Another flat, Lake Dorr, Hontoon Island State Park, Wekiwa State Park, boat trip on the Silver River (with monkeys!), Ocala, Juniper Springs Wilderness fire, and the trip home.
(posted from home)
(This post covers 5-12 March, 2009)
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Thursday, 12 March –
I woke refreshed and ready to get on the road. My drive up I-95 through the remainder of North Carolina and Virginia and Maryland was very easy, marred only by some stop-and-go traffic in a construction zone south of Washington, DC. I passed the time listening to ‘This American Life’ on the iPod and to Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner’s excellent testimony on the financial crisis (on CSPAN Radio).
By 1530 I was backing the boat into my driveway. I spent the next hour unloading and ‘arriving’ and then settled in with Labashi. It’s always GREAT to come home.
That evening Labashi and I watched ‘Before Night Falls’, an excellent film adaptation of Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas’ memoir. The part is played by Javier Bardem, who is one of my favorite actors and is amazing in this movie. The director is Julian Schnabel and I really, really now want to see ‘The Diving Bell And The Butterfly’, one of his later films. ‘Before Night Falls’ is very highly recommended.
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Wednesday, 11 March –
This morning I drove to Juniper Springs, thinking I’d walk to the site of yesterday’s fire. But the whole park is closed and the air is thick with smoke. The canoe launch is closed as is the Florida Trail through the entire Juniper Springs Wilderness. (I later learned the fire had been much bigger than I realized and in fact was less than 10 per cent contained on this day).
After staring at the maps a while I decided it was time to point the van toward home. I had had a great trip for the last five weeks but it just seemed I had accomplished everything I had wanted to this trip and home was where Labashi is. Also, with the spring-forward time change, days wouldn’t seem so short at home as they had back in January and daytime temperatures are pretty comfortable.
I decided I’d wend my way home rather than “head for the barn” like I normally do once I make the homeward-bound decision.
Rather than just go north up route 19 (my normal route), I drove to the western boundary of the Ocala National Forest and took that road, my first time on it. It took me up through beautiful backcountry and past ‘old Florida’ homes, then on to Route 301. I had my chance to catch I-95 above Jacksonville but chose to stay on 301 through Georgia and part of South Carolina. But late in the day I swung over to catch I-95 so I could make Lumberton, NC for the night and be within striking distance of home the next day.
My drive up 301 was great. The country parts of it ran through mile after mile of pinewood tree farms and farmland. The towns were for the most part neat and tidy but in South Carolina I started seeing lots of evidence of hard times. Many stores and factories were shuttered and the amount of trash and junk sitting around the abandoned homes and former businesses was overwhelming in some areas.
I didn’t make the Lumberton Wal-mart until 2200. After a quick supper I easily fell asleep but was awakened at 0100 by a noisy truck. This clown must have had a refrigerated truck because the noise was much louder than a normal idling diesel. I don’t understand why, with dozens of truck stops within easy reach, they choose to wake up the RVers at the Wal-mart. Anyway, at 0200, I gave up trying to sleep and drove north for an hour to another Wal-mart and there fell gratefully and very deeply asleep.
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Tuesday, 10 March –
Today I headed over to nearby Biggby Coffee to update the blog and have a coffee. But it took me a minute to realize they had gone out of business. The sign was still in place but something wasn’t right. Hmm. No ads in the windows, nothing posted on the door—not even the hours of operation. But it wasn’t until I saw the interior had been stripped and there was nothing in there at all that it sunk in…. they’re gone! Rats!
It wasn’t critical to update the blog so I went looking for the local Gander Mountain. Someone had told me there’s one in Ocala but the GPS didn’t show it. Fortunately, the guy had said it’s near I-75 so I found it easily.
Next door was a big Northern Tool store so I checked both there and at Gander Mountain for a spare wheel and tire for the boat trailer—but no luck. I did, however, see Gander Mountain sells TentCots (http://www.kamprite.com/pages/products). I had been interested in one of those for the boat, i.e., for an overnighter out in the Everglades or something similar. But I soon realized it would be an unwieldy thing to haul around all the time just to have it for a night or two. Also, it’s $160 so it was an easy decision to pass. But I would like to come up with a good way to set up a backpackers solo tent on the boat and somehow do it an inch or so off the deck so rains wouldn’t simply soak through the bottom of the tent.
I then drove to the closest park for lunch and planned the rest of the day. I’d go to Juniper Springs Wilderness for a walk, then drive on to Lake Dorr for the night.
