Dave's Yak Tales

Cedar Key Sunset

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Seminole State Forest

If you read Saturday's Tale to the end, you read that it was a moonless night.  It was, when I went to bed.  It rose late.  I got out of the tent to take this picture at 12:35 am.  Got out for good at 6:45.  I had a pretty good nights sleep.  Would have been better if I had paid more attention to the slope when pitching the tent.  And I had laid down on the tarp before I set up the tent.  To check for sticks, pine cones and other bumps.
I drove to the hunting check station.  Kill three birds with one stone.  Maybe see wildlife on the 3.2 mile drive.  Sit in an outhouse instead of squatting over a hole.  Charge a camera battery.

No visible wildlife, but the moon as still out.  With the sun.

Back to the campsite.  Breakfast was a copy of Saturday's dinner.  Brat and potato salad.  Coffee instead of beer.   Then, time for a bike ride.  A few sprinkles fell as I was starting, so I went back to camp to put things I did not want to get wet in the tent.

Rain stopped before it even began


Pedaled a different route than Saturday.  The Forest has 25 miles of  roads. This route is hilly.  For Florida, as it falls and rises across Sulphur Run

As always, I stopped at Sharks Tooth Spring



video

 I don't know if this is a bird heard in the video

 Florida Trail campsite.  That's why my bike is in the background.  Foot traffic only
Back in the saddle


Back in the yak at 10:24

Paddled up Creek, but not for long.  Three minutes to a fallen tree.  My bottom is beat enough without pushing over it.



Saw a deer on the right bank



For some reason, old age, probably, my arms were sore.  So, I just let the current carry me, with the occasional correcting stroke.  Saw another deer, this time on the left bank.  For the third time during the weekend, no photo.



This gator turned around. So did I.
11:29.  I planned to head back at 11:30, or the next animal photo.  Really.


 Like the last gator, this one is in its usual spot.  Across from a Florida Trail camp site.  Not the Shark Tooth site, but another in the Forest.





Back to the campsite at 12:20
 Finished the potato salad and had a beer.  To lighten the load.

 1:00 packed and ready to go.  I had carried armfuls of stuff on earlier walks to the car
Stopped about halfway, took out a couple things, carried them to the car, came back for the final portage.
 1:23, loaded and ready to go
Over the Creek
 And through the Forest
At the gate. Stopped gain to put trash in a bin.   Photo of Bear Pond, 1:43
 Home at 2:13
Wilderness to urban in just over an hour.