Spring to Spring Trail

January 20-January 26

Blue Spring State Park
We left Jekyll Island and drove to Blue Spring State Park.  When we arrived, I put on my shorts and went for a bike ride.  It was so nice to be where I could bike without a winter coat!  The trail starts right outside the park entrance and goes up and down and around bends in a very cool forest environment.  The railroad is beside the trail.  Here is a map of the various finished pieces of the trail.  The top section is Blue Springs portion.  Its 2.7 miles to the loop.  If you do the loop its a 5.5 one way ride.  I just went to where the loop started because it was turning dark.  I had forgotten how early it gets dark in Florida!

The next day we walked four miles around Blue Spring looking at the manatees.  They sure are funny creatures. 

The problem with Blue Spring is that the traffic to see the manatees drives us nuts.  When we leave to do regular living stuff like grocery shopping or a trip to the laudramat, you have a long line to enter the park in which you have to wait.  It gets old.  But the campsites are large, there is a nice walk to see the manatees and a bike trail right across from the entrance.  

Lake Monroe Park

We weren't able to get a campsite for the weekend so we decided to travel to Lake Monroe Park.  Its a county park and is at the other end of the spring-to-spring trail.  Someday the two trails will meet but until then one can only ride on the red portions.  So Friday and Saturday we biked and hiked the trail at the lower end. 

 Saturday was warm enough to take lunch along and bike to Gemini Springs. The plants along the trail sure are different from most of the country's flora.   We had our picnic lunch on the way back.  The campground had great sites but LOTS of noise that we didn't like.  Road noise and some factory of some sort.  It went on all night long.  We will not return to this county campground. 

Trains and boats and bikes.

We got tired of not seeing new places so it was off to Burlington to see something different.  We hoped to stay in the North Campground, but it was full.  We went to the next closest to the bike path, Mallett's Bay Campground.

I had read about the Island Line Rails to Trails causeway back in 2010.  In 2011 it was severely damaged by flooding and closed.  Over a million dollars was spent to fix it.  It was re-opened this spring.  Here is a picture of the causeway back in the day.

It is 3.1 miles of Lake Champlain on both sides. 6.2 round trip from the closest parking lot.

With mountains in the distance.

Along with islands and birds.

We managed to watch a sailboat go between the causeway.  On weekends a ferry is available to continue biking on the other side.

We met a couple from Montreal who volunteered to take our picture together!

A large part of the causeway is seen in this picture.  Just follow the line of trees across the water.  Neat huh?

The day started rainy but sure ended pretty.  It is a really lovely bike ride.

Altoona Days

July 3-5
Bikes, Trains and Roller Coasters!

     We left Rockwood after biking on the Great Allegheny Passage for three days.  We went to Cresson Spring Restaurant to have lunch with Laura Lynn.  From the Restaurant one can see the main line of the PPR railroad.  Three trains went past as we ate and talked.  Laura Lynn came to our campground here in Altoona in order to check out the railroad theme campground here at Wright's Orchard Campground.
Back in my days as a Berlin-Brothersvalley Librarian, we stayed here while I took classes at the local IU.  The owner's father had been a PRR railroad employee (along with a large part of the town).  Here is a part of the model railroad that used to be a part of the office.

     New bike trail!

     East of Canoe State Park is a bike trail that was donated by Mr. Lower (rhymes with Flower).  It is a 100% privately operated rails to trails.  It follows the Petersburg Branch of the old Pennsylvania Railroad which follows the old Pennsylvania Canal path.  alongside the Juniata River.  Its a really nice trail with ruins of the canal and railroad.  Lots of fun biking it. 

Trains! 

After we biked Lew wanted to train watch.  We drove off to Horseshoe Curve then to the Gallitzin Tunnel for more!

Old Roller Coasters!

     Lakemont Amusement Park in Altoona has the world's oldest operating roller coaster called Leap-the-Dips.  It costs five dollars to enter the park and $2.50 to ride the roller coaster.  Of course, I've always wanted to do this and now I have! 

We also road the train at the amusement park.  You go around Ponyshoe curve on this railroad! 

All in all a very successful visit to Altoona, PA.

Ridgecrest Resort and PEAR park, Leesburg, Fl

Lew and I are still sick.  Lew is on this third day of antibiotics.  Now I'm the one with renewed fevers. On Edit, I went to urgent care the evening of the 4th with a temp of 102.9 and tested + for flu.

Ridgecrest Resort campground has  a bike path adjacent to the campground. I figured we would be able to leave when we both feel well enough to ride the trail.  It's also a Passport America campground which for us means two nights at 15.00 a night.  Any additional nights cost $29.00 a night.  It is about an hour northwest of Disneyworld near Leesburg, Fl.

The bathrooms are spotless.  The laundryroom is also very clean.  The pool and spa like extremely well care for.  We don't much care for our spot but we asked to be where the wifi worked well so this is it.

The P.E.A.R (Palatlakaha Environmental & Agricultural Reserve) park is within biking range.  This park used to be owned by the University of Florida agriculture department.  A map of the park shows various paths.

To get to the path one bikes through the RV park to a trail that connects to a little road.

Its a short half mile on the road to the "back" park entrance.

The path that includes biking isn't very nice.  Its sand which makes it hard to bike.

I went on this path before I started getting more fevers and chillls.  Now we are just hanging and watching TV over netflix.  Hopefully by tomorrow we will feel a bit better.  Lew will be on day four of drugs.

Biking at Fort Wilderness

Today we did exploring activities.  We are trying to wait to visit the parks.  Last year (while still working) we purchased two annual passes to Disneyworld.  They will start the day we activate them at the gate and last one full year.  Since we were not planning on arriving this early....well we thought we would do things that one doesn't spend time doing while in Disney.

