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We’re about a month and a half into our stay here at Belle Parc Resort. Given we are nearing the middle of December, the temperatures have been rather pleasant if not a tad warm, but I know not to complain since that could change. We are still enjoying the large number of birds we have right outside our rig place very day. The alligators don’t show up quite as frequently but we do get a chance to see them from time to time. One afternoon I looked out to see one of them laying on the small mound in the lake a couple hundred feet away. This one was facing our direction so I went out to snap a picture. As I was talking with our neighbors who were also watching it, it started to open its mouth with what looked like a simple yawn since it wasn’t eating anything. It’s mouth just kept opening wider and wider - quite impressive.
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| Open Wide! |
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| Yawn Over |
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| Tri-color Heron |
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| Juvenile Wood Stork |
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| Anhinga Sunning Itself |
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| Cattle Behind Motorhome |
The ospreys are still the most interesting birds in the area. They can be quite noisy when they are sitting high up in the trees surveying the lake for a meal or after they have caught a fish. Their calls often catch my attention and if I have time and the weather is nice, I will go out and watch them. Usually, it isn’t until I hear the splash that I even notice they made a dive. But on a few occasions I happen to be ready with the camera and see them take off for their attempt. The following are a few pictures of another failed attempt with it only bringing up a piece of seaweed. Mid-flight, the osprey shook the water off much like a dog would do after emerging from the water.
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| Splash! |
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| Only Got Seaweed |
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| Shake It Off |
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| Searching Again |
The actual eating process takes significantly longer and often the osprey will land in a tree near our rig to eat the fish. It may be there for an hour or more taking small bites starting from the head and working towards the tail. Later in December is when we start to notice the osprey working on building their nest in a dead tree over the lake. There seems to be plenty of twigs and small branches on the ground, but their technique for getting nest materials is similar to their hunting style. They “attack” the tops of some of dead trees near the lake, their talons grabbing a branch and if the branch breaks off, they take it back to the nest to add to the collection. They are quite entertaining when they are working. One afternoon I caught the couple sitting on the edge of the nest surveying their progress.
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| Meal #1 |
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| Meal #2 |
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| Arriving with Another Stick |
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| Osprey Couple Surveys the Progress |
As the holidays approached, Belle Parc was gearing up for all sorts of activities including a Christmas Eve dinner and New Year’s Eve party. While some residents will head to their homes to celebrate Xmas, the majority of us stick around. This type of resort tends to have lots of golf carts, even if there isn’t a golf course nearby. One of the evenings before Xmas was the golf cart parade. People decorated their carts with lots of light and boom boxes playing Christmas carols. I went out to see a few of them gathered at the activity center.
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| Golf Carts Assemble at Activity Center |
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| Moon Rises Over Belle Parc |
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| Wind Shows Off Snowy Egret Feather Detail |
Now that hunting season is over in the Croom Wildlife Area, we now feel a bit more safe heading over there to do some true mountain biking. With over 50 miles of single track, there is more than enough to keep us busy. In early December there was a prescribed burn but it was in a small portion (about 600 acres) of the area and was in a section we don’t bike in much. I tend to make it there more frequently than Chris does so I’m familiar enough with the trails that I can pick a route that is suitable for our energy level on any given day. When I go solo, I have a set 8.5 mile route that I like to do to see how quickly I can complete it. It works out to be just under 60 minute loop that provides for a good workout.
While looking for other hiking trails in the area, we found another Southwest Florida Water Management District property we hadn’t visited yet. Potts Preserve is just a little northeast of Inverness so it isn’t very far away - less than a 30 mile drive. There are 2 main entrances to the preserve. For our first visit, we load up the mountain bikes and we go to the North Hooty Point gate. Like other of these SWFWMD properties, there are camping facilities here. We don’t have the ability to unlock the gate like campers do, but there is a large gravel parking area and a pedestrian entrance that works fine.
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| Potts Preserve Entrance |
The first half mile is a hard packed gravel surface that is fine for biking. There are about a half dozen sites occupied with campers from a large motorhome down to simple tents. There are no utilities but there are some porta-potties. After getting past the this area, the gravel road peters out and becomes just a dirt fire road. Our trail map on the Garmin GPSr doesn’t reflect the actual trails very well. There was a good trail map at the entrance and it came in handy for getting our bearings straight. There are also some hiking trails that look fine for hiking but a bit narrow for biking. We eventually work our way west and run into another wide gravel road that runs north and south. From the trail map we had, it looked like heading south would get us to the second entrance on North Dee River Road. There were additional camping spots accessible from this gate. The weather looked threatening so we opted to simply backtrack to the car and made it there without getting wet. It turned out to be an 8 mile route.
