Lake Kissimmee State Park, Florida

Lake Kissimee

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We decided to do a little car camping and I wanted to take the boat to do some fishing. We looked into Lake Kissimmee State Park and it seemed nice so we made reservations on reserveamerica.com. We had a great Friday night. We got in late but had called ahead to get the combo for the front gate. Woke up Saturday, made breakfast and tok the boat down to the marina. Alls well so far..

We had a fun time idling down the canal to Tiger Cove until Koda decided to jump out of the boat. We still have no idea why she did this as she is not a big water fan. Once we got onto the big water I realized there was no way that we would make it out of the cove as the breeze alone had created quite a chop. So we found a nice little protected area among some reeds and got started. No victory stories here so we crossed Tiger Cove and decided to try fishing the other side and drift back to the canal until the boat died. Thankfully we were able to get a tow in.

The rest of Saturday consisted of cooking and napping with a little poker in between. Saturday night was very nice. After dinner we watched a movie on the laptop and passed out shortly after. Woke up to some sprinkles but it never really rained on us just passing sprinkles. By 11:00 we were headed home.

My regrets were that we went out on the water. Anitra couldn't enjoy herself because she was so afraid Koda would jump out again. There are several hiking trails here. A 6, 6.7 and a 3 and change. I wished we would have done that instead as there was wildlife everywhere and we probably could have seen some cool stuff plus the flowers were blooming and the scenery offered by the park is awesome.

I highly recommend this place. It is very remote and beautiful! I don't recall hearing an interstate at all. However the air boats went into the night and you can hear the for miles! That did get a little old!

For maps great info, go to
http://www.floridastateparks.org/lakekissimmee/default.cfm

Withlacoochee St Forest, Croom Tract, FL

Withlacoochee Croom Tract

This is such a great place to do these kinds of walks. All of the Withlacoochee areas have ways that they can be hacked up in order to make these kinds of trips. This time Koda and I went with Tampa Adventure Group. Dave had everything planned out. When it came time to find our camp site a few runners told us that the low site was underwater so we headed up to the dry site where we have slept before. We went back down to the river around 5ish and filtered some water. The river was crazy high. A good 10 feet higher then it was last summer. The trees had water marks on them telling us that at some point in the near past we would have been neck deep where we were standing.

The one thing I love the most about this area is that it is constantly changing. Sand flats on minute, pine scrub and oak hammocks the next.

The weather was great for this trip although rain was threatening. We hoofed it back to the cars and were on our way prior to getting wet!

Old Fort King Trail Paved Portion

Old Fort King Trail Paved Portion

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This was a nice walk yet not what I would typically do. I chose this as the area had received 2.5 inches of rain a couple of days ago and all of our normal trails would be flooded out. I have to say that the paved portion is really boring... so on the way south we noticed the horse trail coming and going and made a point to take that way on the way back north. After pulling a u turn at trails end we headed back up the horse trail. This was much nicer! Back into the woods! Really nice walk now... The stream crossings were interesting. Usually I would let Koda walk through as it was only knee deep but we just had her groomed so I carried her. The second stream crossing was only mid calf. Nice walk but I will only do this as a last resort. Not enough woods and the hwy is so close that the sound of passing cars is disturbing.


We did this trip 2 days after the area received 2.5 inches of rain so parts were kinda soggy. The first stream crossing was knee high and the second mid calf. Bug sprey is a must if not winter. When in the woods on the horse trail, be mindful of wild life as water is on both sides of the trail. We scared an alligator off the trail shoulder as we walked and I was constantly waiting to walk up on a snake sunning. Keep your eyes open!

Old Fort King to Hillsborough River State Park

HRSP Wetland Trail

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Well it was a beautiful day so Koda and I decided to take a walk. We went to the Old Fort King Area for the 500th time because its so close and free. However, I wanted to change it up again. Once again, this area is just south of Hillsborough River State Park (HRSP)on Hwy 301. The actual Wetlands Restoration Trail will link the two areas together. You can park at Old Fort King and walk or bike into HRSP. I wanted to give this a go as I have never walked it and wanted something different. This portion of the Wetlands trail is barely .5 miles and will take you to the paved loop in HRSP. We turned around and headed back but broke off the trail onto another trail that is basically a fire break between the two properties. This trail was washed out at the first way point. The swamp crossed the trail here and was about 2 feet deep. Almost lost a shoe in the mud! We wound up back at the Wilderness trail but further down. We continued on the fire break till we found a trail heading north. We took this for a while and came to a fork. At first we went left yet to find another wash out at the second way point. The trail started to get real faint so we doubled back and passed the trail that brought us here. Continuing on, we finally wound up at Hillsborough River at the third way point. The trail followed the river right into HRSP at the forth way point. We decided to double back to the fire break. At a break in the barb wire we got onto the wilderness trail and took it to the edge of the property then doubled back and took the Wilderness trail back to the truck.

This was a nice hike as it was new and finding trails that aren't on maps is always fun. These trails got real rustic and Koda was always hearing something. We also so a white tailed doe. Overall fun hike. Cant wait to get back out there and check out a few of those trails we passes up.

Have fun!

Balm Boyette and Triple Creek

Balm Boyette Scrub and Triple Creek

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This is a nice trail system that is overall almost 5.5 miles if you do the whole loop. There is a dividing trail that you can take to cut that in half if need be. The dividing trail cuts the area into 2 different parks. The north side is Triple Creek and the south side is Balm Boyette. There are 2 entrances into the area. The south entrance has facilities and also links up to Alifia River property which is awesome mountain bike riding. This is cool because from here you can access the bike trails for FREE instead of going to the park proper and paying like 5 bucks to get in.