As I drove out Route 40 toward Juniper Springs, I saw a relatively small cloud of smoke over the area. As I turned into the entrance station I saw some fire vehicles and I wondered if there had been a fire in the campground. The attendant said I could walk on the Florida Trail if I wanted to but there’s a wildfire about five miles back the trail. After talking with her a bit I realized the Florida Trail is the only access to that area and with more firefighters rolling in the gate, it was apparent the firefighters would soon be hoofing it down the trail and I’d be in the way. Later, I learned the park campground had been evacuated and the park closed shortly after I left.
I drove west on 40 to the shooting range, thinking I’d while away an hour or so there but it was crowded, so I turned back. And in that short time, the cloud over the Juniper Springs area was MUCH larger and darker. (NOTE: on March 12th this fire was reported as 1300 acres and only 10 per cent contained. Also, hikers had to be airlifted from the area and a firebreak constructed near the campground and canoe-launch to prevent them from being affected by the fire. I had no idea the fire was this extensive.)
I drove down US19 to the nearest Florida Trail trailhead and parked there for my walk. I walked northbound on the trail for two hours, making it well past Buck Lake. I had hoped to make it to Farles Prairie but realized at 1700 that I had better turn back in order to make it back to the van before dark. I really liked this hike though at first it was quite hot and dusty. But as dusk came on, it was very special and peaceful, particularly at Dora’s Pond.
I also met an interesting hiker on the trail. I met Sarah Montana. She’s not Hannah Montana’s older sister, she’s Sarah, FROM Montana. Let me explain. As I parked the van at the trailhead I noticed a car with a Montana license plate--- something you don’t see a lot of in Florida. About an hour into my walk, I met a pretty, outdoorsy young woman hiking southbound with her two dogs. We talked for fifteen minutes or so and I learned she is originally from the plains of eastern Montana and her dogs are named ‘Finn’ and ‘Rocket’ (I should have asked where ‘Nose Cone’ and ‘Gyrocompass’ were). She had interesting ‘tribal’-style tattoos circling her arms but I didn’t dare ask if they had special significance. She had an interest in snakes and lizards and had done some work with ‘herps’ (as in herpetology). She told me of the snakes she had seen on the Yearling Trail north of us while I said I had been surprised at how few snakes I had seen both here in the Ocala and the Everglades. We talked of our experiences happening upon hog-nosed snakes and I told her of the Juniper Wilderness fire and recommended the Juniper Springs Run canoe trip. She was just refreshing to talk to. Afterwards I kicked myself for not asking whether she knew of Broadus, Montana. That’s the little East Montana town where our van broke down in 2006. It would have been a great coincidence if she had known or known of Steve and LeAnn Rhodes or of the Powder River Tire shop there at the Broadus cross-roads.
I was exhausted from the hike but hoped to revive myself with some good ham and mustardy hot-sauce at Old Crow Bar-Be-Que. But they were closed! I swear the sign said they were open seven days a week when I was here last week but now it says they’re only open Wednesday through Sunday.
I drove on through Umatilla, looking for something like Old Crow but there’s nothing. I stopped at the liquor store and bought some classy vodka for my orange juice, then returned to the campground and had a big spinach salad for supper.
After my eight miles of walking it only took two shots of vodka in my orange juice to put me into a heavy sleep for the night. I’ll never be much of a drinker. A couple of shots and I’m fast asleep!
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Monday, 9 March –
I finally left Lake Dorr campground today… but I may be back. I really like the area and you can’t beat the price. For some reason this campground takes the America-the-Beautiful national parks pass for a 50% discount, making it $6 for a nice campground on a lake and within easy driving distance to many recreation lands.
Anyway, the goal today was to take the fishing boat out on the Ocklawaha River and (hopefully) sample the Silver River.
I drove to Ray Wayside Park on route 40 about seven miles east of Ocala and at the edge of the Ocala National Forest. The little wayside park has two launch ramps on a canal leading to the Silver River and very near its confluence with the Ocklawaha. Go upstream for the Silver, downstream for the Ocklawaha.
I was immediately smitten by the Silver River, a/k/a Silver Spring. It’s crystal clear and has a good healthy flow. And there are monkeys!
I had read about monkeys in the area but was still surprised when I saw the branches shaking oddly up high. I spotted a monkey in the underbrush and thought I was very lucky to see one. Then I saw five of them together with another four in the trees above. Very, very cool!
