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    Showing posts with label camping. Show all posts
    Showing posts with label camping. Show all posts

  1. Hontoon Island State Park

    Friday, June 5, 2009



    At the end of April, it's time to camp again! This time, across the state, close to New Smyrna/Daytona Beaches. I took a half day from work, picked up Jacob, and we made our way to the campground, just outside Deland, FL, where we met up with Kathryn, Marti, and Leo. Hontoon Island State Park is unique. You load up a ferry (i.e., pontoon boat) with all your camping gear. The ferry takes you across the river to Hontoon Island, where you unload all your gear. Then, you load your gear into a passenger van, which takes you to your campsite...and you unload all your gear, again. The five of us had two campsites right next to each other. All the sites are shaded by trees, and there is a group campsite tucked in at the back of the island. There are a few small cabins that can be rented, too. Because of the drought, NO open fires are allowed. Good thing we brought firewood with us. And sticks for marshmallows. And makings for S'mores. Because we planned to cook in the fire, we trucked all of our dinner makings out to the picnic area with the grills, and bought charcoal at the park store. The walk from the campsite to the picnic area, which is where the ferry dropped us all off, is about a 10 minute leisurely walk along a sandy path. We made chicken wrapped in foil with veggies, and after a long day of work and traffic through Orlando on I-4, it tasted so good. Our first night at "camp" was off to a pretty good start. Once we packed up dinner, we headed back to camp. Without a campfire, there isn't much to do. The mosquitoes were on attack, so our conversation was cut short as we all headed to the safety of our tents. We were of the minority, though, as the rest of camp consisted of more boisterous folks that kept the lanterns lit past 10, and kept talking as if they were the only ones on the grounds. Marti and I heard all about this guy's experience with Australian catering. He said the food they provided was good, but it was different from American food. All he wanted was a burger, and the burgers they have tasted different. Not bad, just different, so he didn't eat as much and lost weight. I know -- THRILLING conversation, right? I kind of wanted to smack the guy, not only for preventing blissful sleep from taking me away, but for being such an AMERICAN!! With the wisdom of the band 'Til Tuesday, I say: hush, hush...voices carry. Keep it down now!

    The next day, I tried to sleep in. This is always hard when the sun starts streaming through the screens of my tent, and the rest of camp starts waking up to make breakfast. Plus, my make-shift sleeping pad of foam egg-crate and my sleeping bag did my body no favors. But Kathryn made her amazing oatmeal on her portable camp burner, and Marti made her amazing coffee in her French press, and I began to forget about my aches and pains. Breakfast is my favorite meal, any time, any place, and it is made all the better when you wake up from a night's rest in your tent. Because there is no swimming allowed at Hontoon Island (gators galore!), we decided to make a trip to Blue Springs State Park, which is a lazy spring-fed swimming hole. You can float down the river in a tube, then jump from the swimming platform into the river. The water temperature stays about the same -- 72 degrees F -- all year because it is spring fed. We all ate our lunch after a quick trip around the park (for recon purposes). Then, Jacob and I took Leo floating a couple of times, but I think he's more of an underwater swimmer. I don't think he loved floating as much as he loved diving under the water closer to the entry stairs and the spring itself. Regardless, the day was HOT and the water felt great, once you dunked yourself.


    [Sidebar: How OLD is this photo I took from the state park website? I feel like I stepped back to 1983. That's all I had to say.]

    Back at camp, we got some ice cream, then I took a nap. Amazing how floating and a little walking can make one so tired! Before I knew it, it was time for dinner. We hiked back out to the picnic area to stoke up the grill and get our hot dog on. It was a beautiful sunset and we saw a big ol' gator push off the shore and go out to find some dinner. I don't think gators instill enough fear in me. I'm not going to go walking up within arm's reach of one today, or tomorrow, but I think I would consider going within the reach of a 10 foot pole. To be honest, those animals can MOVE, and that's probably not the safest mentality for me to have. Clearly, I digress...

    Darkness brought us back to camp, and while one tries to read, the effort doesn't last long. Without a campfire, camping is not quite the same, and I don't have quite the same longevity to my camping days. I fell asleep without much trouble on this night, although I was sad to fall asleep with the knowledge that this was my last night at camp.

    In the morning, we packed up our gear, loaded it into the van, then onto the ferry, and finally into our cars. We sad a good bye to the park, and to each other, then loaded into our vehicles and headed home. Jacob and I took the scenic backroads route across the state. We stopped in Brooksville for lunch, which is about an hour north of Tampa, and a pretty sleepy old Florida town.

    As usual, it was great to get outside and out of St. Pete for a weekend. I always wish this weekend trips could last longer. It was definitely one of the last weekends one could camp comfortably in Florida, as May signals the start of the humid, hot, air conditioning season. Maybe next season, I'll be able to put my tent to use more than twice. Baby steps...baby steps. Until the next adventure...which is coming right up.

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  2. Columbus Day Camping

    Friday, October 24, 2008

    So my compadres Jaime, Kathryn, and Kathryn's 4-year-old son, Leo, and I headed out to Hillsborough River State Park on Sunday the 12th. It was one helluva a beautiful day, and the car was packed to the hilt with our supplies: tents, cooking equipment, food, drink, clothes, sleeping gear, and toys. Too bad Kathryn and I forgot to eat breakfast. Good thing we are never more than a stone's throw from McDonald's, and the park is only 45 minutes away from St. Pete. The park is a lush oasis just outside of Tampa.


    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.

    ------------------
    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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  3. Ft. DeSoto

    Saturday, September 27, 2008

    Ft. Desoto is a beautiful spit of land at the south end of Pinellas County, Florida, and it is one of my most favorite places in St. Pete. When I first moved to St. Pete, North Beach was a place where I could mentally sort things out, while I walked the shoreline at sunset. It is amazing to watch the clouds move over the land, out towards the Gulf of Mexico.

