Curry Hammock State Park Marathon, FL Keys

This is our last week at Curry Hammock SP. We have enjoyed good weather the most of this first week. A cold front is blowing through today, that means it was 51o this morning. The wind is very gusty though and that will keep us in most of the day. Good we have a camper with some inside space now.


Tuesday we paddled our kayaks around this little key where the park is. It was a nice trip but the sun was very intense that day. We had to make sure that we did it at high tide as some of the waterway is very shallow.

This big fellow was on a tree along the inlet. He is quite different from the lime green iguana we normally see here in the Keys. These are invasive creatures that are becoming a big problem in southern Florida. People have released their “pets” when they became too big to be cute and they are thriving in this environment. Unfortunately they have no natural predators here and are harming the native animals that compete for the food. There are a lot of them in this area and they are big.
Here is a hermit crab we found. He is a big one for what we usually see. He was not happy with us at all for picking him up. I included this picture for Evan. Maybe he will like seeing it? We miss you Evan.

Winter Escape 2011

We were a bit nervous about the weather again this year. Last year’s FL winter was very chilly, but nothing like the temps at home. When we stopped at our first campground in NC, we thought that we were in for another cold one. This area had gotten 12 inches with that Christmas storm and it was not going away quickly. The morning temp was 24o, brrrrr….. But on the road again and keep heading south. The weather soon turned to the normals and Les was thrilled. Day temps soon were 70’s.
We stopped again at my cousin Jan’s home in Jacksonville and visited with them for New Year’s Day. She treated us once more with a sumptuous meal and we had a chance to see her son Nathan and his young family. His son, Bradley, is the age Evan will be next year and that was cute to see.
A stop at Jonathan Dickinson SP on the way down I 95 gave us a chance to meet up with David and Barbara. These good folks were one of our references for our African adventure and it was great to meet them and share pictures and stories. They surprised us by taking us out and treating us for supper.



We arrived at Curry Hammock Jan. 3rd. Oh my, our site is perfect and so is the weather. We wake to 68o and it tops out at 80o in the afternoon. The wind is calm so paddling is very nice.

One day we paddled out to Deer Key to see a rookery there. My, the pelicans and cormorants were packed on the mangroves.
All around us as we paddled were birds diving in the water for fish. We were treated to a music jam fest just next to us. Some folks played accordions and a wash-tub base and we enjoyed some down-home folk music.

We are Home.

Arrived home April 14th. We had a long enjoyable adventure this year.

We did get to stop by Huntsville, AL to visit with family. Having time to visit my aunt and uncle was great and a time of hiking with my cousin and his wife topped off the trip.

We camped there at the top of a mountain in Monte Sano SP. Lots of hiking/biking trails and a nice disc golf course. We purchased a few discs to play the course and had a good time. Now we have them in the camper and will look for courses on our travels.

Highland Hammock and Alphia River SPs

These were a new parks for us. We planned to stay only one week at the last 3 parks of our trip since they are new to us. The first was Highland Hammock which is one of the old parks of the state, begun in 1931 and improved by the CCC workers. There is a museum to the workers in the CCC camps which was very interesting.

There was also a tram ride that took us through the restricted areas of the park. We were fortunate to see red shoulder hawks, turtles, deer and many alligators including a number of groups of babies. And on a late afternoon bike ride we saw eagles nesting, deer, wild pigs and a bobcat crossed our path.

This park has a lot of wetlands and nice boardwalks to give you access to them. In the slideshow you will see some scenes from these paths.

The park also had the most brash armadillos that we have experienced yet. As we sat outside enjoying the sun one afternoon, an armadillo came running up behind Les to stop directly beside him and raised up on his hind legs. With the offer, Les reached down to touch his back and we were surprised by the reaction. The animal immediately jumped straight up in the air and scurried off to another campsite were the hoped for a handout not to be handled! This critter was searching for crumbs another evening.

We moved to Alphia River State Park March 21st. This is the opposite of Highland Hammock as it is one of the newest parks, an abandoned phosphate mine of 6,000+ acres that was donated to the state in 1996. The vegetation in the campground is very young and that creates an environment that attracts mocking birds and boat tail grackles. We are serenaded from day break to sunset. The campsites are large and open. From the picture you can see that the topography of this area is a drastic change due to the pits formed by the mining that have forested creating trails very similar to what we see in PA. This park is the site for the FL mountain biking state championships for a good reason. They also offer 20 miles of horse trails.

We enjoyed a paddle on the Alphia River with our friends Bob and Kathy. It was great that they could camp a few days with us here. They stopped on their way home to NY.

After the paddle we stopped at a local BBQ spot for a delicious meal. Wifi is hard to get here but we move Sunday to our last FL park. The weather has finally turned the corner and we are warm. But I understand the temps home have been close, or last week better, to ours. Good for you in PA!

Myakka Paddle and Oscar Shearer State Park

We had one last paddle before leaving Myakka River SP. As you can see we tried a very small tributary to the river; it was not a wise choice. We were finally stopped by downed trees and the narrow waterway was not comfortable for us with the residents so close, see the slide show. We really enjoyed our 2 weeks at Myakka River State Park. The wildlife is always such a treat there.

