The Savage Traveler: Winter 2014--Hillsborough State Park

Fri. Feb. 21-Mon. Feb. 24: It rained hard for part of our two and a half hour drive to Hillsborough River State Park but let up eventually as we got closer to the park after sharing a Subway sub for lunch. Ann and Shelby were partially set-up as we arrived and they had taken the shorter, outside site we reserved and left the inner loop, pull-through site for us. It was a nice site because there was only one other site for quite a way and it was open behind us for about 50 yards over to the bathhouse. Marv had picked the park because it sounded interesting to him and during our travels this time we had heard very good things about it from people who said it was one of their favorite Florida State parks. It was very full and no reservations or extensions were available. Hillsborough River is another CCC built park and, like Highlands Hammock, has a 2 mile one-way circular drive off of which are the campgrounds, several hiking trails, access to the river, and a large swimming pool (closed for the winter) with a café and concessions for snacks and bike, surrey, and canoe rentals. It was obviously going to be easy to fill our time in the park. We got set-up quickly and ate a snack so that we could flag down Ranger Jessica as she drove slowly through the campground to pick-up riders on a small tram car for a tour of the park. We all sat on benches in the open with no covering as she made stops at each of the trails and other points of interest to give an overview of the park. As we rode it began to sprinkle and then to rain a bit harder so she finished up the tour a bit more quickly than usual perhaps but it was still a good introduction. We ate dinner back at the campsite and played more games into the evening.

Our "chariot" was pulled by a pick-up truck

Saturday morning Ann and Shelby beat us in riding bikes to the café and getting tickets for the 2:00 tour of Fort Foster (more about that later). We all got on their weak but free WiFi and downloaded what we could. While we worked the skies opened up and it really poured down for a while, leaving us with very wet bike seats. Marv nicely rode back to the trailer and returned with plastic bags for all of us to cover the seats. We took all our electronic devices to the campers and rode around the other loops of the campgrounds before having lunch and relaxing a little. We left about an hour early to ride counter clockwise (the “right” way) around the loop and walked the 1.1 mile Baynard nature trail through the woods and along the river, reading the interpretive signs and enjoying being outdoors as the skies cleared and the temperature warmed. We timed it so we returned just in time to climb aboard the tram with Jessica as our guide once more and set off to explore the Fort. But just as we reached the gate on the park side of the road the skies opened up once again so she pulled over at the CCC building that is now a small museum and we all crowded under a shelter to wait out the short lived rain shower. When it let up we sat on the now very wet seats and continued across the busy highway and through two more gates to a parking lot a short way from the rebuilt fort. Fort Foster was built as one of a line of forts a days’ distance from one another during the Second Seminole War. This one was to guard the one bridge that crossed the Hillsborough River in that area. Going any other way added three days to ones journey so it was very logistically important. The fort was built by 300 soldiers but then was manned by only about 100. It was used for three years and abandoned every summer when the mosquitoes were too vicious. Using the children and teenagers who were along for the tour Jessica demonstrated items in the Officers’ Quarters, the Quartermaster’s Stores and the Infirmary, and how to fire the cannon. She didn’t really fire it but they do when they have twice yearly re-enactments at the Fort. We also walked to the sturdy bridge and looked over the edge where a sharp-eyed kid spotted a large water moccasin sunning itself on the bank. We got back in time to have a quick dinner and then rode our bikes to a campfire circle where a volunteer from Canada did an entertaining presentation of “Night Noises” demonstrating the calls of many birds, mammals, and amphibians with our old friend, Jessica, showing slides of the animals with a projector. By the time we returned to the campers one last time we had ridden 5.5 miles over the course of the day.

Ann & Peggy on the Suspension Bridge

Do you know what this is? Tea!!