I spent the afternoon slowly motoring upstream against the current, fascinated by the many birds, fish, turtles, and alligators, all on this sleepy, postcard-perfect stream. There were enough underwater obstacles threatening the prop to keep the trip interesting and in a few places the river was only two boat-widths wide, typically around a snag. And the clear water made it possible to see the underwater roots and branches festooned with reedy growth, a deep green against the pretty white-sand bottom.
It took me about three hours to reach Silver Springs, the commercial glass-bottom-boat attraction. I took a spin around the boat basin and waved to the tourists but the natural area downstream was much more interesting so I didn’t stay long.
As I had come upriver I passed two small pontoon boats coming down with a dozen or so tourists and naturalists from the nearby state park. In my five-hour trip I saw eight private boats but I’d bet the river gets crowded on weekends. I passed a dozen or so kayaks and canoes, all working hard going against the current and I didn’t envy their trip upstream.
By late afternoon I made it back to the launch ramp and took a break, then headed the other direction on the river. I only spent about an hour on the Ocklawaha but it too is a special river and I’ll want to explore it some more sometime soon. The Silver River is protected and there’s no fishing permitted while the Ocklawaha permits fishing. Also, the Ocklawaha goes on for many miles and forms much of the western boundary of the National Forest.
I returned to the ramp and loaded up, then headed to a new Starbucks I had spotted on the east side of Ocala. I spent a very pleasant two hours on their shady patio, sipping and blogging. I then went to the library and called Labashi from Study Room 3 for a video call.
Afterwards I drove to the 19th Street Wal-mart for the night. I’ve stayed at that one before and there’s a Biggby Coffee next door where I can post the blog tomorrow morning.
I visited the Redbox and rented ‘Lakeview Terrace’ with Samuel L. Jackson. RT gives it a 48 and that seems appropriate to me. It’s not the greatest movie but I like watching Mr. Jackson at work.
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Sunday, 8 March –
Today I drove in to the library to call Labashi but couldn’t get a signal. I carry along a copy of wi-fi hotspots in Florida from wififreespot.com and saw there’s one in Eustis at a coffee shop. I had a coffee at PJ’s and a nice long chat with Labashi. She’s home from her parent’s place now and already working on one of her art projects.
I then drove to Big Bass campground in the Ocala National Forest, just to check it out. I spoke with the volunteer there and took a look around but it’s too hilly. Only a few of the campsites are level, the lake dried up, and it’s $12 for a site there (and only $6 at Lake Dorr), so I’d be silly to camp there.
I then drove the dirt forest road north until hitting Route 40 and I peeked in at Mill Dam Lake but it’s small and boring.
I then drove on to Silver River State Park and took a walk. I had read about it in ’50 Hikes in Central Florida’. I walked down to the river (Silver Springs) and then walked one of the trails for an hour or so, giving me a four-mile day.
As I headed back to Lake Dorr, I took the forest road since it was dusk and I hoped to see some wildlife. I only saw one deer, however.
Back at camp I made my signature spinach salad for dinner and then blogged the rest of the evening away.
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Saturday, 7 March -
Today was a loss as far as getting done what I wanted to do. My campground doesn’t have a dump station so I went to Clearwater Lake campground and took care of that chore. But then the idea was to go kayak the Wekiva River. I had briefly seen a stretch of it while taking Orat to the Orlando airport a few days ago and had make a waypoint of it on the GPS.
But I also wanted to see Hontoon Island State Park, Florida’s only island state park. You don’t drive into the state park. You park in a parking lot and walk to a six-person electric ferry and that ferries you across part of the St. John’s River to the state park dock.
I walked a bit but just wasn’t into it. I wanted to paddle. And if I had had any brains at all, I would have just gone back to the van and launched the kayak near the ferry dock. But I decided I wanted to paddle the Wekiva.
My waypoint would take me to the Wekiva but I decided I should go to the Wekiva State Park so put that in the GPS. It seemed like it took forever to get there and I realized I had almost driven to Orlando to get there. And to make matters worse, I couldn’t paddle there. There was a Riverfest and Artfest going on and even on a non-busy day it’s quite a hike to the launch. I gave up on that idea.
I then followed the GPS to my waypoint and I noticed it’s now getting late in the day. I need to get on the river soon or I won’t have enough time.
But then the next problem. There’s no place to launch into the Wekiva River in that area. The bridge over it has a big fence all around. I cruised the country roads on both sides of the river and everything was private. I did eventually find a park but it was closed for rehabilitation and had a big construction fence and no-trespassing signs around it.
So I gave up. By that time it was only two hours till dark. I’d just have to regroup and this time plan it better.
