Chiefland, FL to Tennille, FL

43.4 mi / 13.4 mph / 48 ft. climbing
Home: Coastal River RV Resort

We’d come 5 miles off course partly because Manatee Springs State Park is where there was a campground, but also because the State Park surrounds Manatee Spring, a “first magnitude” Florida spring (meaning it gushes 100 million gallons of water per day!), where manatees take refuge from the cold just like they do at Crystal River. The ranger at the campground check-in yesterday said there was just one manatee in the spring the day before, so my hope of pairing our below-water manatee encounters from Crystal River with above-water observations here seemed unlikely, but we went to explore the area on our way out of the park anyway.

A white egret and a black cormorant share a log above Manatee Spring.

And I’m so glad we made this detour, because even though we didn’t see a manatee (though Rett is sure that she heard one breathe), walking the boardwalk to the Suwanee River was a satisfying and invigorating experience that equaled our manatee swim. In the fog-shrouded early morning hours, we were lucky to be the only people down on the water, and even though we’ve been through a whole lot of Florida nature, that solitude helped it to feel like the most “wild” place we had encountered in a long time.

Mist rising off the 72-degree water flowing out of Manatee Spring.
The spring runs perpendicular to the Suwanee River, and the boardwalk runs for 800 feet along the spring to its junction with the river, opening an area to observation that would otherwise be completely impossible without a watercraft. The “cypress knees” here (grown to let the roots “breathe” above water) were insanely tall, apparently because the Suwanee River depth varies considerably over time (it’s low now).

Even without any manatees, there was an incredible density of wildlife going about their morning business. Large fish were actively breaking the surface of the Suwanee River, and we spotted a turtle too. Cormorants skimmed the water, and a terrifying number of vultures weighed down the trees. Joining that community of animals really gave me a peaceful “communing with nature” feeling.

Difficult to see in the photo, but this is one of the fish (again, of which there were dozens) that were disturbing the syrupy surface of the Suwanee (I believe it’s some variety of gar).
Cormorants are apparently able to distinguish the air from the water, even if it’s not obvious to us.
The towering posts of the floating dock indicate how much higher the Suwanee River can rise!
Dozens of turkey vultures are roosting on this one tree-island. An equal or greater number were covering the nearby trees.
Turkey vultures as tree ornaments.
Spiders are also an important part of the ecosystem.
In addition to the turtle in the river, we saw this tiny little guy up near the mouth of the spring.
The Suwanee River is nearly black with tannins, but it’s the opposite here just 100 feet up the channel where Manatee Spring gushes out from the ground.
The glowing blue-green water of a Florida Spring.
The cypress forest edging the spring is what would have kept this amazing part of Florida hidden from us if not for the boardwalk.

Finally ready to start riding, we backtracked for a few miles and then cut off onto a grid of rural-residential roads (including some unpaved), where we had to fend off one of the most-aggressive dog chases we had in a while, and soon after, find a dog-free corner where we could change out Rett’s rear inner tube, punctured by a bit of curled up tire wire. Eventually we reconnected with the Nature Coast State Trail, a couple miles up from where we’d left it yesterday. For the first 7 miles, I don’t think we saw a single other person on the trail, except for workers driving their pickups down the trail, presumably excited finally see a couple people for whom they were maintaining this trail!

Riding the empty Nature Coast State Trail.
An old rail bridge crosses the Suwanee River, about 8 miles upstream from where we left it this morning.
River boating.
We stopped on the bridge for a while to have a nice chat with Dave (of course Rett was more interested in his dog Barkley), whose son had ridden from Florida to Wyoming (and never come back!)

We got hungry and woozy before we could make it to the grocery store in Cross City, so we stopped at a “DG Market” instead (a new-to-us more grocery-store-like version of Dollar General, which is frequently our only choice in this low-populated region). It had gotten warm enough that we needed to set up for lunch not just on the shaded side of the building, but past the end of it so the breeze could still reach us.

Some long horns on this longhorn.
Some big branches on this big tree.

After 18 miles of the Natural Coast State Trail, we returned to US-98 for our final 16. It was the same four-lane divided-highway situation as yesterday, though slightly improved because the shoulder was smooth and clean, unlike the pebble-strewn surface yesterday.

Cruising again on US-98.

The Coastal River RV Resort is the only thing at the crossroads of Tennille besides the Sunoco gas station (which is conveniently-close!) It’s a bit rough at first glance, but it’s a rare “RV park” that allows tent camping. Bill the host popped out of his RV with a friendly greeting when we rolled in, and even though I’d booked a specific site online, he said to just set up anywhere we liked in the large tenting area. And that was the extent of the check-in process!

There were no picnic tables (and little else) at the sites, but that was no problem because there was a nearby communal space under a pavilion. It flashed us back to New Zealand holiday parks, where we would frequently have the communal spaces to ourselves, spend all our time there, and only return to our tent when ready for sleep. So combined with the clean bathrooms (also unused by anyone else), it actually ended up being a more-amenity-filled and luxurious stay than many campsites, despite its appearance. We even just kept the bikes under the pavilion overnight, since it was obvious no one else would be using the space, and maybe it would keep them from being soaked with condensation for once!

The view back to our tent from the pavilion. Far behind the tent is the guy with the Confederate flag in is RV window, chainsawing and burning who-knows-what in his fire.
Sunset in Tennille.

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