Orlando, Florida

Leaving the wilderness behind, we headed to the city of Orlando to visit my friend Miles for a few days. It was great to catch up with some old University friends including Miles and Megan who both moved down to Florida (lucky people that get to live in warm places). We went out for dinner at the Disney shopping area. This is basically a big mall with a variety of regular stores and includes many Disney themed stores. There is pretty much a store for every attraction! My favorite was the Lego store where you can build yourself as a Lego. Megan and I both pretty much looked the same (she couldn't find blonde hair).

Miles, Megan and I as Lego

During my stay I also got to go on a few hikes. Despite the lovely warm weather I wasn't lucky enough to find any snakes but there were many frogs around and I finally found a gopher tortoise. These adorable, long lived animals are an important keystone species in Florida. Their burrows are used by hundreds of different species but they are at risk due to human impacts.

Gopher Tortoise

Sadly leaving Orlando is the end of my trip. Beka and Brooke are continuing on without me and hopefully Quicksilver will stay in good shape for them to complete the trip and make it back home.

Silver Glen Springs Recreation Area, Ocala National Forest

After another nice morning swim in the salt springs we went to Silver Glen Springs Recreation Area for a short hike and swim. The Yearling Trail across the road is free but a much longer loop. The short one way trail at Silver Glen is only 2.4 miles total. It does cost $5 per person to use the area for the day but the hike, picnic area and spring are all very nice.

George Lake Trail, Silver Glen Springs Recreation Area

  The highlight for me was a green anole that was nice enough to pose for a while on a tree trunk. 

Cuban Green Anole

 Lake George isn't good for swimming at Silver Glen Spring and the shoreline is swampy. Probably would be great for seeing alligators but unfortunately we didn't see any. There were a lot of grebes and herons along the shoreline that you could see from some of the viewpoints.

The spring is also something you'd imagine out of a movie. Crystal clear waters that make the sand look like its one foot under but you can't touch the bottom. The current here was stronger than at Salt Spring and although it was sandy around the crevice (instead of rocky), you could feel the current pushing against you. That being said it is still very easy to swim. Unlike the Salt Spring Silver Glen Spring had a natural shoreline that was blocked off from the public to prevent erosion. It made the area that much nicer and natural.

Silver Glen Springs Recreation Area

Silver Glen Springs Recreation Area

St Augustine and Anastasia State Park

We arrived in St Augustine after dark. The city looked magnificent in all of the Christmas lights. In the city park the trees had lights drooping down from the branches. There were pavilions with artists selling their prints and originals. I met a fantastic painter named Charles Dickinson (www.charlesdickinson.net) who does very detailed oil paintings of the scenery in Florida and sells his work in St. Augustine during the Christmas season. He is apparently there whenever the Christmas lights are up.

Local painter in St. Augustine

St Augustine is one of the nicest cities I have ever visited. The city was established in 1565 and is one of the oldest colonies in the United States. The architecture shows this. Everything looks very historic and detailed. The roads are very very thin and getting our van down some of the streets was....iffy.

St. Augustine decorated in Christmas lights

We stopped for a fantastic burger (and abut a gallon of sweet tea for me) after walking through town a bit and then we  headed to Anastasia State Park. The other state parks across the US were run on honesty policy and you grabbed a packet, wrote your plate number and the site number then put your money in and just went to an open site. Apparently in Florida it is not really first come first serve but rather reservation only. So we were locked out of the park! Luckily a ranger showed up and let us in and got us a site.

I didn't find anything other than raccoons on a short night walk but we did hear some barred owls calling in the distance. There seem to be a lot of barred owls in Florida this time of year. We hear them almost every night since arriving here.

In the morning I walked the marsh trail that runs along the inner bay of the park. I was very much hoping for a boardwalk or some nice lookouts over the marsh but it was just a trail with cut grass along the shoreline. There were some good views of marsh birds (mostly herons,egrets and cormorants) but the biggest surprise was seeing two dolphins catching their breakfast fish.

I was absolutely frozen after my morning walk because I had underestimated how cold the wind would be coming off the ocean. The sun was out but it was still only about 8 degrees and the wind was BLOWING! I jumped back into bed for about an hour just to be able to stop shivering.

When I was finally all warm after drinking some tea in bed, I bundled up and hiked the nature trail that went through some gorgeous old sand dunes that have grown into mixed wood forests with oaks, magnolias and pines.

Nature trail through old sand dunes in Anastasia State Park, Florida

It was a day of a lot of hiking because after that I hiked the dunes and beach!  This habitat is gorgeous and although I didn't see any live reptiles I did find some evidence of reptiles in the area. There were many burrows and even a decent sized snake skin. Unfortunately with the wind it was quite shredded and I can't tell what it was.

Walkway to the beach, Anastasia State Park in Florida.

Sane dunes at Anastasia State Park, Florida

Sunset along the beach brought all of the shorebirds to land and I saw flocks of 100s at various places all along the beach. There were many sandpipers, ruddy turnstones and plovers. It was very sad to have to leave this area. We all wanted to spend more time there but unfortunately the park was booked up for the entire weekend.

Sunset through a gap in the dunes, Anastasia State Park

Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park

After leaving Osceola we stopped at Olustee Battlefield State Park for a short walk around the battlefield. This hike takes you through a nice old forest with interpretive signs about the battle. There are a lot of fence lizards on the fallen trees and logs around the park.

Fence Lizard

Brown anoles (invasive species) are more common around the building. The staff at the park are very knowledgeable and incredibly friendly.  They helped me look for more reptiles and birds then sent us on our way with some recommendations for auto repairs and some canned food. 

Overall the park was fantastic spot for reptiles (although not the greatest season for it currently) and woodpeckers.  One of my favorites was a turtle that was seen by Jim (one of the park staff) from a distance as just a moving glisten on the grass. 

Florida Chicken Turtle

Osceola National Forest, Florida

We finally made it to Florida and stopped at the welcome station to take celebratory photos.

Florida Welcome Center

After that we made our way to Osceola National Forest. We almost made it before dark but Beka didn’t know the symbol of the exits on the map so we took the 10 past Osceola and had to drive about half an hour out of the way before heading into the campground. The sunset through the rows of planted pine trees was beautiful and the drive out of the way was still very pretty. Oseola National Forest is a gorgeous park. Beka and I went for a short night hike and got quite turned around because we couldn’t find any trails and just walked down the dirt back road. There were a few frogs and geckos out at night.

Green Tree Frog

Eastern Spadefoot Toad

Waking up in the morning was refreshing and relaxing. Ocean Pond Campground has fantastic views of both sunrise and sunset.

Ocean Pond Campground, Osceola National Forest in Florida

 The lake looks like a gorgeous spot for some canoeing or kayaking. Unfortunately there isn’t much near the campground in terms of hiking trails. The campground does have a trail that links up to the Florida Scenic Trail.  This trial doesn’t loop so you need to walk down the trail and back the same way. The trail is nice and takes you through some older planted pine forests with a low palm understory.  The most I saw during the day were a few lizards. The morning we were leaving the park a Woodcock was foraging for food in our campsite and doing the typical Egyptian dance. I didn’t get great video of it but this person showed a fantastic rendition of it >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQxOa7chHew

Ocean Pond Campground, Osceola National Forest in Florida

Ocean Pond Campground, Osceola National Forest in Florida