I drove back to Umatilla and went to a chili cook-off in the library parking lot. For $5 I was able to approach any of 20 stands and get as much chili as I could stand. I made the rounds of about ten of them and then voted for my favorite— “Gaspacho-Macho”. It was a garlic-heavy Gaspacho (cold soup) and it was definitely different than the others.
I then drove behind the library and picked up a wi-fi signal there for some web stuff before going back to camp for the night.
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Friday, 6 March –
I spent the morning working on the fishing boat. I had to make another trip to the hardware store for more supplies but did get the job done by mid-afternoon. I then hooked up the boat and towed it to the parking area near the launch and washed it down again. Orat and I had washed off the worst of the crud but there was still a fine layer of dirt on everything and I had a heck of a time getting it off enough that I wasn’t making tracks just walking across the deck.
I then launched the boat and spent the rest of the afternoon on Lake Dorr, just exploring. I saw a bald eagle at the far end of the lake but otherwise saw only a few anhingas and cormorants on my two-hour cruise.
After dark I went back to Old Crow and this time tried the beef bar-be-que and sweet sauce, then switched to the hot sauce.
I finished the evening parked outside the library in Mocha Joe, on the internet. I noticed Orat sign on to Skype and had a nice chat with him and the missus.
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Thursday, 5 March –
Today I took a driving tour. It wasn’t really intentional, it just happened that way. I drove from my camp site at Lake Dorr to Umatilla and the Ace hardware store to buy a few replacement screws and lock nuts for the fishing boat. All the bouncing around caused the fire extinguisher mount to come off and the boat motor control console to come off. After buying the supplies to resolve those issues I planned to go back to the campground but as I approached the van I noticed a low tire. I checked the pressure and it only had 16 psi so I pumped it up to 30 psi and checked the tire over thoroughly but couldn’t find anything wrong. I did notice that the plug I put in on the McCarthy Road in Alaska’s Wrangell-St Elias Wilderness had a bit of an odd discoloration but that plug has been working fine for something on the order of 8000 miles. This is the same tire which Orat spotted what looked like a roofing nail head protruding from it last week. That turned out to be just a ¼-inch screw in the thick part of the tread so that also seemed unlikely.
The GPS found a tire shop just down the street in Umatilla so I gave it a try. This one turned out to be an interesting place. The owner, Bruce, is a Florida good-ol’-boy who likes to hunt. The tire shop is an old (30’s vintage) gas station and Bruce has stacks and stacks of tires piled all around. In the ‘office’, there’s barely room to turn around but the walls are festooned with deer heads and a BIG life-size turkey mount. Every horizontal surface is covered in junk and the grime that goes with having an open-air office and garage where tire work is done.
Bruce took care of me right away and mumbled something about a horse trailer due in for some work so he had to get me done quickly. He didn’t have a tire-dunking tank to find the leak, he just man-handled the tire around the corner and slowly ran water over it with the hose. I thought he might have a hard time finding the leak but as soon as the water hit the plug, you could see the bubbles.
Bruce dismounted the tire and installed a patch from the inside—the old way of doing it. He told me he has been using those patches for 35 years and they almost never come back. He said something more modern may work fine but he’s not about to try it given the excellent performance of the patches. They do require the installer dismount the tire and to rough up the area to receive the patch with an air-rasp and then it takes awhile for the glue to air-dry before putting the patch down. I couldn’t help thinking this could get expensive given the time it was taking but Bruce surprised me by charging only $17 for the job. It easily took 45 minutes for the entire process so I don’t think Bruce is getting rich on this. On the other hand, he had a string of locals coming in and lining up to have work done the whole time I was there. I had apparently gotten lucky to get in line just before the rush.
The job with Bruce required cash so that reminded me I needed to replenish my walking-around cash so I found a bank further down the street for that. And that led to my wanting to keep driving and looking around. Before long I was following 441 west and I realized I had never been on that section. And, gee, it was only another 45 miles to Ocala—wouldn’t it be nice to see good old Ocala again?
You get the picture. I spent the rest of the day driving around. And late in the day I stopped at the Ocala Library to see if they had gotten their wi-fi installed. They didn’t have it last year but were due for it soon. And sure enough, they had it. I spent an hour or two catching up on news and mail, then I completed my circle across the Ocala National Forest again to get back to Lake Dorr for the night.
I passed right by my campground and went on to Umatilla to try the bar-be-que at a local joint called Old Crow Bar-B-Que. The pork was good but the hot mustard sauce made it perfect!
