January 21, 2014
Today we spent our first day in Ocala
National Forest, driving a few Jeep trails and hiking to a couple of
springs. This forest is so big it's a little intimidating trying to
decide where to go. We just started out close to home with a dirt
road off of the main highway then a connecting 4wd road to another
4wd road and back to the highway. The route was about 12 miles
total and was a little tame for us, the only obstacles being deep
sand and narrow trails with close in brush. We added a few brush
marks to our new Jeep which will probably rub out. It's only a
matter of time though until some are permanent. Since we have no
winch yet, and no "wheeling companions" we are being a
little conservative about which trails we choose. Here is a short video of one of the trails. It is not very good quality. I need to find a better mount for the GoPro camera, and also a better method of posting videos. I will work on it.
The forest is pretty amazing. As
with most of Florida, the top layer is sand, the trees are thick at
times, and wild life is plentiful. We haven't spotted any large
wildlife yet but have been assured "they are there",
including a very healthy bear population, deer everywhere, and the
Florida panther population is on the rise again.
We also drove to 2 national forest
recreation sites, Juniper springs and Silver Glen springs, and walked
some of the trails to the springs, Juiper springs features an old
mill house beside the spring with a water wheel, and several nice
board walk trails along a nice clear stream through the forest. Jo
"lost me" for about 45 minutes after I wandered down one of
the board walk trails. I just kept going thinking that the trail
curved back around to the entrance, only to eventually come upon a
sign that read "End of trail, return by retracing your steps".
There were a lot of steps.
Jo was locked out of the Jeep having
forgotten to take her keys. She also had forgotten her cell phone.
She was starting to panic since I don't usually wander off that far,
nor stay out of sight for that long. She was starting to wonder if I
had died in the forest, an idea that also crossed my mind during the
long walk back.
Canoes are available to rent for a
nice paddle along the stream. I spotted a blue heron but was not in
a position for a great picture. I also spotted a small alligator but
"once you've seen one gator........"
Silver Glen Springs is a large spring
fed lake with a swimming area (constant 72 degree water),
lots of fish, easily seen in the
clear water, and lots of birds.
On the way home, while taking a little
side trip to get our first view of the very large Lake George, (and
keep in mind we were never more than 20 miles from our basecamp) we
spotted what appeared to be a large forest fire.
This was a very nice day and we
barely scratched a corner of the Ocala National Forest. What a
discovery this forest is.
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