Santos day 3

 I had an epic ride this morning. It was especially epic because I didn't take my GPS. I remembered I didn't have it only after Jenny had driven off with it in the car. Anyway, it was 2 1/2 hours of hoping I could find my way back. Added excitement. We have decided to head home tomorrow. I have had 3 good rides and the caterpillar issue is probably worse than it was at the last park. You really can't go outside. I put away the chairs because they were covered with worms. We have been out for 45 days and we are ready to get back. I'll do one more post and then shut things down for awhile. 

Santos day 2

The Santos Trailhead is a pretty big deal. The parking lot was pretty full today and this is a week day. It was overflowing yesterday, Sunday. I would have figured these Floridians would have all been at church. I rode the trails for 2 hours this morning. We had a critical shortage of adult beverages that has been rectified. After that was resolved we did a 10 mile out and back on a paved trail. Tomorrow will probably be our last day here. I'll do another ride for sure but I can cover a lot of ground in 2 hours and there won't be too many trails that I can access from this trailhead that I will not have ridden. Also, the caterpillars are starting to make cocoons in the MPs hubcaps. This caterpillar thing is my first biblical plague. It is something to behold, although you would have to be a sick puppy to want to.

Santos Trailhead Campground

We had something like a 45 minute drive today. Consequently we got here too early to check in. We disconnected the car, left the MP parked in the grass and went out and spent some money. We finally got in our site and linked up with Mike and Linda Everett who have been Snow Birding near here. We ate lunch at a local world famous restaurant (Mojos) I think Michelin gave it 6 stars in their latest ratings awards. For some reason I failed to document Mike & Linda's visit with a picture for the blog. Their visit was certainly blog worthy but I forgot. We are here because this place has great mountain biking. I hit the trails for an hour this afternoon. We have reservations here for 5 nights but we will only stay for 4 because we need to get back to Beaufort so that we can get our shots. Also, this place is experiencing a caterpillar apocalypse just like that other park. We can only take so much. We might be driven out of here by them. Stay tuned. 

Salt Spring day 3

The bike ride on the Florida trail was a bust. I got on it and started ripping along and I saw some hikers up ahead. There is a sign at the spot where I started that was pretty clear, bikes weren't welcome. I put my tail between my legs and sulked back to the trailhead. However, I did find a dirt road that ran into the National Forest that was pretty neat. I ended up riding 19 miles on that road which was the black bear scenic highway. I wonder if the bears are aware of that?  After the ride I was sweaty and smelly so Jenny suggested I go for a swim in the spring so that the atmosphere around me might improve. I did. It was frigging cold. Today is Saturday so the outflow of the spring, on the other side of the ropes, was packed with a mob of local riffraff. (See pic) We move tomorrow to our last stop on this trip. We are only an hour away from it. We've been there once before. It has fantastic single track mountain biking. 

Salt Springs day 2

 Today we did a paddle on the Salt Springs run. It's a 4 1/2 mile channel of varied widths that runs from the spring and empties into Lake George. We took a break at the lake turnaround and then headed back. We were looking forward to a tailwind on the return trip because we had had a headwind going out. Somehow, inexplicably, the wind shifted and we had a headwind in both directions. We are pretty sure our bad luck had something to do with 5G cell towers or possibly Hillary's lost emails. We are here one more day. The Florida Trail transits near here. I'm thinking about riding my bike on it even though bikes are verboten. If my next post is from jail you'll know what happened.

Salt Springs Recreation Area

We left catapillerville and headed north to get here. We're not too far from Ocala. This is a National forest campground. The Central feature here is the spring. There is a large developed area around it and today it was full of people. Today was our first day of summer temperatures. We are using our AC for the 1st time. We were able to book appointments today to get our Covid vaccine the day after we arrive home on April 2nd. Jenny has repeatedly told me that she is not going anywhere else until we get the shots. So, our May trip is on. The pic was taken near the spring. The tree reminded us of The Angel Oak on John's island.
 

Last day at Hillsborough River

I didn't want to gross everyone out on the first post after we got here but this park is in the midst of rather significant caterpillar infestation. They really like tires. The car tires and MP tires are continually covered with hundreds of them. Just for fun I will periodically spray one of the MP tires with insecticide. I'm not exaggerating when I say that there are thousands of caterpillar carcasses on the ground beneath that tire. I could take a picture of the pile but even I have standards. Enough of that. This morning I was able to link together a couple of trails and ride for 18 miles off road. There was nothing exciting except for a few mud holes. After lunch we went to Publix to stock up for the next phase of the trip. We have 2 more stops before we make it back to Beaufort. We move tomorrow.