I then drove a few blocks to the library to call Labashi via Skype before returning to camp for the night.
*********** END OF POST *************
(posted from home)
(This post covers 5-12 March, 2009)
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Thursday, 12 March –
I woke refreshed and ready to get on the road. My drive up I-95 through the remainder of North Carolina and Virginia and Maryland was very easy, marred only by some stop-and-go traffic in a construction zone south of Washington, DC. I passed the time listening to ‘This American Life’ on the iPod and to Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner’s excellent testimony on the financial crisis (on CSPAN Radio).
By 1530 I was backing the boat into my driveway. I spent the next hour unloading and ‘arriving’ and then settled in with Labashi. It’s always GREAT to come home.
That evening Labashi and I watched ‘Before Night Falls’, an excellent film adaptation of Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas’ memoir. The part is played by Javier Bardem, who is one of my favorite actors and is amazing in this movie. The director is Julian Schnabel and I really, really now want to see ‘The Diving Bell And The Butterfly’, one of his later films. ‘Before Night Falls’ is very highly recommended.
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Wednesday, 11 March –
This morning I drove to Juniper Springs, thinking I’d walk to the site of yesterday’s fire. But the whole park is closed and the air is thick with smoke. The canoe launch is closed as is the Florida Trail through the entire Juniper Springs Wilderness. (I later learned the fire had been much bigger than I realized and in fact was less than 10 per cent contained on this day).
After staring at the maps a while I decided it was time to point the van toward home. I had had a great trip for the last five weeks but it just seemed I had accomplished everything I had wanted to this trip and home was where Labashi is. Also, with the spring-forward time change, days wouldn’t seem so short at home as they had back in January and daytime temperatures are pretty comfortable.
I decided I’d wend my way home rather than “head for the barn” like I normally do once I make the homeward-bound decision.
Rather than just go north up route 19 (my normal route), I drove to the western boundary of the Ocala National Forest and took that road, my first time on it. It took me up through beautiful backcountry and past ‘old Florida’ homes, then on to Route 301. I had my chance to catch I-95 above Jacksonville but chose to stay on 301 through Georgia and part of South Carolina. But late in the day I swung over to catch I-95 so I could make Lumberton, NC for the night and be within striking distance of home the next day.
My drive up 301 was great. The country parts of it ran through mile after mile of pinewood tree farms and farmland. The towns were for the most part neat and tidy but in South Carolina I started seeing lots of evidence of hard times. Many stores and factories were shuttered and the amount of trash and junk sitting around the abandoned homes and former businesses was overwhelming in some areas.
I didn’t make the Lumberton Wal-mart until 2200. After a quick supper I easily fell asleep but was awakened at 0100 by a noisy truck. This clown must have had a refrigerated truck because the noise was much louder than a normal idling diesel. I don’t understand why, with dozens of truck stops within easy reach, they choose to wake up the RVers at the Wal-mart. Anyway, at 0200, I gave up trying to sleep and drove north for an hour to another Wal-mart and there fell gratefully and very deeply asleep.
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Tuesday, 10 March –
Today I headed over to nearby Biggby Coffee to update the blog and have a coffee. But it took me a minute to realize they had gone out of business. The sign was still in place but something wasn’t right. Hmm. No ads in the windows, nothing posted on the door—not even the hours of operation. But it wasn’t until I saw the interior had been stripped and there was nothing in there at all that it sunk in…. they’re gone! Rats!
It wasn’t critical to update the blog so I went looking for the local Gander Mountain. Someone had told me there’s one in Ocala but the GPS didn’t show it. Fortunately, the guy had said it’s near I-75 so I found it easily.
Next door was a big Northern Tool store so I checked both there and at Gander Mountain for a spare wheel and tire for the boat trailer—but no luck. I did, however, see Gander Mountain sells TentCots (http://www.kamprite.com/pages/products). I had been interested in one of those for the boat, i.e., for an overnighter out in the Everglades or something similar. But I soon realized it would be an unwieldy thing to haul around all the time just to have it for a night or two. Also, it’s $160 so it was an easy decision to pass. But I would like to come up with a good way to set up a backpackers solo tent on the boat and somehow do it an inch or so off the deck so rains wouldn’t simply soak through the bottom of the tent.
I then drove to the closest park for lunch and planned the rest of the day. I’d go to Juniper Springs Wilderness for a walk, then drive on to Lake Dorr for the night.
