Hike Between Grange Hall Rd and Leonard Lee Road along the Little Manatee River, 3-19-16

Started about 8:30am at Grange Hall Road just south of the Little Manatee River and headed west to Leonard Lee Road.  Had to park on the shoulder of Grange Hall Road.  There was no where else to park.  It was already starting to get warm, the sun was shining but the grass and plants were still wet with dew.

Once I got to Leonard Lee Road, I had to turn around and followed the same route back to Grange Hall Road where my vehicle was parked.

The trail went roughly parallel to the Little Manatee River on the south side of the river.  It never got close enough to the river to see the river. 

Went through a mixture of woods and old fields that are filled with palmettos now, with some trees starting to take hold.  The wooded areas were for the most part old live oaks.

 Close to the beginning had to wade through a low spot filled with water.  It was about one foot deep.  Had wet feet the rest of the walk.

This is what the trail looked like part of the way.  There was much variation.

There is a sand hill crane in the middle of the photo trying to lead me away from his mate and two chicks. 
 
 Here is the mother sand hill crane and two newly hatched chicks.  The chicks were covered with a brownish orange fuzz.

Here is a series of photos of the mother sand hill crane and two chicks.  The mother was still catching bugs and feeding them to the chicks.

Here are a couple of photos of one of the chicks who did not want to follow his mother. 

 It is hard to spot but one of the chicks is near the middle of the photo in the grass.  They blend in well.

 This is an unnamed stream flowing north into the Little Manatee River.  The view is looking north towards the river.

 Here is a view looking upstream of the unnamed stream.  I suspect the sand deposits are laid down during floods.  The river level probably backs up into this stream causing the water velocity to drop and letting the sand settle out.

 This is the gate on the east side of Leonard Lee Rd where the trail starts.

 Here are a couple views near the east end of the trail which is a two track.

 After about an hour hiking the sun gave way to clouds and the weather slowly became threatening as a front moved in.  Could hear thunder in the distance and it slowly worked it's way closer.  About half way back to Grange Hall Road light rain started and steadily got heavier and lightening got closer.  The temperature dropped a few degrees also.  Had to put my poncho on to keep the camera and phone dry. 

 Overall it was a nice hike.  The highlight was seeing the sand hill crane chicks and being able to photograph them.

Little Manatee River Upper Tract County Rd 579 to Gulley Creek, 2-21-16

The Little Manatee River Upper Tract extends for several miles along the Little Manatee River.  Parcels and agricultural land were purchased jointly by Hillsborough County and the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) 20 to 30 years ago from private land owners.  Hillsborough County manages the property. 

The map in the link below shows the area and property boundaries.
https://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/recreation/maps/littlemanatee-upper.pdf

 Below is the start of the trail. 

The trail is a two track as shown on the USGS map but there is no sign of a trail once you enter the pasture.

Below is a newly built bridge over an un-named stream near the beginning.

From the bridge the two track trail was soggy with some areas of water that had to be waded through.

There was a pasture covered in palmettos to the south of the two track trail.

Here is where I entered the pasture. 

There were several head of cows, calves, a bull or two and a donkey.  They mainly stared at me as I made a wide arc around them. 

I use the Gaia app on an Iphone 6s plus.  I traveled through the pasture where the two track was shown on the USGS map on the app although all signs of it were gone.

In the pasture I spotted two burrowing owls.

They would fly as I slowly approached to get a  better shot.  It took quite awhile to get these photos.

At the east end of the pasture there was a fence that had to be climbed over.

East of the pasture but before entering the wooded area along Gully Creek were several tortoise holes and many tracks.  They do not show up in the photo below.  It appears someone in the past had marked the holes with 1/2" pvc pipe stakes which for the most part had fallen over.

Going down into the Gully Creek escarpment is a varied forest with palmettos, pines, oaks, and cabbage palms.

A soft rock is exposed along the edge of the escarpment in places.  I suspect it could be phosphate rock but will have to research that more.

Here is point that appears to have been used to ford Gulley Creek in the past.  It is on the path of the two track shown on the USGS map.