We moved here to Oscar Shearer Feb. 28th and will leave March 14th. We were so pleased to see the Sarasota Folk Festival was scheduled for March 6 & 7. We spent the weekend immersing ourselves in folk, bluegrass, and gospel. Many of the performers were songwriters doing their original works. What a treat. There were 3 stages running simultaneously so there was a lot of music. The weather was still cool but the sun helped during the day. We darn near froze ourselves though at the Saturday evening performance! We had our layers with winter coats, wool socks, scarves and gloves but forgot to take a blanket to wrap around our legs!! Welcome to Florida 2010!

Our Aliner friends, Forrest and Lynn, camped with us for a few days at the start of our stay. It was a treat to share some of our experiences with them. Lynn treated us to a great macaroni and cheese dinner with all the fixings. We hiked the “Green Trail” to see scrub jays and a bald eagle on a nest. We found out later that there is a juvenile in the nest also. The picture above shows one of our evening Yahzee sessions. It was too cold to sit out at a fire!

This park is nice. The Legacy rail to trails path is nice for biking. There are 3 trail systems in the park with other nature trails. The volunteers here organize quite a nice program for campers including Thursday morning pancake breakfast, Wednesday evening ice cream social, and Thursday jam sessions to name a few. There are many beaches close to the park. Turtle Beach is good for shelling, and Caspersen Beach is good for hunting shark’s teeth. Les had to get me a tool for the teeth hunting and we made our pretty well for beginners. There is a creek here that is good for paddling which we did and were treated to a pelican fishing for dinner by diving over and over in the water. In the slideshow you will see a Little Blue heron eating breakfast. We are really enjoying the wildlife of this state.

We leave here Sunday, March 14th, heading inland to a new park, Highland Hammock for just a week. We will try 3 new parks on our way north and see if they are interesting for another trip.

Myakka River State Park

The paddling here continues to be a pleasure. Each time we go out, I get more pictures. I had been averaging around 50 pictures per camp stay. But here I have over 200 and that is the good ones with a lot of deleted pics! This picture shows how calm the water was this paddle, looks like I’m floating in the clouds. In the slideshow you can see the black-capped night heron, peninsula cooter, snowy egret, and cormorant that I digitally captured.

And yes, there were some LARGE alligators on this trip. We had been seeing a bunch of gators but this particular day the big ones were out more than before. If you look closely at the slideshow of the gator Les is passing, you will see he is having a problem with a upper left tooth. It looked abscessed and we figured that would make him pretty grumpy? Oh no!

We caught a sunset by the river here. Being in these parks like this has been such a blessing. The Lord’s creation is an awesome and wondrous thing to live in so closely. In the slideshow you will see a couple of gators heading out for the evening hunt after sunning all day and one of the MANY trees that the vultures roost in for the evenings. It is quite comical to watch them jockey for the prime position in the tree tops. The mornings reveal that the best spots are on top for the evidence of a lower branch is quite clear on those birds. ;-)

This was another addition to my bird album I have begun, a juvenile Little Blue Heron. They go through a white phase before getting their pretty blue feathers.
We drove around the surrounding area a few days this week (rainy day and then cold day to follow). It was neat to see the wide open spaces compared to the super congested coastal areas. We saw lots of ranches and ranchettes. We also ran into some large dairy farms.
Our friends, Lynn and Forrest, will be camping here for the next few days with us. That will be nice. Unfortunately we are to have a rainy Saturday, that will put a crimp on our paddling wishes.
We move 30 miles west to Oscar Shearer on Sunday. They have wifi there at that park also so we will be able to check email very regularly. It will be a place that we can drive to the beach for a bit more shelling time.

Myakka River State Park

We are in Myakka River SP now. The temps are still falling below the normal for this area, today was the first day in about a week that the temps broke 60o. Les seeks the sun! We are making good use of the sweatshirts and wool socks we brought. But we are still glad to be here. This park is the one we love for the wildlife here and we haven’t been disappointed on this trip. At night we hear the raccoons raiding the campsites of those not careful with their grub, and are serenaded by South Florida Gopher Frogs.


Myakka has a good system of trails: hiking, biking, and equestrian. This trail shows that this area has had a good amount of rain this winter. We had to do some creative stepping to get to the other side where the trail continued. There are pretty wildflowers in bloom and that special green you see in the spring with new growth on the trees. On this 7 mile walk we saw deer, wild pigs, turkey, red shoulder hawk, and other birds. We have been seeing robins at this park. Looks like they are pulling together to get ready for their trip back north. They will beat us!


Along with extra water on the trails, there is good water in the river. Last year we could not paddle some areas of the Myakka river due to low water levels, but this year the waterways are full and very enjoyable to kayak. Along the paddle we viewed little blue heron, green heron, white egret, cattle egret, tree swallows and let’s not forget the alligators.

The birds have given us special treats this year. Above you see a great egret with his catch. If you watch the slideshow at the side you can see why we watched with amazement and concern as he swallowed that big fish. There was a lump in his throat for quite awhile as he worked to push it down that long neck! I was afraid it would choke him, but no problem and he kept on fishing! Also in the slideshow are pictures of a mother limpkin teaching her young one to get snails to eat, how cute. And there is a picture of the large flocks of tree swallows we see at the lake in the evenings. There must be thousands! Another feeding picture is of an anhinga that swims with it’s body totally submerged.

We have another week here in the park. Friday they have a concert scheduled where a fellow will play black water bayou blues. I can’t wait! I will try to get a posting on before we move Sunday to Oscar Shearer, just 30 miles from here, short move that time.