As I drove out Route 40 toward Juniper Springs, I saw a relatively small cloud of smoke over the area. As I turned into the entrance station I saw some fire vehicles and I wondered if there had been a fire in the campground. The attendant said I could walk on the Florida Trail if I wanted to but there’s a wildfire about five miles back the trail. After talking with her a bit I realized the Florida Trail is the only access to that area and with more firefighters rolling in the gate, it was apparent the firefighters would soon be hoofing it down the trail and I’d be in the way. Later, I learned the park campground had been evacuated and the park closed shortly after I left.
I drove west on 40 to the shooting range, thinking I’d while away an hour or so there but it was crowded, so I turned back. And in that short time, the cloud over the Juniper Springs area was MUCH larger and darker. (NOTE: on March 12th this fire was reported as 1300 acres and only 10 per cent contained. Also, hikers had to be airlifted from the area and a firebreak constructed near the campground and canoe-launch to prevent them from being affected by the fire. I had no idea the fire was this extensive.)
I drove down US19 to the nearest Florida Trail trailhead and parked there for my walk. I walked northbound on the trail for two hours, making it well past Buck Lake. I had hoped to make it to Farles Prairie but realized at 1700 that I had better turn back in order to make it back to the van before dark. I really liked this hike though at first it was quite hot and dusty. But as dusk came on, it was very special and peaceful, particularly at Dora’s Pond.
I also met an interesting hiker on the trail. I met Sarah Montana. She’s not Hannah Montana’s older sister, she’s Sarah, FROM Montana. Let me explain. As I parked the van at the trailhead I noticed a car with a Montana license plate--- something you don’t see a lot of in Florida. About an hour into my walk, I met a pretty, outdoorsy young woman hiking southbound with her two dogs. We talked for fifteen minutes or so and I learned she is originally from the plains of eastern Montana and her dogs are named ‘Finn’ and ‘Rocket’ (I should have asked where ‘Nose Cone’ and ‘Gyrocompass’ were). She had interesting ‘tribal’-style tattoos circling her arms but I didn’t dare ask if they had special significance. She had an interest in snakes and lizards and had done some work with ‘herps’ (as in herpetology). She told me of the snakes she had seen on the Yearling Trail north of us while I said I had been surprised at how few snakes I had seen both here in the Ocala and the Everglades. We talked of our experiences happening upon hog-nosed snakes and I told her of the Juniper Wilderness fire and recommended the Juniper Springs Run canoe trip. She was just refreshing to talk to. Afterwards I kicked myself for not asking whether she knew of Broadus, Montana. That’s the little East Montana town where our van broke down in 2006. It would have been a great coincidence if she had known or known of Steve and LeAnn Rhodes or of the Powder River Tire shop there at the Broadus cross-roads.
I was exhausted from the hike but hoped to revive myself with some good ham and mustardy hot-sauce at Old Crow Bar-Be-Que. But they were closed! I swear the sign said they were open seven days a week when I was here last week but now it says they’re only open Wednesday through Sunday.
I drove on through Umatilla, looking for something like Old Crow but there’s nothing. I stopped at the liquor store and bought some classy vodka for my orange juice, then returned to the campground and had a big spinach salad for supper.
After my eight miles of walking it only took two shots of vodka in my orange juice to put me into a heavy sleep for the night. I’ll never be much of a drinker. A couple of shots and I’m fast asleep!
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Monday, 9 March –
I finally left Lake Dorr campground today… but I may be back. I really like the area and you can’t beat the price. For some reason this campground takes the America-the-Beautiful national parks pass for a 50% discount, making it $6 for a nice campground on a lake and within easy driving distance to many recreation lands.
Anyway, the goal today was to take the fishing boat out on the Ocklawaha River and (hopefully) sample the Silver River.
I drove to Ray Wayside Park on route 40 about seven miles east of Ocala and at the edge of the Ocala National Forest. The little wayside park has two launch ramps on a canal leading to the Silver River and very near its confluence with the Ocklawaha. Go upstream for the Silver, downstream for the Ocklawaha.
I was immediately smitten by the Silver River, a/k/a Silver Spring. It’s crystal clear and has a good healthy flow. And there are monkeys!
I had read about monkeys in the area but was still surprised when I saw the branches shaking oddly up high. I spotted a monkey in the underbrush and thought I was very lucky to see one. Then I saw five of them together with another four in the trees above. Very, very cool!
I spent the afternoon slowly motoring upstream against the current, fascinated by the many birds, fish, turtles, and alligators, all on this sleepy, postcard-perfect stream. There were enough underwater obstacles threatening the prop to keep the trip interesting and in a few places the river was only two boat-widths wide, typically around a snag. And the clear water made it possible to see the underwater roots and branches festooned with reedy growth, a deep green against the pretty white-sand bottom.