Another photo of Gully Creek looking in the direction of the Little Manatee River.

I did not cross Gully Creek but turned around here and headed back to the trail head.  Made another arc around the cattle and donkey in the pasture.

This is a nasty looking weed that was growing in the pasture.  It has thorns growing out of the leaves.  I am wondering if it is an invasive plant.

This bird was spotted along the two track trail on the way back to the trail head.  I have not identified it yet.

This was an interesting hike with a few challenges, mainly water, mud and high grass. 

The highlight was the photos I was able to get of the burrowing owls.

Hike in Little Manatee River State Park, 2-20-16

Started a little earlier this morning, about 7:30am.  It was in the mid 50's.  Warmed up to the mid 70's.

Did a figure 8 on the trail this morning.  Went for 7.63 miles.  The pack felt heavy today.  The trail is mostly dry now, but still has a few muddy areas with little difficulty getting around them.

One interesting site was a large dead pine tree that fell across the trail sometime this week.  Nothing would have survived where it fell.

As soon as I can get the photo of the fallen tree uploaded, I will add it to the blog.

Hike in the Weekiwachee Preserve, Feb 13, 2016

I live in Sun City Center and Weekiwachee is about 80 miles away.  Because I had to look at a site to estimate some repairs in the area, I decided to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.

I left the condo about 9, went to the site, looked, got the information I needed, and took photos.  Then I drove the few miles to the Preserve.

On the 2nd and 3rd Saturdays of each month, a paved road with a parking lot is open for 1.2 miles into the preserve.  Since it was the 2nd Saturday, I was able to drive into the Preserve.

Below is the first photo I took as I was leaving the parking lot.

About a sixth of the preserve is an abandoned limerock mine with large ponds where the limerock was removed from and large mounds of overburden that was pushed off to expose the limerock.

The area that was mined has only a few trees and is mostly grass.  There are dirt two track roads and paths through the area. 

The photo below is from a large overburden mound looking northwest.

Here is a photo as I worked my way from the old mine area to the east into the wooded area of the preserve.

There was a stream shown below that crossed the road.  It was in a swampy area.

The first part of the road into the wooded area had a gravel base with what appeared to be some areas of soil cement.  The soil cement made for a hard surface although it was somewhat uneven.

The further into the woods, the two track became sandy with out any gravel or soil cement.

The name of the two track road is Bear Claw Road.  It ends at the backend of a subdivision east of the preserve.

I also took a branch two track road off of Bear Claw Road.  Didn't take the branch to end.  From the aerial map app (Gaiagps.com) it looked like it continued to county road 597 to the west.


It turned out to be the first day of bow hunting season.  I ran into two hunters all dressed in camaflouged gear.  One even had a camaflouge face mask on.  They wore boots for going through the swampy areas.  They had seen four deer but all were does.

I didn't see any deer but did see a large hog cross the road about 100 yards ahead of me.  Also three armadillos and an eagle on a dead tree roost in the distance.

Below is a photo of an old iron gate across the road.  This is one of two I saw.  As can be seen in the photo, the gate has not been closed in years because the tree is growing around the hinges.

Most of the hike was going and coming on the same path or road.  There were a couple of small loops that I was able to take.

There are several more hiking paths in between the ponds of the mined area that I did not have time to take.  The park closed at sunset plus I was getting tired after carrying the pack for almost 10 miles.  (I had put additional weight in the pack for this hike also.)

The three photos below show the area on the paths after coming out of the woods and heading for the parking lot. 

The low sun was lighting up the overburden mounds which made for a couple of interesting photos.


I had started hiking a little after noon and finished at the parking lot at 5:30pm.

February 7, 2016, Exploration of Little Manatee State Park, Northern Area

Started at the usual spot, the trail head off US 301 just north of the river.  It was cold and windy.  47 degrees at the start and winds up to 20 mph.  Had three layers and gloves on.

Hiked west on the north leg of the trail for about a mile to a two track trail heading north and then back east.  Worked my way up to the northeast corner of the park where I made a loop. 