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| A Trail Less Traveled |
We came back several days later with the bikes again, but this time came to the N Dee River entrance. Like the first entrance, there is a locked vehicle gate but an open pedestrian gate. I had also used the paper trail map from our first visit to create trails for our Garmins making the route easier to determine. On this side of the preserve, the main gravel road was in good shape for nearly 3 miles. The road goes thru some very nice woods although Chris pointed out that surroundings looked like ideal velociraptor habitat! The mind goes to strange places when we are in remote isolated areas. |
| Approaching Velociraptor Crossing? |
At about the 3 mile mark, we hit a rather large obstacle. No, not a velociraptor, but a large section of flooded road. It was unclear how deep the murky water was or if the road was solid or muddy, so biking across didn’t seem prudent. We found a bunch of small logs and branches along one side of the road and we got across mostly dry - only one wet foot. A short distance later we ran into a second water crossing that was a bit smaller. |
| Challenging Water Crossing |
At the 4.5 mile point we came upon another “road” that according to our map would take us to the northern end of the preserve and allow us to come back around and work our way back to this main road. Initially this road was okay. It appears a bulldozer had been thru clearing things out a bit in the past couple of months. This left a much more challenging surface for riding a bike. At the far northern end, we came upon a rather long section of standing water and mud. We attempt to find a dry route thru the area so we could keep going. We did find a higher gravel road that probably was not part of Potts Preserve but it went parallel to the muddy road and there weren’t any “no trespassing” signs. It worked fine for the 1000 feet we needed but by then there was a barb wire fence we would need to climb to re-enter the preserve. We decide to scrap our plans and simply turn back. At the larger water crossing on the return trip, I tried to pick a better path across but have my foot slip of a small log and discover the water was almost shin deep there! It was a soggy ride back to the car. |
| Muddy Quagmire at North End of Potts Preserve |
At this point we had explored Potts Preserve about as much as we can by bike, but there were still lots of hiking trails and several geocaches we haven’t tried out yet. The hiking trails are predominantly on the eastern side of the preserve so using the North Hooty entrance makes more sense. It was a pleasant hike in the woods and fortunately at the several water crossings there were foot bridges. They all looked to be rather old but seemed to be up to the task of getting us over the water. |
| Bridge Along Potts Preserve Trail |
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| Chris Crosses the Water |
We didn’t see much wildlife. A few birds and some butterflies were about all we spotted. The trails are well marked and with the trail tracks loaded on our Garmins, we had no problem other than deciding just how many of the trails we should do. Our return route brought us next to the Withlacoochee River and even saw a boat pass by. This was a pleasant hike and we racked up 7 miles.
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| Bright Yellow Butterfly |
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| Trail Intersection |
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| Withlacoochee River |
Another park we haven’t been to is the Withlacoochee River Park. This Pasco county park is a little east of Dade City Florida. Even though it is only about 30 miles or so, it is a bit more remote so takes at least a 45 minute drive to get there. There are multiple hiking trails and a paved loop as well. We predominantly hiked the Red Trail which is just under a 5 mile loop. There are over a dozen geocaches hidden in the park so we also let them dictate what route we took so we didn’t stick to just the one trail. Part of the hike goes along the Withlacoochee River and at one spot along the trail, we saw a good sized gator in the water. |
| Entrance to Withlacoochee River Park |
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| Another Withlacoochee River View |
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| Gator Floating in River |
As we were nearing the end of our hike, we saw signs for an observation tower and figured it might be worth the detour. The tower was much more impressive than we expected being about 4 stories tall. It is also a substantial structure so Chris had no fears climbing to the top. It does provide for a good viewpoint of the park. There are more geocaches and trails we didn’t get so so this might get a return visit.
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| Colorful |
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| Observation Tower |
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| Panoramic View from Tower |
I had mentioned in the last post about how we enjoyed the Van Fleet Trail for biking. We decided to try a different section starting at the Bay Lake Trailhead. The parking area for this trailhead is a bit more remote but has a nice paved lot and a toilet. We headed south from here. This was a pretty section as well and the trail is in excellent shape. There were a few more people out enjoying the trail as well but it was by no means crowded.
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| At Bay Lake Trailhead |
There were dozens of gopher tortoises along the trail and most of them ignored us as we rolled by. There are also 3 bridges in this section of the trail. They had “Caution Alligators” signs so we had to stop and determine if it was true. We only spotted two of them - a large one and a small one. The smaller one has lots of tan spots on its skin. I’m not sure if it was a unique coloration or if gators are like fawns and the markings will disappear as it ages. There was also a large turtle at one of the bridges. We went down to the third trailhead parking area at Green Pond Road - just over 10 miles from our starting point. In the return trip we spotted something odd. Since the trail is perfectly straight and the terrain is basically flat, it is possible to see quite a distance during our ride. I noticed something about 400 feet away running towards us in the middle of the paved trail. It had a rather odd gait to it but was moving very quickly. As it got closer, I slowed down to try to better determine what it was. Turns out it was an otter. I didn’t realize how large and how fast these creatures are. Before I could reach for my camera, it saw us and made a right hand turn into the brush. |
| Watch Out for Alligators |
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| Little Gator with Brown Highlights |
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| Big Gator |
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| Turtle Relaxing |
