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.
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.
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:
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!
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.
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!
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!
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!
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.
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.
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.