Hike to Big Shoals on the Suwannee River

Jan 2, 2009, We awoke to 41 degrees and sunny skies!   The high would reach 61.

Because there was still hunting for one more day, we wanted to avoid the Big Shoals Public Lands and instead took Maggie and Rico for a walk down the Old Godwin Bridge Road aka 94 St. S. E. , a dirt road that is the only road that leads into the Big Shoals State Park.. 

By the afternoon, it had warmed to near 60 degrees with sunny skies.  Joyce wanted to clean the inside of the rig, so I took a hike down to the big shoals on the Suwannee.  It’s a bout a 30-40 minute hike one-way along the tree-laden steep banks of the river.

The trail is worn and well marked with yellow paint swatches on a few trees.  Yellow paint indicates the trail is only for hikers. Blue indicates bikes are allowed.

Near the start of the hike you come across pilings from the Godwin Bridge that hasn't been in place for decades.

Up river from the shoals, the river flows along calmly.

Leafy trail on the hike.  Hiking south along the river to the west you can see this swamp along the trail.

And finally, the shoals.  As you approach the shoals along the trail you can begin to hear the roar of the water from several hundred yards away.  

Back on Nov. 17th, the water level in the river was lower and this same spot looked liked this.

When I got back I worked on setting up an email account for this blog which will be AMERICA.BY.RV@GMAIL.COM.  This can also be accessed by clicking on “view my complete profile” where you will find an email link.  So please feel free to send us an email!

Later Joyce made dinner and baked a cake in the convection oven. Her first cake in the oven, it came out perfect.  When we ordered our fifth wheel, we ordered it without the standard propane oven and opted for the convection oven.  We did this based on information I had read on various forums that seemed to indicate that most folks were not pleased with the propane ovens.  Joyce was initially against ordering a convection oven as she didn’t have any experience with it.  However, now she’s a believer!

We were expecting a hard freeze overnight.  Ranger Gary Erixston stopped by before going off-duty.  He wanted to put sticks in the toilets of the restrooms.  He said that if the   water in the bowls freeze the ice would expand up the sticks and thus not crack the bowls.  We also put on a spot light for heat on the exposed pipes in the utility storage room.

I disconnected the water from our rig and set the outside spicket to drip.  I had water in the rig’s water tank that we would use overnight via the pump if needed.  I set a drop light in the basement of the rig and turned it on to keep the temperature up.  I must admit that our Carriage Cameo Fifth Wheel is very well insulated.  Most days and nights we are able to heat the whole rig with a large ceramic heater.  We ordered our fifth wheel with dual pane windows, and astro-foil insulation and seems to be paying off!  Before going to bed I set the furnace to come on as it would also heat the basement and tanks.