Before I get into the subject of my stay in Ocala National Forest, just a few observations on my life on the road over the past three or four months. First, I’ve always liked spring and fall better than summer or winter. I like the gentleness of those seasons. They don’t overwhelm like summer and winter often do. One season is a re-awakening of life, the other is nature’s wandering toward slumber. Both are beautiful in their own ways.
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Spring arrives in southern Florida around the end of January, which is exactly where I was at that point in time. As the Everglades warmed and the arrival of mosquito season loomed, I went just a little way north and lingered while spring found its way there. I continued following spring’s leading edge as it crept up the Florida peninsula. Palmetto gave way to oak, then pine and later still to dogwood and redbud as I wandered north.
Happy Topper at home
Instead of the two to four divine weeks of really pleasant weather that comprised a St. Louis spring, I’ve had four months now. By the time summer finds me, I will be far enough north that triple digit days will be a most unlikely occurrence. I’m not saying that every day is flawless, but I do wake up every morning feeling like it’s just another day in Paradise. Since I’m avoiding large cities as much as possible and camping in national forests or state parks, it pretty much IS paradise. When the view of my current “yard and garden” gets to be too familiar there is another place just as beautiful a little way down the road.
Home at Clearwater Lake campground
I am avoiding interstate highways as much as possible. The back-roads are much more interesting. And far nicer to look at. Yes, they can be steep, narrow and winding. The going is slower, frequently much slower. But my agenda is loose and my time my own. This is all about the journey, any “destination” is only a mid-point on the way to somewhere else. A place where I can linger as long or as briefly as I feel like staying. It took me awhile to get the hang of that nowhere-I-have-to-be mentality, but I think I’ve got it down pretty good now. I try to keep track of which day is Saturday, because it’s really hard to find a campsite on a Saturday , they tend to be filled with people who only have weekends to recreate. When moving to a new area I usually drive on Sunday, Monday and/or Tuesday. It makes finding a camping site so much easier.
sunset, Clearwater Lake
The final observation here is about loneliness. I’m traveling with two cats and a dog for companionship. There is the potential to miss human interaction. But I’m rather outgoing by nature and campgrounds are frequently full of other people. I have met more really great people just by saying “hi”. I have gone sightseeing, hiking, etc. with people I met only a few hours before in the campground we were all staying at. A wonderful time was generally had by all. Plus I have lots and lots of CD’s and music is one of my favorite foods (feeding the soul instead of the stomach.) With the excellent new sound system I had installed, I find it almost impossible to feel isolated or unhappy.
old palmettos
So, on to Ocala National Forest and Clearwater Lake campground.
The campground is just outside the tiny town of Paisley, FL. Blink and you really will miss the whole town. But just past the post office and Dollar Store is the turn-off to the campground. There are two loops of campsites bordering one side of the lake. The lower loop has several sites that back up to the lake, the upper loop has direct access to the trails and service roads that criss-cross the forest. Lots of hiking opportunities along with diverse flora and fauna.
Forest trail and Spanish moss
The lake is quite small, but has a nice sand beach and a pleasant trail skirts the circumference. Topper and I enjoyed walking it each afternoon. A pair of Sandhill cranes had taken up residence on a point of land that jutted into the lake. They were always strutting about the area. They woke us up each morning shortly after dawn calling to each other. Their calls also got Davey (cat) quite excited, but as soon as both the cat and the birds calmed down, I could go back to sleep for an hour or so. A most pleasant way to start the day.
Sandhill cranes
There were several other people in the campground that had been staying there for weeks in some cases, months in others. (Some campgrounds allow you to stay as long as six months at certain times of the year. Particularly unimproved campgrounds….those that don’t provide water, sewer or electricity at each site.) As it turned out most of them were really nice, outgoing people and Topper and I ended up hanging out with them fairly often. Ten of us (along with two dogs) even ended up spending the day on the St. John river on a rented pontoon boat.
St. John’s river
white heron, flexible neck
boat trip, St. John’s river
The scenery was wonderful and there were plenty of birds, turtles and the like offering themselves for photo ops. We even saw a mama manatee and her little one gliding along in the river, in spite of the fact that most of the manatees had already left the area to move closer to the ocean. I got lots of wonderful pictures along the way and had a great time. Thanks George. (It was his idea and he set the whole thing up!)
critters
nesting heron
I had originally planned to spend a week to ten days there, it ended up being three weeks. The only time the place was noisy was Saturday night when the weekenders were there. The rest of the time it was so peaceful that it was hard to believe that the place was at least half-full most of the time. On Saturday night it was almost always full. Some of the week-end people were loud, some were quiet, some were just stupid. Like the guy who decided to teach his kid how to use an axe by telling him to cut down one of the small trees in their campsite so that they could use the (green) wood for their campfire. They ended up spending the weekend at home after they were asked to leave. (Hello? You’re in a national forest. Cutting down the trees in the campground is not on the list of acceptable activities.)
Topper meets tortoise
gopher tortoise
Unfortunately, with warmer weather came warm weather insects. The deer ticks must have all hatched at the same time. Suddenly there were ticks everywhere. After every walk I would have to pick four to six ticks off the dog and two or three off me. That got old pretty fast. I stayed out of the woods for a few days, which improved the tick situation, but not my mood, or Topper’s. Another hike around the lake resulted in more ticks, so it was time to move on. Which was a bit of a bummer, as the spoonleaf sundew were just about to bloom. I really wanted to see what their flowers looked like, but I had had enough of picking off ticks, so onward and northward to a new locale.
weird fungus
‘gators on the river
lichen bloom
slipstreamserendipity 