Gilchrist Weekend Day 3
I had another marvelous sleep last night. The sky was clear with thousands of stars and a sliver of moon overhead. The crickets and frogs were just so soothing to listen to – I need to start playing my nature sounds at bedtime again.
I started out this morning heading to Waccasassa Bay Preserve. My GPS kept trying to put me down these dirt roads. I didn’t take any pictures of them, but one had a gate sign warning, “HUNT CLUB MEMBERS ONLY– NO TRESPASSING.” I went down another dirt road that looked a little more promising until it narrowed down to be slightly wider than the Fiat and I came across a crossroad marked with a hand-lettered street name on a scrap of wood nailed to a post. At that point, I figured I should shut off the Google Maps and look at DeLorme. DeLorme showed the entire preserve somewhere in the vicinity with small roads like the one I was on spidering across the page from the main road I was on. I headed back to the main road and soon came up on the Cedar Key Scrub State Reserve which was next on the list.
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Cedar Key Scrub State Reserve
The reserve is an informal park with miles of trails through the scrub and pines. I went for a little hike in the front end of the park with perfect weather. The air was crisp, sun brilliant, and the sky as blue as can be. I also found one of the Geotour geocaches before I headed back out again.
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The next stop was just a few miles down the road. I was on my way to the next state park when I crossed a bridge over some marshland full of pelicans and flocks of wading birds – a birder’s dream. The light was hitting the water so that the moist mud was glittering like pyrite. I pulled over into the Fish and Wildlife parking lot and walked up onto the bridge to take some pictures – some fishermen motored through and scared the birds away so the scene became less interesting. It is still a beautiful area and worth sharing despite the temporary lack of birds.
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Cedar Key Museum State Park
After visiting the pier, I drive through a very cute little fishing town to the Cedar Key Museum State Park. This is a sweet family dedication to Saint Clair Whitman and his collections of natural treasures.
I experienced a “small-world-moment” when I chatted up the docents a little bit. They are a sweet retired couple living out of an RV. They have traveled all over the USA and are spending a couple of months in Cedar Key to volunteer at the park. We got on the topic of traveling in western South Dakota and they let me know their home address is in Box Elder!! This is a town with a population of fewer than 10,000 that has the family farm. Amazing! While I was getting my passport stamped, I also discovered why I had so much trouble getting to Waccasassa Bay Preserve – the formal entrance can only be reached by boat! I should have looked at the Passport this morning, because the description told me right there. At least I got to go on a little driving adventure I wouldn’t have had otherwise.
Before I left these nice folks, I did a little geocaching and picked up another one on the Operation Recreation Geotour.
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Manatee Springs State Park
By now, the cold front was moving in and the clouds had taken the blue out of the sky. I was sure hoping that Manatee Springs would hold true to the name and be full of manatees for me to snap some pictures of. Unfortunately, the water was high, too brown to see through, apparently the winter has been so warm that most of them have stayed in the river. There was no GPS signal so no geocaching here. I walked along the boardwalk and checked out the nearby walking paths.
I saw a gator (sunning too far away for a good picture), a brown water snake (fortunately in the water instead of on the boardwalk), and some bald eagles and osprey. There were flocks of migrating birds of all kinds that were the focus of several telephotos lenses exploring up and down along the boardwalk.
I also found this sinkhole just in time for a couple to emerge from under the green with their scuba gear looking like the swamp thing after their cave diving adventures.
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Fanning Springs State Park
On my way to Fanning Springs, I passed a winery advertising free wine tasting. Who am I to pass that up? Especially on such a dreary day.
This was a very nice little winery with a small selection of wines that are all pretty easy on the palate – especially for Jeff who loves the sweeter end of the spectrum. What was also nice is that they have wines using the muscadine grapes that my dad is curious about for Hawaii-type climates. Finally, the name of the winery is the Dakotah Winery – on the same day that I met the South Dakota couple! This post is starting to have Jeff-level of “meant-to-be.”
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I headed out to Fanning Springs after this for a cloudy wander around the park. There was some spotty GPS signal here so I got to walk around quite a bit to find some good hides.
For my last night at camp, I burned the rest of the stack for a nice hot and toasty fire that lasted to bed time. I got most of my things packed up in preparation for tomorrow and hit the hay. I can’t believe how well I have been sleeping on just a bedroll – must be the dark and the sounds of the frogs.
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All together, I covered about 6-7 miles on foot today.
Tags: Cedar Key Museum State Park, Cedar Key Scrub State Reserve, Fanning Springs State Park, Manatee Springs State Park, Waccasassa Bay Preserve State Park