It took me about three hours to reach Silver Springs, the commercial glass-bottom-boat attraction. I took a spin around the boat basin and waved to the tourists but the natural area downstream was much more interesting so I didn’t stay long.
As I had come upriver I passed two small pontoon boats coming down with a dozen or so tourists and naturalists from the nearby state park. In my five-hour trip I saw eight private boats but I’d bet the river gets crowded on weekends. I passed a dozen or so kayaks and canoes, all working hard going against the current and I didn’t envy their trip upstream.
By late afternoon I made it back to the launch ramp and took a break, then headed the other direction on the river. I only spent about an hour on the Ocklawaha but it too is a special river and I’ll want to explore it some more sometime soon. The Silver River is protected and there’s no fishing permitted while the Ocklawaha permits fishing. Also, the Ocklawaha goes on for many miles and forms much of the western boundary of the National Forest.
I returned to the ramp and loaded up, then headed to a new Starbucks I had spotted on the east side of Ocala. I spent a very pleasant two hours on their shady patio, sipping and blogging. I then went to the library and called Labashi from Study Room 3 for a video call.
Afterwards I drove to the 19th Street Wal-mart for the night. I’ve stayed at that one before and there’s a Biggby Coffee next door where I can post the blog tomorrow morning.
I visited the Redbox and rented ‘Lakeview Terrace’ with Samuel L. Jackson. RT gives it a 48 and that seems appropriate to me. It’s not the greatest movie but I like watching Mr. Jackson at work.
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Sunday, 8 March –
Today I drove in to the library to call Labashi but couldn’t get a signal. I carry along a copy of wi-fi hotspots in Florida from wififreespot.com and saw there’s one in Eustis at a coffee shop. I had a coffee at PJ’s and a nice long chat with Labashi. She’s home from her parent’s place now and already working on one of her art projects.
I then drove to Big Bass campground in the Ocala National Forest, just to check it out. I spoke with the volunteer there and took a look around but it’s too hilly. Only a few of the campsites are level, the lake dried up, and it’s $12 for a site there (and only $6 at Lake Dorr), so I’d be silly to camp there.
I then drove the dirt forest road north until hitting Route 40 and I peeked in at Mill Dam Lake but it’s small and boring.
I then drove on to Silver River State Park and took a walk. I had read about it in ’50 Hikes in Central Florida’. I walked down to the river (Silver Springs) and then walked one of the trails for an hour or so, giving me a four-mile day.
As I headed back to Lake Dorr, I took the forest road since it was dusk and I hoped to see some wildlife. I only saw one deer, however.
Back at camp I made my signature spinach salad for dinner and then blogged the rest of the evening away.
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Saturday, 7 March -
Today was a loss as far as getting done what I wanted to do. My campground doesn’t have a dump station so I went to Clearwater Lake campground and took care of that chore. But then the idea was to go kayak the Wekiva River. I had briefly seen a stretch of it while taking Orat to the Orlando airport a few days ago and had make a waypoint of it on the GPS.
But I also wanted to see Hontoon Island State Park, Florida’s only island state park. You don’t drive into the state park. You park in a parking lot and walk to a six-person electric ferry and that ferries you across part of the St. John’s River to the state park dock.
I walked a bit but just wasn’t into it. I wanted to paddle. And if I had had any brains at all, I would have just gone back to the van and launched the kayak near the ferry dock. But I decided I wanted to paddle the Wekiva.
My waypoint would take me to the Wekiva but I decided I should go to the Wekiva State Park so put that in the GPS. It seemed like it took forever to get there and I realized I had almost driven to Orlando to get there. And to make matters worse, I couldn’t paddle there. There was a Riverfest and Artfest going on and even on a non-busy day it’s quite a hike to the launch. I gave up on that idea.
I then followed the GPS to my waypoint and I noticed it’s now getting late in the day. I need to get on the river soon or I won’t have enough time.
But then the next problem. There’s no place to launch into the Wekiva River in that area. The bridge over it has a big fence all around. I cruised the country roads on both sides of the river and everything was private. I did eventually find a park but it was closed for rehabilitation and had a big construction fence and no-trespassing signs around it.
So I gave up. By that time it was only two hours till dark. I’d just have to regroup and this time plan it better.