Biking in Fort Wilderness.  I've read more than once about a bike/hike trail at Fort Wilderness.  Today we went biking and found two trails that actually connect.  The trails start at the horse barn before the beach area.

There is a sign that says No Carts Allowed.  That is the clue.  While riding along this paved path, keep your eyes open for shapes made of pine cones. Hidden Mickey!

Traveling along the path, one can see another path.  We had been looking for this one and finally found it.  It is about a third of a mile from the start of the trail.

You can see the trail on the other side of the road. Its really nice. One has to quickly make a decision at the Y.

Going straight is the lake.  Going to the left leads to Fort Wilderness Lodge.  Going to the right leads to the remains of an old waterpark called River Country with the inevitable signs "Cast members only".    We decide to bike to Fort Wilderness Lodge along the lake.  That's the Contemporary Hotel with the Cinderella princess castle behind it.  It would take some doing, but what a spot to watch the fireworks over the castle!

We stop at the Geyser at Wilderness Lodge.

Looking over at the Lodge, one can see the flags on top.  Hey, that looks like stairs.  Doesn't someone have to take the flags down at night?  Lets go ask.

We've been fortunate enough to go to the top of the Old Faithful Inn (Yellowstone National Park) to take the flags down in the evening and sure enough, if you are a guest at theWDW Wilderness Lodge, you can ask to be added to the list of guests to go to the top and put the flags out in the morning!  Wow!  I sure wish I knew a bell hop there too!

We decide to spend the rest of the day visiting the other three big monorail resorts, the Contemporary, the Polynesian, and the Grand Floridian. The Contemporary has a nice mural by the artist who designed, "Its a Small World."  The Polynesian is supposed to have a volcano, but it is really a water slide.  We decided to visit the Grand Floridian another day and made it back to the trailer for supper of crock pot chicken and vinegar cole slaw.

Blue Spring Campground

ReserveAmerica is the corporation that now handles many of the state and federal reservations for campgrounds.  It costs 10 dollars for each reservation.  For people who camp 14 days at the same spot it is a fine way to get a wanted campsite.  For folk like us, it makes life more expensive or more difficult.  Blue Spring Campground is the perfect example.    I wasn't sure when we would arrive and didn't want to waste the campground fee ($27.00) for a day we might not be arriving.  So when I looked last week at ReserveAmerica and Blue Spring had lots of empty sites we decided not to make a reservation. 

When it became obvious that we could make it to Blue Spring but after the park closed, I called the office and was basically told that if we couldn't make it by 5:30, the office was closed and we couldn't get in.  So we stayed at Faver Dykes and drove to Blue Spring the next day.  When we arrived around 10 AM (with the idea of taking the Mac off to a genius), the gal in the office said they only had three sites we could stay on.  We took one of the three.  All three where small and close to another site.  After we came back from the Apple store, we walked to see the Manatees.  On the way we both noticed that many very nice sites were open.  Of course, our very close neighbors burned garbage and had a fire all night which meant I was stuck inside with the air conditioning going so I could breath.  I checked ReserveAmerica and over half the sites were vacant but only three open sites were for "walk-ins".  If you don't pay ReserveAmerica, you can't get the good sites.  This policy might very well determine how much we use Florida State Parks.  But other than the lousy private reservation system this is a fun place to camp.
Today is Lew's Birthday!   First thing in the morning is a walk to see the Manatees.Blue Spring is a natural spring that is 72 degrees warm.  Manatees like that and are protected.  Makes a nice mile roundtrip walk to see them in the morning.

 Lew's birthday lunch at Five Guys.

Then a leisurely afternoon bike ride on a rails to trails that is directly across from the campground.  Today we biked six miles.

Its a lovely paved trail that is 3.5 miles long.  We ended the day with another walk to see Manatees.  Hope that helps us not gain weight with all those fries!

Virginia Creeper Trail

Damascus, VA has more than nine trails that go through their little town.  One of them is the Virginia Creeper Trail which is a rail-trail.  The little town has eight bike shops that make their living renting bikes and shuttling people to the top of the mountain for the 17 mile downhill trip.

On October 29, 1971 we got married.  For our anniversary celebration this year we decided to bike the Virginia Creeper Trail.  Here we are at one of the old railroad stations.

 It was a GREAT trip.  This trail rates as one of the best rail trails in the nation and we agree.  It has over 300,000 riders per year with the vast majority in October to see the fall leaves.

Lots of signs tell you about the area.

 Some terrible sections of kudzu.

 It’s a plant that was imported from Japan in the 1920's and takes over everything.  Trees, houses, bushes.   We started seeing it in Louisiana and it is on its way to PA.

The trail goes downhill and beside a creek most of the way.

  Lots of wooden trestles.

A lovely 41st anniversary present to ourselves!

Jan

Biking the Susan River Rail Trail

We started the day by doing an important thing: we biked a portion of the Bizz Johnson Rail Trail, thus commemorating the nationwide Rails-to-Trails initiative. It was U S Congressman Harold T “Bizz” Johnson   who pioneered the Rail/Trail legislation which led to the conversion of abandoned rail lines into walking/biking trails all over the country. We rode a 7 mile piece of the very first Rail Trail and it was a lovely ride up the 3% grade out of Susanville, California along the Susan River.

Hitting the 3%.

The first tunnel and there's

another bridge at the other end.

The second tunnel

There are fish in the Susan River.

Catch and Release only.

A good morning’s ride.

Then it was hitch up and start down the road to another location time.

Lew