March 2 – 4, 2015 I was thinking today that my adventures may seem a little redundant. Most of what we do is hiking, biking and kayaking. We just enjoy being surrounded by nature. Silver Springs is nature at its best. When we arrived I said to David “Why would anyone want to stay in a “sardine can” campground, when they could be surrounded by all this natural beauty?” I got my answer when our neighbors told us about the 3 ft Black Racer Snake that we would be sharing our site with. The Ranger had warned us about leaving out ANY FOOD because of the black bears, she didn’t mention any Black Snake. When I talked to her later she said not to worry. Blacky (I’ve already named him) only eats mice. Besides, he’s only a little guy, Black racers can grow to 6 or 7 feet.
There are a lot of people, that might not be pleased when they open their door and are greeted by a 3 ft slithery slimy snake sunning himself on their “patio”. The good thing is he’s a “racer”. If I get a photo of him it will be a miracle. He’s fast 🙂
Today was a hiking and biking day. We take E T hiking on the River Trail in the morning before it gets too hot. It is HOT here. She does not do well in the heat. She’s my dog 🙂 It’s a very uneventful walk, it’s just pretty. The highlight was the beautiful owl we saw sitting in a tree. It was too high up to get a good photo. I’m going to show the photo to the Ranger tomorrow and see if she can identify it. Have I mentioned that I love the Rangers? I’ve spent hours in Ranger stations with photos of flowers, insects, birds and critters, tasking their brains and using their resources to identify them. I love this stuff!
After lunch David and I leave E T in the comfort of air conditioning and head off on our bikes to do some exploring. There are wonderful biking and hiking trails here. We hike the Swamp Trail. It takes us out on an amazing boardwalk through the swamp and out to the Silver River. We see an alligator swimming gracefully along the river edge. There are HUGE fish jumping out of the water. The scenery is lovely. Sitting on one of the boardwalk benches is a nice gentleman that has been coming here for years and just loves to sit and enjoy the serenity of the river. He asks if we have been out on the river yet. Our plan for tomorrow is to do the 30 minute glass bottom boat tour of the river that the park offers and then take our Kayak out. We went down to the kayak launch today and the creepy mate at the launch scared me with tales of water moccasins hanging from the low hanging tree branches. I think he was just being a jerk, but I’m not taking any chances. David and I kayaked through mangroves in The Keys that we had to duck and dodge our way through in some areas. If there had been snakes we would have been eaten alive. I want to check this river out before going out in our inflatable.
So, the nice gentleman tells us about Captain Tom’s 3 hour River Tours that start on the Ocklawaha River and take you all the way to the main Silver River Spring and back. The 30 minute Glass Bottom Boat tour is $10 for seniors (no pets). Captain Tom charges $18 per person for 3 hours, but requires 6 people. When we get back to our campsite David calls Captain Tom. David and I are the only people that have called for the morning tour. He will take us for $24 each. I ask if E T could come. He says “Sure, I like dogs better than I like people.” This should be an awesome tour 🙂