    Because of the beauty of the beaches, and the availability of an extensive bike path, of kayak rentals, and of bicycle rentals, the camping sites at this park are frequently in high demand, especially as the winter approaches. So, when a friend of mine decided to book a campsite for September back in June, I jumped at the chance to go camping again. The last time I went camping was November 2007 (but I guess, technically, I camped last this June when I hiked the Inca Trail).

    At Ft. Desoto people clamor for the waterfront tent sites, so booking so far in advance got us a beautiful view at sunset, shade during the day, and some seclusion from the main vehicle thoroughfare of the campground. I arrived at the campsite after work on Friday night -- my car filled with my tent, camp chairs, backpack, groceries, and cooler. (Hike-in backpacking/camping trips are fun, but sometimes, a little car camping, right in your own backyard, is more relaxing.) Ft. Desoto is only 20 minutes from my house, and the 7-11 is only 5 minutes from the camp site, in case desperation truly sets in!

    Friday night Heather and I set up camp. Her with her townhome tent (seriously, this thing was a 3-bedroom pop-up apartment), and I with my two- or three-person dome tent. (I would go with calling it a 2-person tent, but I think it's technically a 3-person tent to the manufacturer.) My tent had been rolled up for so long that it had a) moved from Fairfax, VA to San Diego, CA (thereby meaning it had spent 4 years in storage, at least); b) made the flight from San Diego to St. Pete last Christmas; and c) stuck to itself as I went about unrolling it! Poor little tent...I had even forgotten what you looked like, fully-assembled!! Behold, the lil' beauty:

    Fortunately, the weekend weather was just perfect for camping! The days were hot and sunny, with a cool breeze, and the nights, thankfully, dipped down in the 60s. It was cool enough that I slept like the dead. It was not cool enough to have the rain-fly over the tent, but the weather cooperated there, too. No rain the whole time!! And my lil' tent had enough screen to keep the breeze coming through all night.

    After setting up camp on Friday evening, our friend Ryan joined us, we stoked the grill to make cheese quesadillas and chicken, and from our picnic table we watched the sun set over the water:

    I don't think it can get more beautiful than that...(Well, it can if, on the radio, you listen to the Rays win against the Minnesota Twins, which moved them one game closer to the play-offs. Go Rays!)

    Saturday, Heather, Ryan, and I woke up not-too-early, considering that the sun rises around 7ish these mornings. It gave us enough time to eat a little breakfast -- banana with peanut butter and a Nutri-Grain bar..no coffee :-( -- before heading off to the International Coastal Clean-Up Day, sponsored by Tampa Bay Watch. Heather and I slogged along the road leading into Ft. Desoto park, and tramped deep within the mangroves, to pick up the trash that people chuck out of their cars, or that washes up on shore (after people chuck trash off their boats). I think I personally picked up a case of empty beer cans. I also picked up a knife. Others found a large rug, or boat carpet, which when you pair that with the knife I found...paints a bit of a CSI-like picture, doesn't it?

    That morning adventure took about 2 hours, and quite a bit of sweat, but Keep Pinellas Beautiful rewarded us with a free lunch of hot dogs and cold drinks, as well as some chotchke give aways. Anyone want a neon yellow t-shirt? Anyone??

    Fortunately, the campground at Ft. Desoto boasts awesome shower facilities. [I gotta tell you -- I had a little residual trauma leftover from the Inca Trail when it came time to climb in the shower. In Peru, you never quite knew the quality of the bathroom facilities that you were stepping into, whether it be a hostel or the one shower stop we had along the Inca trail. Regardless of the situation, you never really wanted to come in contact with the walls, much less the floor, and I always felt the need to get my shower over with quickly, just in case the hot water faltered.] Back in the good ol' over-consuming, bigger-is-better U-S-of-A, though, showers at a campground, especially this campground, are just what you need them to be: clean, hot, and wonderfully refreshing. Sorry if I just gushed a little there, but I love me a good shower, particularly after spending a long morning picking up other people's trash in the hot sun.

    After our showers, Heather and I got ready for the beach. And then we sat on the beach, or floated in the ocean, for 5 gloriously long hours. Friends came and went, magazines and books were read, floats were blown up and deflated, and sunscreen was applied and reapplied. When we returned to camp, we cleaned ourselves up once more, and then felt the wonderful exhaustion of a day well-spent on the beach.

    As we had the night before, we turned on the Rays game and stoked the grill for dinner. After dinner, we created a campfire in the grill because we didn't have a freestanding metal firepit with us and there are no firepits at any of the campsites. Our ghetto campfire still gave me a great moment of zen:


    I'm still learning how to play with my little point-and-shoot camera, and even though the photo is grainy, it still manages to capture a little bit of the fading sunset, and the crackle of the fire. The icing on the cake: the Rays clinched a playoff position by beating the Twins again. YES! I celebrated with a Hunt's chocolate pudding snack pack...

    Saturday gave us another gorgeous sleeping night. Again, I slept like a rock. I did not, fortunately enough, sleep ON a rock. YAY! On Sunday morning, we packed up camp after breakfast. I hit the 7-11 on the way off the island, then drove over to St. Pete Beach at Pass-A-Grille for a nice morning walk along the beach before heading home.

    Parting notes: Talk about a stay-cation! For $30/night, this campsite rocked. #47 if you ever want to stay. It was such a relaxing weekend, and I didn't have to fly anywhere or drive more than 20 minutes. Plus, I even did some civic duty by cleaning up our beautiful shoreline. If this doesn't entice you to come stay with me for a long weekend, then I'm sorry, you're just a lost cause!

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