I drove back to Umatilla and went to a chili cook-off in the library parking lot. For $5 I was able to approach any of 20 stands and get as much chili as I could stand. I made the rounds of about ten of them and then voted for my favorite— “Gaspacho-Macho”. It was a garlic-heavy Gaspacho (cold soup) and it was definitely different than the others.
I then drove behind the library and picked up a wi-fi signal there for some web stuff before going back to camp for the night.
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Friday, 6 March –
I spent the morning working on the fishing boat. I had to make another trip to the hardware store for more supplies but did get the job done by mid-afternoon. I then hooked up the boat and towed it to the parking area near the launch and washed it down again. Orat and I had washed off the worst of the crud but there was still a fine layer of dirt on everything and I had a heck of a time getting it off enough that I wasn’t making tracks just walking across the deck.
I then launched the boat and spent the rest of the afternoon on Lake Dorr, just exploring. I saw a bald eagle at the far end of the lake but otherwise saw only a few anhingas and cormorants on my two-hour cruise.
After dark I went back to Old Crow and this time tried the beef bar-be-que and sweet sauce, then switched to the hot sauce.
I finished the evening parked outside the library in Mocha Joe, on the internet. I noticed Orat sign on to Skype and had a nice chat with him and the missus.
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Thursday, 5 March –
Today I took a driving tour. It wasn’t really intentional, it just happened that way. I drove from my camp site at Lake Dorr to Umatilla and the Ace hardware store to buy a few replacement screws and lock nuts for the fishing boat. All the bouncing around caused the fire extinguisher mount to come off and the boat motor control console to come off. After buying the supplies to resolve those issues I planned to go back to the campground but as I approached the van I noticed a low tire. I checked the pressure and it only had 16 psi so I pumped it up to 30 psi and checked the tire over thoroughly but couldn’t find anything wrong. I did notice that the plug I put in on the McCarthy Road in Alaska’s Wrangell-St Elias Wilderness had a bit of an odd discoloration but that plug has been working fine for something on the order of 8000 miles. This is the same tire which Orat spotted what looked like a roofing nail head protruding from it last week. That turned out to be just a ¼-inch screw in the thick part of the tread so that also seemed unlikely.
The GPS found a tire shop just down the street in Umatilla so I gave it a try. This one turned out to be an interesting place. The owner, Bruce, is a Florida good-ol’-boy who likes to hunt. The tire shop is an old (30’s vintage) gas station and Bruce has stacks and stacks of tires piled all around. In the ‘office’, there’s barely room to turn around but the walls are festooned with deer heads and a BIG life-size turkey mount. Every horizontal surface is covered in junk and the grime that goes with having an open-air office and garage where tire work is done.
Bruce took care of me right away and mumbled something about a horse trailer due in for some work so he had to get me done quickly. He didn’t have a tire-dunking tank to find the leak, he just man-handled the tire around the corner and slowly ran water over it with the hose. I thought he might have a hard time finding the leak but as soon as the water hit the plug, you could see the bubbles.
Bruce dismounted the tire and installed a patch from the inside—the old way of doing it. He told me he has been using those patches for 35 years and they almost never come back. He said something more modern may work fine but he’s not about to try it given the excellent performance of the patches. They do require the installer dismount the tire and to rough up the area to receive the patch with an air-rasp and then it takes awhile for the glue to air-dry before putting the patch down. I couldn’t help thinking this could get expensive given the time it was taking but Bruce surprised me by charging only $17 for the job. It easily took 45 minutes for the entire process so I don’t think Bruce is getting rich on this. On the other hand, he had a string of locals coming in and lining up to have work done the whole time I was there. I had apparently gotten lucky to get in line just before the rush.
The job with Bruce required cash so that reminded me I needed to replenish my walking-around cash so I found a bank further down the street for that. And that led to my wanting to keep driving and looking around. Before long I was following 441 west and I realized I had never been on that section. And, gee, it was only another 45 miles to Ocala—wouldn’t it be nice to see good old Ocala again?
You get the picture. I spent the rest of the day driving around. And late in the day I stopped at the Ocala Library to see if they had gotten their wi-fi installed. They didn’t have it last year but were due for it soon. And sure enough, they had it. I spent an hour or two catching up on news and mail, then I completed my circle across the Ocala National Forest again to get back to Lake Dorr for the night.
I passed right by my campground and went on to Umatilla to try the bar-be-que at a local joint called Old Crow Bar-B-Que. The pork was good but the hot mustard sauce made it perfect!
I then drove a few blocks to the library to call Labashi via Skype before returning to camp for the night.
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posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 23:59
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