Riverbanks Adventure Forum

Escape reality! Spend a Day at the 2010 Bay Area Renaissance Festival.

// March 1st, 2010 // No Comments » // Adventures

As always we had a great time at the 32nd Annual Bay area Renaissance Festival  held behind the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) on Fowler Ave in Tampa, Florida.

Upon entering the park, you are immediately captivated by the enchanting mid-evil mock town forcing the mind to forget completely about the outside world. The Town’s people were tireless yesterday as they looked for opportunities to engage and opportunistically embarrass the guests from modern times.  This festival is not for the thin skinned!
The actors show off their talents as their shows were original, funny, and at times impromptu. There are 16 stages of entertainment but my favorite is the Mud pit show. As the Grand Finale the lead actor swan dives from a pedestal and body slams into a pit of mud! Never a dull moment as there are always unique activities to enjoy such as: a Grape Stomp, Pirate’s Feast, Fudge Fling, and for the women – a Men in tights competition! Afterwards you can suit your appetite with a giant turkey leg and some hard apple cider.
There is plenty to keep the children busy from extreme activities like the Bungee Chair and climbing the Rockwall to more creative ventures like making a wax mold of your hand. The rides vary from the mild dragon swing to the crazy spinning whiskey barrel. Exotic Elephant and Pony rides are available for children of all ages. You can also test your Mid-evil marksmanship with the star, knife or ax throw. Or just relax and throw tomatoes at the town heckler as he rattles off insults.
As always the crafts are of high quality and unique and pertinent with the times. Take some of this magical land home with you to allow the mind to escape back to the magical times at this magnificent festival!

Lake Wales Ridge State Forest: An Enchanting Land of Cuthroat Grass and Rare Seepage Bogs!

// February 16th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Adventures, Florida, Hiking

Pink Sundew by Riverbanksoutdoorstore

Laura, my out of town guest and partner-in-crime, and I headed to Lake Wales Ridge State Forest to continue on our Trailwalker Journey this past weekend. After missing the Schoolhouse Road street sign twice, we finally honed in on the McClean Cabin Nature Trail. This one mile interpretive loop sits in the middle of the 22 mile Reedy Creek trail maintained by the Florida Trail Association and is a beautiful hike! From the interpretive kiosks along the path, we learned about cutthroat grass and seepage bogs. These seepage bogs are protected areas in Florida State Parks and Forests and can only be seen in a few places throughout the state. While in these areas we were lucky to come upon the Pink Sundew, a carnivorous bog plant, sprouting up in the middle of the trail (see above photo)! The rare cutthroat grass was also growing in abundance along the trail.

From here we headed over to the Walk-N-the-Water tract to hike the 2.8 mile Scrub Jay Loop and the 3.6 mile Bay Loop Trail, which turned out to not actually be a loop. The Bay-Loop Trail takes you through beautiful scrub with spots of Oak Hammock back to a lake. Then we spotted an end-of-trail sign. Your options are to complete a loop on a plow-up forest road/firebreak or return the way you came. We opted for the scenic return route back on the trail.
The Scrub Jay Loop is a pretty hike throughout a classic Florida Scrub habitat lined with low growing Lyonia bushes, young scrub oaks, and spots of young Florida Rosemary bushes sprouting up as if to someday claim their own scrub. Although we did not see a Scrub Jay on this hike, there was an abundance of small birds including warblers, wrens, and robins flying about. Both trails were well marked and very scenic and an enjoyable hike on such a cool sunny day!

For more photos on Lake Wales State Forest visit flickr.

More about Lake Wales Ridge State Forest….

Within Lake Wales Ridge State Forest lies the endangered ecosystems of ancient scrub, sandhills, and cutthroat grass seeps.  This protected lands of Lake Wales Ridge has the highest concentration of endangered plants on the continental United States.  
The ancient Scrub consists of long isolated islands that were actually shorelines.  The deposits were made when the rest of Florida was covered by rising seas.  The scrub is “Florida’s Desert” and consists of white open sand areas and low growing vegetation such as lyonia, oak, and Florida rosemary bushes. 
The sandhills on the ridge consist of long leaf pine, turkey oaks and wiregrass.  Both the scrub and the sandhills share some of the same wildlife including scrub-jays, gopher tortoise, Florida mouse and the scrub lizard.
The most exotic ecosystem is the cutthroat seeps characterized by the rare endangered cutthroat grasses.  These seeps occur only in Central Florida at a slightly lower elevation that scrub.  Scientists estimate that only one percent of these seeps still exist.

Okaloacoochee Slough State Forest: Experience Florida’s Wilds!

// February 5th, 2010 // No Comments » // Adventures, Florida, Hiking

My attempt to expose my friend Laura to the wilds of Florida in her visit to Florida proved more than successful at Okaloacoochee Slough State Forest. The slough is a wildlife haven and certainly worth the trip.
We started off on this 2.6 mile trek and found it well marked but not well maintained. The overgrowth at times can mislead you into thinking there is no trail there at all. Only the metal orange trail marker posted on a tree encourages you to forage ahead. We have come to realize a hiking stick and previous bushwhacking experience is a definite PLUS on this trail! The first two miles leads you into a jungle-like forest of cabbage palms and hardwoods full of a variety of Epiphytes and ferns.

