We have been at Salt Springs, Ocala National Forest, for a couple of days now. It is our first stop and one to decompress a bit. We have gotten those needed showers and some needed rest. It was a bit warmer under the covers than we are used to, so it was a bit of a sticky first night.
It has been relatively warm and mostly sunny. Yesterday morning, we split up and Ellen went birding and I went biking. Her bird list is growing over those few on the drive down, but it is a matter of getting the eyes back for birding in the live oaks. Those little oak leaves rustle just enough to look like a small bird and are thick enough to hide those chirping in the trees.
I finally got out for a ride on my bicycle. It has been a while since the weather has been nice enough to ride outside at home and it was a prefect morning for a ride. The Salt Springs campground is just across the road from Lake Kerr and it looked like the roads that surround the lake would make a good first ride. The traffic was light and everyone gave me a wide berth.
The roads roll a bit but are mostly flat. That is what a remember of most of my Florida riding. Flat means mostly pedaling when you ride so it was a good bit of exercise, just what I needed. The loop around the lake was exactly 15 miles from Speedy's campsite and back.
My route included a stop at the little strip of stores just before the campground. There is a sporting goods store there, the Buck and Bass (or is it the Bass and Buck?). I stopped in to find out where to get a Florida fishing license. "Right here" was the answer. I'm now the holder of an annual non-resident Florida freshwater fishing license.
After lunch I went to the campground office, where there is WiFi, to upload my Speedy Journal entry and look at campsite availability further south for later in the week. There is no WiFI in the campground and cellular service is very poor, not enough strength with either Verizon or any of the Project Fi carriers for Internet access.
As we expected there were no open campsites at any of the Florida State Parks through the weekend and even hard to find two or three days in a row. We have made this trip to Florida before and just winging it has become harder each time. The future is either all reservations well ahead of time or not making winter trips to Florida. We have rarely had problems finding a site out West and even when it was hard, there is almost always Forest Service or BLM land available (except in Texas).
Since we are in one of the non-reservable sites here at Salt Springs, we decided to stay here a couple of more days through Saturday night. We should be able to find somewhere on Sunday.
In the afternoon we took another walk around the nearby trails and got a few more birds. We stopped and talked with a fellow in a Roadtrek virtually identical to old Speedy. He'd managed to put a kayak rack up on the roof that held two kayaks. It sounded like quite the effort to get them up there, however, including standing on a mat in the engine. He seemed to be getting a bit weary of this method of loading.
After a dinner of the famous Speedy Pasta, we turned in for another warm night.
This morning started a bit gray and the light was quite flat for much of the morning birdwalk. While we are getting better at picking out the small birds, they were in silhouette and hard to identify. It was otherwise a quiet morning.
After lunch it was time to try out my new Tenkara fly rod (and my new fishing license). Tenkara is Japanese fixed-line fly casting, no reel needed. Ellen gave me the rod for Christmas and this was the first chance to practice using it with water as opposed to the dry grass of the backyard. There is a nice fishing canal in the Salt Springs Run, so we put everything together and walked over.
I'd attached a bright attractor fly given me by Ellen's cousin's husband, Peter, better to see what I was doing as I'd just intended to get feel for Tenkara casting and used to how the rod responded. The area along the canal is quite open and, although it was windy, it wasn't too difficult to put the fly where I wanted. I was only casting a 12-foot line on a 10-foot rod. The prime reason for my interest in Tenkara is that it seems pretty simple and there is not a lot of equipment involved.
On about the 25th cast, Peter's fly attracted an 8-inch Bluegill. I really got to see how the rod worked and it was relatively easy to bring the fish in to shore. I'd caught a fish on my new rod and Ellen (there to take photos) had disappeared around the bend to search for a chirp in the bushes. Groan.
As I was landing the fish, I saw something move over my shoulder. A Great Egret had landed right next to me. We'd met this egret yesterday on our afternoon walk. It is somewhat tame as one of the seasonal campers tosses it his fish parts after filleting his catch.
He looked at me expectantly and I indulged him (her?). I removed the fly and tossed the Bluegill in his direction. He scooped it up and swallowed the sunfish whole.
Another 25 casts brought nothing, not that I was expecting anything to begin with. We did get to see a group of Manatee just off the end of the canal and a few other birds including a Bald Eagle.
It was back to Speedy for a dinner of burgers and salad. No fresh fish for dinner (except for the egret).
Photos
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