Van Fleet State Trail

This has been an absolutely glorious day--lots of sunshine, low humidity, slight breeze, and temps in the low 70s.  I just love it.  This would have been a very nice day for hiking, but there were a couple things on our lists that needed to be taken care of today.   Not wanting to miss out on this fabulous day all together, we opted to go for a quick walk this morning instead of a hike.

About 25 miles from our campground is the General James A. Van Fleet State Trail.  This multiuse trail is named in honor of the American combat commander and veteran of WWI, WWII, and the Korean War.  This 29-mile length of paved trail is open to walkers, bicyclists, and in-line skaters.  Horses are allowed to walk along the wide shoulder on either side of the pavement.

There are four parking lots along the length of the trail.  The closest one to us is the Mabel trailhead parking lot.  It’s large with plenty of room for many cars, including a handicapped van parking area, a shelter with a couple picnic tables, and a restroom.  There is even drinking water, which is perhaps more rare at trailheads than restrooms.

The Van Fleet Trail is a rail-trail conversion and is straight as an arrow and flat as a pancake.  The trail description says there is a curve along the trail, but wasn’t in the section we walked today.  We did see one of the historic mile markers.  These markers indicate the distance to Richmond, Virginia, the hub for the railroad line and the home of many of the rail workers.  The northernmost section which we were on is located within the Richloam Wildlife Management Area of the Withlacoochee State Forest.  As the crow flies, it is relatively close to where we hiked on Saturday.

Historic mile marker.

We had in mind to walk for an hour then turn around and head back to the car.  That would give us time to get back home for lunch and have the afternoon to get our other errands run.  As is the case with many paved trails, the milage was painted on the pavement.  We were close to an hour at 2.5 miles.  We decided to turn around at that point making our walk a nice round 5 miles.

At the 1 and 2 mile marks, we came across these resting benches.

We got all the way to our turn around point without seeing anyone else, but on our return trip saw several bicyclists.  One gentleman was kind enough to tell us about the alligator and even road back and dropped a bit of Spanish moss on the trail so we wouldn’t miss the spot.  Across the ditch and tucked into a hole was the mama keeping a watchful eye on junior sunning himself on a rock.  There were several bushes between us, so it was hard to get a clear shot of the two, but I think you can see mama’s head behind junior.  Follow junior’s tail around.  He’s one long alligator, but his body is small compared to mama’s head.  It was all very exciting.

After lunch we were able to get our errands run quickly and efficiently.  Now, we’re ready to sit out and enjoy the rest of this marvelous day.

We want to welcome our latest followers, Ray and Wendy.  They have been RVing for many years in a variety of rigs loving those vacations and weekends away from home.  Now, they’re looking forward to the day when they can hit the road full-time. Welcome, Ray and Wendy.  We’re glad you’re tagging along.

That’s all for now.  Thanks for tagging along.

Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge

About 15 miles from out campground is Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. It is a large expanse of wetlands (according to the sign about 30,000 acres); just the kind of place the migratory birds like. It is right on the Atlantic Flyway of birds migrating between South America, the Canadian Maritimes and the Arctic Ocean. Like most well managed refuges, there are a few fields planted in whatever birds like to eat. There are two fairly large, relatively shallow pools (about 1,000 acres each) with a lot of open water as well as vegetation around the perimeter. Another area was more swamp-like but without the Spanish moss so typical in the southern coastal swamps of Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida. There was another area which was mostly dry when we visited with small pools of water from a recent rain. I can imagine this area being completely wet in March from melting snow and spring rains. Near the northern edge of the refuge, ran a connector barge canal from the Erie Canal.

Red-winged black bird

As is our luck with places like this, there are no flocks of migratory birds here right now. This is going to sound like the story of Creamer Wildlife Sanctuary in Fairbanks when we missed the swans by just 2 weeks. I chased all over Alaska looking for those swans. Finally caught up with them 2 years later in Yellowstone in February. Who would have thought. Anyway, spring brings some 100,000 snow geese which were here a few weeks before we arrived. The Osprey are nesting right now, so the trail to see them was closed. They do have a few nesting eagles; perhaps we’ll see one before we leave. There are several Canada geese here now roaming the streets, but 150,000 should show up in the fall.

Grasses on the perimeter of the main pool

Swamp area

We went out early Saturday morning with a thermos of coffee and bagels. I sat up the camera at the viewing platform and we settled in. Not being birders, we were far too noisy in our approach and the three large wading birds that would have been within petting distance flew away before we got there. We did have fun, though. It is not the sort of thing we do, so just that change of activity was refreshing. The quiet and solitude was also a welcome change. The struggle to slow our life down is always challenging so just to sit and contemplate the sounds of the song birds was inspiring even if we couldn’t identify what we were hearing. After a while we moved away from our perch to walk the short 1-mile loop trail. Our short hike was cut short when we got to the area that was closed because of nesting osprey. On our drive through the Refuge we saw lots of birds we were not able to identify as well as a very few we could—Canada Geese, red-winged black birds, and great blue herons.

Barge canal

We're thinking this might be a beaver.