Sunday Shelby made pancakes for all of us before we rode our bikes around the circle again and took the trail to the Class 2 rapids along the river. The fog lifted late to reveal a beautiful day with not quite as many people as Saturday. Marv spotted the only alligator thus far, a big one swimming slowly along the opposite river bank. We rode back, bringing out in-park biking to 8.2 miles, and made lunch to eat while we watched the MSU/um basketball game. Marv got our TV set-up outside and we all watched as MSU was defeated for the second time this season by their cross state rivals. L By then we were more than ready to drive the vehicles the short way over to a launch site within the campground and put our kayaks into the river. The 1 to 1½ mph river currant makes it an easy paddle either direction. We went downstream for about 40 minutes, turned around and went upstream as far as we could to a small rapids just below the first wooden bridge in the park, then floated back to where we had put in. We saw a lot of water fowl, including an anhinga, egrets, ibis, and a tricolor heron, turtles, a few alligators including about 3 or 4 babies, and many fish in the murky waters below. It was a lovely way to get over the pain of defeat. Marv and I enjoyed red beans and rice with leftover grilled sausages cut-up in it for dinner and the four of us had our final dominoes match while we watched the Closing Ceremony of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in our camper.

Marv's alligator

Tricolor Heron

There wasn’t really a plan for Monday but we turned it into a wonderful day. After a long stop at a McDonald’s to catch up on email, newspapers, and blogging, we drove to Jill and Dan Bakers’ house on a creek/canal near Tampa. They are trying to sell the house and with its careful, tasteful staging and huge covered screen porch with a bar, a pool table, eating area, easy chairs, and swimming pool it seems like a resort property. We spent a lot of time enjoying the antics of 3 or 4 manatees in the canal directly in front of the house and they remained there the entire time we were with Jill & Dan. Jill made us a nice lunch of chicken salad and croissants with red velvet cupcakes for dessert and we spent several hours chatting and visiting these “old friends who are more like family” to quote Jill.

Manatees in the creek/canal

Dan, Ann, Jill & Shelby talk on the screened porch

We mentioned we thought we might go to Tarpon Springs before returning to the campground and Jill had good recommendations for our time there. Upon arriving we got tickets for the last available boat ride of the day at 6:00 from Spongeorama. We learned that Tarpon Springs calls itself the “Sponge Capital of the World” and the one main street on the water, Dodecanese Blvd., is reminiscent of a Greek coastal village. The restaurants and shops are all owned by Greeks and the sponge, shrimp, and fishing industries keep them in their Old World culture. On Jill’s recommendation we walked the length of the street to the waterfront and had dinner at Rusty Bellies. This seafood place is the culmination of three generations of a family and they offer fresh seafood they have caught themselves with a small fleet of crab, shrimp and fishing boats. A mature, male Grouper can weigh up to 60 pounds and has a red colored underside so they are called “Rusty Bellies”; hence the restaurant name. I had a half pound of peel-your-own Gulf Shrimp and a half Greek Salad, Marv had a blackened Mahi-mahi sandwich and Ann & Shelby shared a seafood bucket with steamed shrimp, mussels, clams, oysters, and a crab leg cluster, along with corn on the cob, a salad, and red skin potatoes. It was all delicious. After splitting a piece of Grandma’s key lime pie (them) and peanut butter pie (us) we all hurried back to catch the tour boat. Cap’n Dan was a little overly enthusiastic but we learned a lot about the history of Tarpon Springs and the area along the coast where the Greeks had settled. He took the boat beside a low osprey nest that had two parents apparently tending the eggs of their newest brood, through the passage of the Anclote River into the Gulf of Mexico, and out to Anclote Key. The Key is 3 miles long and a quarter of a mile wide and is a State Wildlife Preserve. There is a lighthouse whose automated, electric light can be seen for 19 miles and one ranger who lives alone on the island. We didn’t stop at the island but we got some wonderful pictures of the sunset behind the lighthouse before we returned to the dock at Tarpon Springs. As we re-entered the river a bottle nose dolphin swam beside the boat for a while. It seemed later than the 8:30 it was when we got back to the campground. We began preparations for leaving tomorrow and read in our camper until bedtime.