Reddick, FL - 73

My first reservation for 2015 was for Fort DeSoto Park in St. Petersburg.  I had several days after I left North Georgia and decided to stop in Reddick (between Gainesville and Ocala) at Ocala North RV which I have used as an overnight stop before.  This trip I wanted to visit Paynes Prairie State Preserve.

Paynes Prairie has several different trails and I hiked 2 of them.  The first trail I walked was the Cone’s Dike Trail.  It was very foggy so I wasn’t sure what I would see.   The preserve has a herd of Bison, along with birds and alligators. 

The first picture below is close to the start of the trail where there are several small ponds beside the trail. 

About 1.5 miles down the trail I thought about turning around, but decided to go just a little bit further and I am glad I did.  I saw the Bison.  They were a distance away, but since I was hiking that was fine by me.  In the second picture you can see 4 or 5 Bison.  I think there were 13 or 14 in the herd. 

After seeing the Bison I turned around and headed back.  By the time I got back to the swampy area a small gator had come out to warm up. 

And I saw this Tri-Color Heron nearby.

This is another shot of the trail. 

I went back to the visitor center to ask about the Bison.  They were excited that I had seen them as nobody had seen them that day yet.  I learned that Bison used to exist in Florida but were all killed off a long time ago.  These were reintroduced and have been doing well in this preserve.

From here, I headed to the northern part of the preserve.  I had read several good things about the LaChua Trail and wanted to hike it. 

I found the warning below interesting.  “This is NOT a zoo or theme park”!!  Of course I have seen people do crazy things around wildlife, so I guess some people need the warning. 

Part of the trail was on a board walk and the rest was just a sandy trail.  I had read that some times the Alligators are laying on the trail and you just have to wait for them to move. 

A gator not far from the trail and if you look closely across the water you can see 20 – 20 gators.  You can see that better in the 2nd picture below.

From here I headed down to Fort DeSoto, I ‘ll blog about that later.

In my last blog I mentioned that I would tell you guys some news and explain those numbers that appear in some of my blogs.  A couple of friends emailed me asking about it and I decided that I would let the world know (ok, maybe just the few folks who read this blog!)

Those who have met me know that I am very over weight.  I have lost weight and put it back on many times in my life.  Well, I have been on Weight Watchers since early April and have lost quite a bit of weight.  The number in the title is how much I have lost at the time I was at the location in the title  So for this blog, it says 73!  Yep I have lost 73 pounds!  (Actually a little more since I was in Reddick in early January).  I haven’t been doing very well for the last couple of weeks, but I will get my act together in a day or 2.  I still have a good bit to lose, but for a change I feel like I can do it this time.  I’m taking it slow and not letting the bad days (or in this case weeks) get to me!

I am still learning this new PC.  I can’t figure out why the cursor disappears or freezes or at least I can’t use it with the mouse pad.  It has done it again.  I think I must be hitting a key or sequence of keys that must freeze it.  I have learned that a reboot fixes it, but also since this is a touchscreen laptop I can do most things without moving the cursor with the mousepad.