NewYearsTrip: White Springs

It's just a short trip, maybe 9 days, and we're not even leaving the lovely state of Florida. The original plan was a couple days in Collier Seminole SP with some friends, and then a few more at Flamingo in Everglades NP. Then Sharon got antsy, and found a site available at Oscar Shearer SP the day before, and then we decided to head out another day earlier than that to see White Springs and the Suwannee River.

The Suwannee is out of its banks. The Okefenokee Swamp is the headwaters of the Suwannee and St. Marys rivers, and it has gotten a lot of rain the past few months, and so the rivers are high. Normally the height in White Springs is around 55', and now it's just under 80'. We drove over on Saturday, taking US-90 for a change (instead of I-10), making the drive over a little more interesting. We got on I-10 for the drive through Osceola NF, a more scenic drive than through Lake City.

Our first stop was Falling Creek SP, for a look at the falls. The tannic water was running strong, where normally at this time of year its often just a trickle. But the height of the water wasn't dramatic or anything.

As we drove into White Springs, though, the Suwannee was another story. Our Gar Pond trail runs beside the road into town, and those woods were completely submerged under several feet of water. The river itself was close to the underside of the railroad bridge. We stopped at Suwannee Bicycle Association headquarters and caught up with Tony, SBA's president. Then we parked Ernie at the house of some other friends who are doing some beautiful work on their new (for them) house. Howard and Joy have done an amazing job, turning a run down cottage into a warm and comfortable home. Sweat equity never looked so good.

While they worked, we took out bikes out for a tour of the town and river. Our pictures from our tour are at https://photos.app.goo.gl/bYrJvvkRk9bB3i3h6. There is a good chance that the river won't recede in January (or even February), putting SBA's 50 mile off-road bike event (IDIDARIDE) in doubt. Its not called IDIDASWIM, and  bottom brackets and axle bearings don't like being underwater for long.

After our ride we drove Ernie back to headquarters, where we parked out front for the evening. We had dinner with Howard and Joy and enjoyed the comfort of HQ before they headed back to their house, and we retired to our comfy bed.

We woke and used HQ to heat up some breakfast and coffee, but not long enough to let the fog burn off. I wanted to take the slow road to our next stop, and it was going to be over 5 hours to our next stop along back roads, so we left White Springs with the lights on.