Biking the Withlacoochie Trail with Dan and Gail

Hi Blog! On Thursday, March 5, 2015, we took a ride out to Hillsborough River State Park to visit with our friends, Dan and Gail Zamostny. Originally from Ohio, they are full-time RVers like us who travel every week or two weeks working their way around the country. They also like to hike and bike and do other outdoor stuff, too. They invited us out to their campground for a bike ride and burgers.

We had to travel from Clearwater to Hillsborough, which should have been less than an hour away. However, the only way to get there was through Tampa! I suppose if you plan to be in Florida in the winter, you have to expect more traffic. On the bright side, since we were driving so slowly, we had the opportunity to see sandhill cranes. Unfortunately, we couldn't get the camera out fast enough. Here is what one looks like.

We arrived at the park and found Dan and Gail's campsite without incident. Their site was so large, we could actually park Great White next to their truck.  Before heading out on our bike ride, we caught up on current events and took a walk over to see the Hillsborough River.

The river was named in the late 1700s for Wills Hills, the British Colonial Secretary and Lord Earl of Hillsborough.  In the 1930's, during the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), established the area surrounding the river rapids as a public park.  The river provides opportunities for fishing, canoeing, and kayaking. Today, however, we are bike riding, so we'll just have to put paddling or fishing on the list for next time.

After discussing several options for different rides, we decided on the Withlacoochee State Trail. The Withlacoochee Trail is presently the longest paved rail-trail in Florida. At 46 miles in length, the trail corridor runs through small towns, ranches, and natural areas as it makes its way south from Citrus Springs to Trilby. We weren't able to do all 46 miles today, but we made a good show of it. Here is the trailhead marker.

There was plenty of trailhead parking just off Croom Rital Road in Brooksville. Here is Dan unloading their bikes from their truck.

Look out fellow trail riders, here we come!

We got started just before lunchtime, so the first order of business was to stop at the first picnic area and enjoy our sandwiches. The trail corridor was very wooded, which provided plenty of shade. We passed several swampy places like this one.  The number and varieties of shades of green was breathtaking!

As we rode through dryer and sandier areas, we noticed a number of what we thought were groundhog burrows or gopher holes.  Turns out we were almost right.  This area of Florida is home to the gopher tortoise, a fairly large terrestrial tortoise which possesses forefeet well adapted for burrowing, and elephantine hind feet. The front legs have scales to protect the tortoise while burrowing. They are dark brown to gray-black in overall color, with a yellow bottom shell. Here is one big fellow coming out of his burrow.

This guy was just taking a walk along the side of the trail. A couple times, the tortoises were actually sunning themselves on the trail and we had to swerve to avoid running them over.

We spent so much time talking about places we have been and giving each other advice of new places to explore, that we didn't actually take that many pictures. However, this pair of harlequin Great Danes guarding the entrance of this cattle farm caught Kathy's eye and she made sure Dave took a photo of it on the way back.

After 8.5 miles, we turned around and headed back to our trucks. Dan checked his odometer when we finished: 17 miles.  What a great ride! We earned our happy hour today.

Back at the campground, Gail got the munchies out and Dan fired up the grill. After several hours of eating, drinking and discussing the RV lifestyle, we all decided we're not nearly ready to stop full-timing now. We're just getting started!