Friday, February 13, 2015

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. 

Reddick_paynes_prairie_Cones_dike_trail1

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. 

Reddick_paynes_prairie_cdt_bison2

Reddick_paynes_prairie_cdt_bison1

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.  Reddick_paynes_prairie_cdt_lil_gator

And I saw this Tri-Color Heron nearby. Reddick_paynes_prairie_cdt_tri_color-heron

This is another shot of the trail.  Reddick_paynes_prairie_cdt_trail2

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.  Reddick_paynes_prairie_LaChua_trail_sign

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.  Reddick_paynes_prairie_lc_trail2

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.Reddick_paynes_prairie_lct_gators

Reddick_paynes_prairie_lct_gators2

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.   

2 comments:

  1. Congrats on the weight loss.Jim can relate to your constant struggle.
    Our new Windows 8 Dell does the same thing. Very frustrating. Jim called tech support and they downloaded a program to fix It yesterday. So far so good.

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  2. Paynes Prairie is a pretty neat place. Wondering why you didn't camp there?

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