Giant Airplant along the trail

Just before you enter the Pine Forest we noticed a large hill resembling an Indian mound. As I climbed to the top, I noticed the soil underfoot was spongy. It is a large mound of sawdust left over from the Old Twin Mills lumber mill that operated here during the logging days in the early 1900’s. Amazed by our historical encounter, we head into the pine forest where we both encountered our first Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake. Preoccupied with birds up high, I caught myself as I almost stepped on a four foot rattler as he coiled poised ready to strike. My friend Laura yelled “SNAKE” as I abruptly stopped midstride! I jumped back to take a few photos before leaving the trail to avoid escalating this confrontation.
The Pine forest led us out back onto the forest road for the last mile to finish the loop. Although this road appears civilized and out in the open, this part of the hike was not without excitement. The road is surrounded by water with a slough on one side and wet

Coiled Eastern Diamond Back Rattler

prairie on the other. We saw an abundance of Woodstorks, Little Blue Heron, Louisiana Heron, Egrets (Great and small), Ibis, and a pair of Sandhill Cranes. We had to keep our wits about us as we encountered several gators sunning on each side of the road. Finally we made our way back to the parking area.  As we drove off I couldn’t help but think ….”The slough is a wonderfully wild place!”

For more photos visit Okaloacoochee Slough State Forest on Flickr

Honeymoon Island State Park: Osprey caring for thier young!

// February 2nd, 2010 // No Comments » // Adventures, Florida, Great Florida Birding Trail, Hiking

Osprey watching young in nest by Riverbanksoutdoorstore

The mid-winter season is when the Osprey are busy caring for their young. The Osprey hiking trail on Honeymoon Island State Park in Dunedin, Florida, is a great place for viewing the Osprey in their natural habitat. Watch as Osprey maintain their nests with twigs, bring fish back to feed the young, and switch places with mates as they take turns watching over the young.

Pinecone forming on a Slash Pine

Honey Moon Island located just north of Clearwater Beach is well known for its recreational beach area, variety of sea shells, and the Ferry to Caledesi. It is also a protected home for Florida’s endangered Osprey. The 2.5 mile Osprey trail is a loop around the north end of the Honeymoon Island through one of Florida’s few remaining virgin slash pine forests. This area was also an old turpentine camp in the early 1900’s. If you look closely, you can still see cat face scars on some of the old pines.
There is also a picnic area with a playground. A great place to spend an afternoon or for a family outing! Dogs are welcome on the hiking trail with a leash.
For more information:
www.floridastateparks.org/honeymoonisland

See more photos of Honeymoon Island State Park on Flickr

Armadillo

Seminole State Forest – My First Black Bear Sighting! – Trailwalker Week 6

// January 29th, 2010 // No Comments » // Adventures, Backpacking, Camping, Florida, Hiking

Florida trail near dusk by Riverbanksoutdoorstore

I needed one more hike and one more forest to earn my Trailwalker Badge.  I decided to travel to Lake County and hike the 10 mile Wekiva Loop in the Seminole State Forest.  I knew nothing about this hike except that it was partially along the Wekiva River and having paddled the Wekiva a few years ago, I was hoping it was just as scenic. The hike starts at the Bear Pond Trailhead which is the South entrance into this forest. The trail follows the scenic Florida Trail the trail through a young pine scrub that was exploding with purple blooms of deer tongue and other late summer wildflowers. As the trail then leads you into the Wekiva River floodplain, the cooler air from the spring run along with the new flora was a refreshing change.  I slowed my pace taking in the flora to allow more time to hide in the shade.  The trail then leads you back out into the Sand Pine Scrub and into the Sun.  Eventually I came upon a small section of Oak Scrub and that was where I saw the Florida Black Bear!  I was awestruck as I watched him for several moments while he gathered food from the Oak Tree in which he was sitting. He spotted me as I was taking his photo. He gingerly climbed down and disappeared into the thicket of Saw Palmetto.  I was elated as I could not help to think “How special of a day to see my first Black Bear on my final hike to earn my Trailwalker badge!”  I pick up my pace with my renewed energy.

Florida Black Bear gathering food

From here the trail takes you back into the Blackwater Creek floodplain. It follows a forest road that looks more like an Old Tram trail for logging.  I pause for a moment to imagine the giant cypress forest before our ancestors logged them away for profit. In the middle of this Tram Road is where I spotted the rare Celestial Lily’s in their afternoon open bloom. I am intrigued by this delicate flower that is scattered about and only has a single flower per stem.  Again I am reminded that this hike and this day are indeed special.

Rare Celestial Lily

I continue along over a  foot bridge into a forest full of tall pines and Cabbage Palms that are stretching to grow just as tall. Some sightings of resurrection fern, wild pine, and other epiphytes can be spotted. Once you leave the Blackwater Creek area, the trail is back out into the Sand Pine Scrub that is also a shared use trail for horses. After a mile and a half of this scenic scrub, the Trail joins the Florida Trail that you can take south to loop back to the Trailhead. If you have had enough adventure for the day, you can also follow the forest road south and save yourself some steps.

I chose to take the Florida Trail route back south to finish the loop.  This shorter fall days caught me by surprise as I had started to run out of daylight with 1.5 miles to finish.  I finished the last mile by moonlight. Had I not experienced the Moonlight hike at Goldhead State Park four weeks prior, I would not have remained near as calm as I made my way back to Bear Pond trailhead. But watching the sun set from the Florida Trail was a truly satisfying way to end a long day hike.

Longtailed Skipper hovering over Deer Tongue Wildflower

My two hour drive home just flew by as I reminisced about the hike I had today and my of the other nine Trailwalker Hikes  before.  For a moment, I smiled and proudly thought “I am officially a Trailwalker and what a wonderful journey it was!”

For more photos see Seminole State Forest on Flickr

Other related Trailwalker posts: Goethe (Week 1), Lake McKethan (week 2), Holly Hammock (week 2), Johnsons Pond (week 3), Oxbow Nature Trail (week 3), Etoniah State Forest (wk 3),  Buck Island Pond (wk 4)