I am having trouble retrtieving photos from gaiagps.com.  When I get this resolved, I will add the photos to this blog.  I am also working on getting the tracks downloaded and added to the apps.  This will show where the photos were taken.

The aerial map I was using in the gaiagps app on my iphone 6s, MapBox Aerial, showed tracks and roads that were now overgrown.  One track went through high grass.  It was clearly visible on the aerial map but barely distinguishable on the ground.  I had to keep checking the iphone to see that I was still on the trail.  I have come to rely on the gaiagps app on my iphone, maybe too much. 

It was a good hike.  Saw some new areas of the park.  Felt better as the hike went along.  Less shortness of breath.

The air warmed up to the mid 50's and the sun was out, but the wind was still chilly.  Kept the three layers on through the hike.

Feb 6, 2016 Hike in Northern Portion of Little Manatee River Park

I was discouraged last weekend because of the trouble I had hiking with the back pack.  Had to keep stopping to catch my breath, plus muscles felt tired and sore.  Rather than progressing in getting in shape, I was going backwards.  I was worried also that if this kept up, the hike on the Appalachian Trail may not happen in May.

Was depressed during the week and drank too much gin a couple of evenings, one of them being Friday evening.

Considering what I drank, I did not feel too bad when I woke up this morning.  So I got ready to go hiking with the back pack.  There is always the thought that it would be easier to just sit around the condo today and not go out.  Have to fight this inner voice to keep moving until I get down the trail maybe a half mile and then I am glad I made it to the trail.

It was 51 deg when I hit the trail a few minutes after 8am.  Had three layers on the top part of my body under the backpack.  That was about right for the first mile and then started to get warm and took one layer off which was ok for the rest of the hike. 

I started out at the trailhead on US 301 north of the river.  Took the north leg of the trail about a mile to the first two track trail which I took north to continue exploring the northern part of the park from last weekend.  This two track turns back east and took it approximately a mile.  Had to go through some wet low areas but made it through without getting wet feet.

Saw a new hog trap and it had a 30 lb plus or minus hog in it.  He was scared of me so, I kept my distance in order not to spook him too badly. 

 Shortly after turning north on another two track trail, I saw a group of maybe 6 hogs, all about 30 lbs rooting along side the trail up ahead.  I moved toward them slowly and they moved off into the brush.  Then a sow ran across the trail about 30 yards ahead of me.  She was surprisingly fast and appeared to weigh a lean 200 lbs.  She must be nursing a litter because of the size of her udders.  All of the hogs were out of site before had a chance to take a photo of them.

This is what the next two track trail looked like. 

I suspect the area was farmed before it was purchased by the state for the state park.  This two track had been mowed and other than wet ruts was not too hard to walk.

There are other two tracks that show up on aerial maps but they have become overgrown to the point where they are hard to follow. 

Soon these will no longer be recognizable as tracks.  Due to areas of high grass, brush, and the roughness of the ground due to hog rooting, it was challenging to walk.

A few minutes before 11am a light rain started.  Decided not to put my poncho on since I might get wetter inside the poncho than without it because of the moisture it traps.

The rain steadily increased but never got heavy.  I had a couple of miles to go to get back to the trail head and the van.  I got damp but not soaked.  Wasn't uncomfortable.

After the first couple of miles the hiking became physically easier today which was a relief.  On the last 2 to 3 miles was able to walk at a good steady pace with out stopping to catch my breath. 

I used trekking poles for the entire hike.  I have become comfortable using them.  I  will miss hiking with out them now.  I believe it does take more energy hiking with trekking poles but there are benefits that offset this, such as helping balance, taking a little weight off your feet, and probing soft spots ahead before stepping in deep mud. 

Overall it was a good 4 hours today.

Short Hike, Little Manatee River State Park, 1-30-16

Took a short hike yesterday morning in the Manatee River State Park.  Took the same trail north of the river.  I wasn't feeling that good and did not feel like going through deep water again.

Hiked on the north leg to the bridge over Cypress Creek.  The water was not over the bridge but knew the trail would be flooded further west before the primitive campsite side trail.

Turned around and went back to the trail head.  Went a little over 3 miles at a slow pace.