history in this blog, but this tidbit you won’t find at the park or in any of its literature. TBG wondered aloud if the name “Koreshan” was at all related to David Koresh of the infamous Waco religious cult. The answer is that they are not directly related at all, but both using the name “Koresh” isn’t coincidental. It is the Persian equivalent of the name Cyrus, and was taken by both men in honor of Cyrus the Great, founder of the first and greatest Persian Empire.

 

Unlike the Waco fiasco, Teed’s utopia was actually a pretty nice place to live, and rather than remove themselves from their surrounding society, they were an integral part of the area and the establishment of the town of Estero. The monstrous generator even provided power for the small city as well as their Unity Settlement.

 

Because it was Christmas week, the grounds were decorated with festive displays, packages stacked on porches, and wreaths hung on all the doors. In more normal times, the buildings are open for touring, and on Sundays there is a small farmer’s market on the historic site grounds. I was really hoping they’d still be able to have the latter but not surprised when they didn’t.

 I thought the whole park, including the historic site area, was simply beautiful and just had a soothing feel to it. I could certainly see why the Koreshans chose to settle here.

 

My favorite part though was, predictably, a critter. As we strolled the grounds for the first time, I stopped to read the gopher tortoise information sign. At first I thought the tortoise strategically placed near the sign was a statue.

 

Nope! She was real, and quite the cooperative poser.

 

I know it was a she because on a subsequent visit a volunteer told me all about her. After seeing her the first time and suddenly noticing all the other neon green tape marking other burrow entrances dotting the grounds, I was off to the races to see if more were afoot.

 

This was the only other one we found, a very young one, but old enough to have dug its own perfectly domed home.

Bridge to Monkey Puzzle Island

 

It wasn’t entirely utopia what with a passel of yowling neighbor boys that I called the Screaming Weedwhackers due to their continually running around with sticks, hacking at the vegetation for hours. They were also the impetus for a verbal altercation between other campers in the laundry pavilion. We managed to avoid them by taking many walks around the park’s short but lovely trails, and fortunately they weren’t next door for our entire stay. A little rule-enforcing would’ve been nice, though.

 

 

When we made our reservations for this park well over a year ago, our friends Raven & Chickadee were going to be camped out on Sanibel Island, and we were going to celebrate the season together. It’s no mystery why that didn’t get to happen, but even though they weren’t there, on Christmas Eve-eve we still drove out to the island to spend some time at a place called J.N. “Ding” Darling Nat’l Wildlife Refuge. We began at their visitor center, which was only partially open, but I have to tell you that it is, hands down, the most gorgeous VC I’ve ever seen, and I regret that I didn’t take pictures of it. Every surface is covered with brilliant, semi-3D murals. Even the restrooms are fabulous, the outside of each individual stall door featuring a larger-than-life photograph of one of the refuge’s animals, and on the inside of the stall door is…a Fresh Fun Fact about that animal! I was very glad no one else was in there with me because when I closed my door and saw the FFF, I let out a loud, “Hey!”

As nice as the VC was, we were there to spot some wildlife, and we took the very helpful VC volunteer’s advice and decided to walk part of the Wildlife Drive to the observation tower, making a loop with the Indigo Trail for the return. There were plenty of folks making the drive, several cyclists, but very few of us walkers.

Though it is billed as a wildlife drive, and most folks we saw were doing exactly that, it is also open to cyclists and walkers. There is a fee for all ($1 per hiker, $10 per car) unless you have a NPS pass and you can even rent bikes if you come without your own. While you may see manatees, alligators, and other sorts of wildlife, it is predominantly birds to be seen here.

Pelicans galore! (and one sneaky ibis)

For most of the walk, we saw birds at a distance, save a couple yellow-crowned night herons roosting and preening in the foliage lining the roadway.

We enjoyed the spectacular weather and the scenery, but if ever there was a time when the phrase “saving the best for last” was appropriate, it was when we reached the bridge and observation deck at the end of the trail behind the VC. Just about every type of bird the refuge harbors was there.

Little Blue Heron

Green Heron

Common Gallinule

As you can see by that bright, colorful beak and tell from the name, the Common Gallinule is the Purple Gallinule’s less-showy cousin.

We saw almost all of the birds pictured in the brochure but, just as we were beginning to think we’d probably not see them this trip, we looked down the waterway, and there they were high in the trees.

 Roseate Spoonbills! You can say either rosie-ETTE or rosie-ATE. I say ETTE or just Spoonies.

Since this would be our only trip out to Sanibel and wanting to make the most of the day and the confusing we’ll-mail-you-a-payment-request highway toll required to get onto Sanibel, we decided to drive the few extra miles to another section of the refuge. that isn’t geographically connected to the main part. It’s a freshwater habitat, unlike the salty mangrove one of the main refuge.

 

The Bailey Tract is a freshwater habitat unlike the salty mangrove habitat in the main refuge. There were only a couple other cars in the lot, and we didn’t see anyone until we were nearly finished with our walk.

 

 

We also didn’t see very much wildlife, either, but it was a pleasant, peaceful stroll. Sanibel is also famous for its great shell-collecting beaches, which we didn’t have time for this trip, though in hindsight it may have been a more iconic choice than the Bailey area.

 

TBG used quiet holiday time on Xmas Eve to work on leather gifts for the friends we visited in Colorado, I finished another painted gourd, and we streamed a movie that evening. On Christmas, we took a long, long morning walk, video-chatted with both sets of parents, and snacked on warm-from-the-oven banana bread and crustless pumpkin pie.

 

No complaints here.

