River Camp Search

 We started our day  by packing a picnic lunch and heading over to the Visitor Center in White Springs.
Once inside  we met Ranger Toothacker. He was looking for host for his river camp NOW.  We discussed  the possibility of helping him in January,explained we had prior obligations.
He gave us directions  out to Woods Ferry river camp. Honestly,  I was thinking  this is going to be so remote  and not where I thought we needed to be.

HA!!!!  Did  I get a surprise.  This place was remote but gorgeous.   Like having a piece of heaven all to yourself.  You could fish,canoe,  what ever tripped your trigger  and there  was no neighbors  to have to deal with.   Needless to say, we told him  we was interested in the place for January.  We have applications to fill out and return to him, now here is to hoping we can get this spot  for next year. Sweet setup  for canoer's  to reserve  one of the river cabins  and spend the night, get a hot shower  and cook a meal on open fire.

From here  we drove over to Suwannee River State Park, to see what it was all about.

  Suwannee river prior  to the joining.

The Withlacoochee(left) and the Suwannee(right) begin to flow together here at this section of the river.  It is said, many springs are near this head of the 2 rivers.

 The joined river's and a railroad trussel.
 

 Look in the center  of the above picture and you will see faint outline of the sturgeon.

 In the center of this  picture  there is one sturgeon. This is the one that jumped and I missed the shot.

This park has a  lot of history surrounding it.  I tried to take pictures  of all the placards near the displays.
As I was standing below trying to get a picture of the old railroad bridge, sturgeon began jumping in the water behind me.  I turned to get a shot of them  and nothing. Back up the steep hill I climbed, only to get to the top and the sturgeon start jumping again.We walked out on the overlook platform hoping to get a shot of at least one jumping. Yeah right, they jump up so fast and back in the water before you can focus the camera. We did get to see a few jump while  we was on the platform . Big fish!!!!.
I am developing a love for history. Should have had this love when I was in school and convinced my teacher's old news wasn't important, teach me about today. Little did I know, how important old history is and how interesting it can be.

We decided to try and find another River camp on our own.  HAHA, neither one of us is good with directions. And are compass illiterate to say the least. But, still we set off on the quest to see what we can do on our own. We are searching for "Dowling Park River Camp" . What we see on one map, it appears to be  part of "Advent Christian Village".  We found that pretty darn easy. Beautiful  to say the least.  Fountians in all of the ponds and blue chemicals in the water  to keep the algae away.  We got lost in the subdivision. Had to ask how to get out and where we could find this river camp. The friendly gardener had no clue about the camp  but did know how to get us out of this subdivision. Off we went, determined to still find this river camp. Along the way, we spot  a strange animal for Florida. At least,I think it is strange. It took me by surprise and I had to ask Gil  did I see what I thought I did. As I had always thought Bison/Buffalo was only out west.

These guys was in a regular fence. No special fence as I thought they would have. Not even electric fencing.

As hot and sweaty as we was  from hiking , imagine the coat these guys are carrying/loosing and how hot they must be. Too hot for me to imagine as I reach over and crank the a/c up even colder.

We never found the river camp and it was beginning to get late afternoon. Having no idea where we were and how far we had to drive to get back to camp, we decided to head back to what we thought was the direction of Live Oak.As luck would have it we chose the right path(road)  and wound up in Live Oak. 17 miles from camp. Not too bad for us.Guess  we will have to ask for direction to Dowling Park river camp from Ranger Toothacker. Back at camp and unloaded. Camper is cool and couch looks inviting. Think I will take a power nap, then round up some dinner for us before we go for our evening walk.

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