Above is a view of the Hillsborough River, which flows down through the city of Tampa into Tampa Bay. You can follow the river and learn about the watershed here. The section of the river inside the park is home to a whole of host animals, but the flashiest inhabitant is the alligator. Over the 3 hours total that I paddled with Jaime or Kathryn and Leo, I saw no less than 3 gators; the largest of which had to be about 12 feet long, sunning on the riverbank after a meal. Three hours of paddling took it's toll on my shoulders (which despite the shady riverbanks, still got sunburned) and on my booty. The metal seat of the rented canoe was rather unforgiving, but the fun we had was priceless:
Leo's hair is wet in these photos, not because we dumped him in the river in an attempt to use him as gator-bait, but because he went swimming in the campground pool before going paddling with us. Leo managed to collect a whole load of "river money" (a.k.a. leaf litter) on our trip down and up the lazy river.Once we finished paddling, we headed up to our campsite so we could set up and move towards dinner. Kathryn managed to book the park ranger's favorite site, which included a wooden footbridge and vacant space on one side of us (so we weren't surrounded by other campers). Plus, we were close to the bath house and the sinks, and there was a field for playing across the road. Here is our two-tent campsite:
Kathryn is a veteran camper and had the perfect dinner recipe: chicken, peppers, and onion with sundried tomato dressing, cooked in the fire in foil packets, along with sweet potatoes (also cooked in foil packets in the fire). Using firewood we bought at the campground, Jaime and I started the fire, but man, that puppy took so much special care. The wood must have had just enough moisture to keep it from becoming a rager, but it wasn't so wet that it would only smoke. Regardless, Jaime kept a good watch, and used her exceptional lung capacity to keep the flames stoked so that we could cook dinner and roast marshmellows for s'mores.As always with camping, the fire died out and we ended up going to bed fairly early. Jaime had to get up and leave early so she could get to work, and the rest of us were just tired out by the day. Plus, Jaime would have you believe that I was mourning my earlier loss at ring toss. (I say I was hustled. At least I'm not afraid of the frogs in the campground showers...)
The next day brought oatmeal for breakfast, breakdown of the campsite, packing up the car, and a 10 AM hike through the park. Kathryn, Leo, and I did the 1.1 mile Baynard Trail, which starts at the park's suspension bridge over the river. On our walk, we saw tons of butterflies, some baby tree frogs, and grasshoppers.
After hiking, it was time to cool off in the campground pool, then eat lunch. The pool at the park is huge and pretty shallow. It's 5 feet at it's deepest point in the middle, and about 2 feet at it's shallowest. It's really great for just cooling off and for splashing around with the kids. Leo and I did so much splashing around, that he tired me right out -- just in time for lunch on the pool deck. Leo played in the pool for a little while longer after lunch, while Kathryn and I watched from the sidelines, but then it was time for ice cream and the drive home.This was my second trip to Hillsborough River State Park. My first trip was last November, when some friends and I hiked into the primitive campsites that the park offers. It's about a mile hike into those sites, and it's very secluded from the rest of the campground. You can hear the wild boars rustling around in the underbrush at night. Hiking in with all our supplies on our backs for one night was a bit tiring, so maybe more than one night for the next trip. This park has so much to do, though, and it's so close to home, which makes it a great weekend escape and in high demand for the winter months. Hopefully, I can squeeze another trip there into this year's camping season.
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TRIP STATS:
Number of Squirrel Attacks: 5 dozen
Number of Marshmellows lost to the fire: 0!
Number of gators spotted: No less than 3
Number of turtles spotted: No less than 6
Number of days my ass hurt after paddling for 3 hours: 2
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