 

COMMENTS

 Shannon Your bird photos from Ding Darling are spectacular, and you’ve obviously figured out my trick for animal photos — go to places where the critters will pose for you. So glad you were able to experience a taste of Sanibel even without Eric & Laurel. Koreshan SP is a park that has always intrigued us, though we have never stayed there. Your review makes it seem pretty appealing, despite the sinking problem and the noisy neighbors. It will go on our list for a future visit!

1. • Chasing Dirt Thanks! It’s always nice when the critters co-operate. 🙂 You would enjoy Koreshan for sure. There is also direct access to the river for kayaking, too, which we didn’t do but saw plenty of folks enjoying a paddle. And you probably wouldn’t sink like our beastly moho!

2. placestheygo What a beautiful state park. Thanks for sharing the history. I love learning about the places people share. Looks like you lucked out with the new site…paved!! Christmas week is a tough one anywhere in campgrounds. There are always so many kids and they are usually given freedom to be own their own. Driving the rest of us CRAZY!! Glad your Whacky Boys didn’t stay your whole visit. I’ve never heard of this park and we spent a lot of time in the Fort Myers area before MH days (my parents a condo there) and then three winters with the MH. Sorry we missed it. We LOVE Sanibel!! They have great beaches with mountains of seashells. It’s a great place to bike which you can then ride out to Captiva Island and explore, too. Sorry you couldn’t meet Eric and Laurel. That would have been so much fun.

   • Chasing Dirt We were so relieved they had an alternate site for us. Trying to scramble during a holiday week would not have been fun.

     Sanibel was lovely, and I can see why you spent so much time in the general area. We did see the great bike trails everywhere. On our way back, everything was disturbingly crowded, and we just wanted to get off the island. In non-pandemic times, we would definitely want to spend more time out there. They should make it a bike or walk island only. We can dream, right? It was a shame we didn’t have L&E as tour guides, though. *sigh*

3. chapter3travels That was a LOT of sinking you guys did… was that because of recent rain or was your rig just too heavy for the site in general? I’m glad you guys got out so quick AND they had an alternate site available for you. That is some serious luck given the time of year.

   Interesting history about the park and definitely some beautiful sights. Your wildlife photos are wonderful – my favorite is the little blue heron. I keep trying to get good photos of the birds in the bay near our campground, but for some reason (Thor), they never seem to want to stick around when I show up. 😦

   The Screaming Weedwhackers sounds like some kind of alt/punk band. 🙂

   • TBG Are you calling our Essie fat?

     I too wondered about the recent rains contributing to the soft earth. Who knows, and considering the state has so many sinkholes I think we got lucky. Now doing a dirt broadie with a RV was exciting.

   • Chasing Dirt It’s been one of our biggest fears with travelling in Florida. Don’t we have other friends who sank somewhere down here?

     Slip Thor a canine Mickey, and go on some solo nature walks. We need pretty photos!

     Those weedwhackers were a band of punks! 😆

4. Laurel Oh, I’m so glad you liked Koreshan! We love that park…it has such a wonderful ‘jungly’ feel, as you said. Bummer that the buildings weren’t open for tours, but you learned a lot on your own about the fascinating history of the Koreshan community.

   That was quite a maneuvering job to eject your rig out of that soft sand! No wonder you have been a bit concerned about parking here on our property. I promise you that your rig will NOT sink. But if it does…well, Sister Wife, that is clearly a message that it’s time to begin our own utopian community, LOL.

   Speaking of bummer, dang it, we really wanted to do Sanibel Island with you! So glad you enjoyed your day on the island, and that you saw so much wildlife and got such wonderful photos of the various herons. See you SOON!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂

   • Chasing Dirt I thought the campground, especially the tent area, was one of the most beautiful we’ve seen. I just liked the whole place!

     Sister-wife Utopian Settlement!!!! Now I kinda wanna sink. We’ll need to put in a pool.

     We really wish you’d been our Sanibel guides. I can’t wait to see birds through your eyes!

     Get that kombucha ready!!!

5. Sharron @onlytherocks So glad TBG felt the rig start to sink and acted so quickly. That would not have been a fun situation to get out of. We almost had a problem with soft asphalt one that too prying our pads out of once. Thank goodness it wasn’t the jacks.

   As usual your bird photos are just beautiful. So happy you got to see lots of Roseates. They are so pretty. I just love their colors. Fun to watch them eat with those spoonbills on the shores. Jealous you got to see a gopher turtle. I’ve always wanted to see one but they have been elusive to me. Pretty painted gourd and leather work too. Such a talented couple you guys are.

   • Chasing Dirt With the tightness of the camp road, had we gotten stuck, I have no idea how a tow would’ve gotten in there. Whew! Sunken jacks would’ve been a nightmare

     Seeing all the birds was fun. I hope we can see some Spoonies at a closer range, especially eating! I hope you get to see a gopher tortoise someday. Florida is definitely the place to find them.

     Thanks for the nice words about our crafting 🙂

6. Lowe's Travels We heard about good things about that park but we chose to stay at a private and crowded park 🙂 JN Ding Darling is really the place to see some wild birds or animals in the wild albeit sometimes too far away to take a good pic especially Spoonie. But of course your great photos makes me long for those days. I missed the big birds!

   Hey TBG quick thinking on your part and so good Essie did not sink altogether. We had a similar incident just as we park Betsy and she sank right away. We let her stay sank until the day we leave. On departure we ask a cool Kansas farmer pulled us out using his big tractor Whew!

   • Chasing Dirt It’s probably better that you stayed at a different park because the unpaved sites at Koreshan don’t seem to be suited to weighty motorhomes at all. It’s too bad because the campground is so pretty. The big birds sure are fun to see and so much easier to photograph. *I* miss the hummingbirds, though. Always a trade-off!

     Thank goodness for cool Kansas farmers! 😀