I will start this by saying that this was not 38 miles as described in the stats. My GPS in my phone freaked out and I had to trim off a distant point. Bobby, Tyler and I decided to hike this trail as a group I am a member of was going on a day hike. We decided to get started a little early and took the trail clock wise while the other members of the group went counter clockwise.

There is a big difference from a county park and a state park and this is proof of that. I had read as much as I could find about the area but there isn't a lot of info out there. What I mean is, this trail is poorly marked! The creek crossings are merely RR ties which isn't horrible but.... There was also a fair amount of water on the trail as it had rained about an inch 2 days ago. This also doesn't seem to be a trail that is hiked often. The scrub areas are tight at times. This trail does have some nice wide open spaces and it is easy to wonder of the trail so keep your eyes open for wooden poles with arrows on them. In the sand flats you come across multiple options to take. Mind your manors or you will walk in circles out here. Look for foot prints to guide you if any. The trail gets really hard to follow as you begin the finish in the scrub. Once again look for the post for arrows as the blazes are dull. At times you will be on the trail but there is no trail to follow. HAVE A MAP which you can find online or at the trail head.

Back to the other group that went counter clockwise. We meet them on the trail after they had come thru the sand flats and scrub and had mentioned how they had gotten off course. Some of these guys are pretty experienced hikes and they managed to lose there way a bit.

Bottom line, nice walk but kind of sketche.

Old Fort King Trail to Dead River Loop

Old Fort King Loop

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I wanted to do a day hike but didn't feel like driving forever to do so, so I revisited an area that i'm familier with. I also didn't want the same hike so I added an elemant to change it up a bit. Koda and I started at the Old Fort King Trail head and followed it out of Hillsborough River State Park. At this point we are still on the trail following it along Dead River Rd. Right as you enter the Boundry for Dead River the trail breaks south towards Sargent Park. Thats a fun walk too but its a soogy walk and I wasn't going for that today. So we follow Dead River rd till it ends at the river. This road is only open to car traffic on the weekends so we had a few cars wiz past us. There is a nice bridge by the river that we always take a moment at. After the short break we continue on the trail north east that follows the river. I dont know what to call this trail but it is wide and hiked often and today its our way back to Hillsborough River State Park. Soon enough the gate to Hillsborough River State Park property and the trail is wide again.This is a nice hike and the Dear River rd section added in made the loop possible and deffinatly cut down on the repeditiveness.

Good times, Have fun!

Swimming with Manatees, Car Camping and Caving

Swimming with manatees in Crystal River

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Story: We decided to go swim with the manatees for Nikki's birthday so we went up to Crystal River to do this. Kings bay is one of the only, if not only, place that you can do this legaly. We rented an 8 seater John boat from Crystal Lodge Dive Center for 17.50 an hour. Once on the water, it takes a while to get to the springs as you have to idle most of the time because of the manatees in the water. Three sisters was our first stop. There were dive boats with tourist stacked on top of each other in the canal. Once in the water, you ajust pretty quickly to the 72 degree water which in the Summer is freezing but when the air temp is about 70 too, its not as much of a shock. Manatees were everywhere inside and outside the shallow spring! Once inside the spring, you could see them hanging out on the bottom sleeping. They would wake up from time to time and swim past you.Once back in the boat we went around to Big Spring but decided not to swim here as its 30 feet to the bottom so kinda hard to see anything. Once back to the dive shop, we had lunch and snuck into the next door hotels pool area and hung out in the spa. Very nice!Shortly after that we packed up and headed on over to the campsite at Tillis Hill.By far, one of the neatest things I have done. Glad I could share it with good friends!

Tips: If doing this, Crystal Lodge Dive Shop is the only place to rent a boat. You can call ahead and reserve them but reservations expire at 9am so get there early. The manatees only hang out in the springs mainly for sleeping and will leave as the tide lowers so you want a decent high tide prior so that they are in the springs to begin with. The rate to rent the boat is 17.50 per hour. We had ours for about 3. You can take a guided tour but wheres the fun in that? Most swimmers were wearing wet suits but we didn't except Karl had a shortee. The water temps not a big deal.The dive shop will play a video for you so that you know what and what not to do.

Camping at Tillis Hill and caving at Dames

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Story: First, be sure to check out the Crystal River trip as the camping was the night of and the caving the day after.The campsite was real nice. Tillis Hill is the only camp ground in Withlacooche State Forest that you can make reservations so we chose that one as it was about a half an hour from Crystal River. They have showers and facilities there in case thats something you need. We camped on site 27 & 28. 2 tents, 5 people, 15.00 bucks and 2 cars per site.While Karls stew was cooking over the fire, Nikki looked up a goecache and off we went. On our way to the cache, Chenelle got after a cut down pine tree with the axe seperating the bark from the stump for the fire. We found some grubs in the bark so Tyler and I pulled a Man vs Wild and ate them. The cache was in what I think was an old strip mine area. It was 20-25 feet deep with steep sides. Really neat place to find! The cache was cool too. It was in an ammo box under a rock next to a tree and servival themed. We took sparlers and left a lighter. The log said that we were the first to find it in 2010!Once we got back to camp, we ate drank and played some manhunt.The next day we got off to the caves which was maybe 10 minutes away. Vandal was kinda soggy but Peace was dry. This is always a neat thing to take in.

Tips: The cave hike is short and an easy walk. Bring water for sure. In the summer months the bugs are ruff around the caves so pack spray. The caves can get muddy as well,