16 North to Panhandle

Monday, April 15, 2024
Cotton Landing Campground, Florida, United States
Left Tampa once the kids went to school heading for the Panhandle. We arrived at our reserved campsite on Loop Road in Tate's Hell State Forest (SF) in the late afternoon after a stop in Carrabelle to pick up some fish for dinner. Our campsite was pretty clean and it took very little time to setup our house alongside the Ochlockonee River; the tide was high and the partial eclipse was just ending. With Oysters for h'ordouvres followed by blackened TripleTail, dinner was wonderful; all followed with chocolate around our campfire. 
On Tuesday we drove to Apalachacola for a propane refill, groceries and more fish. The tide has been pretty high and the Fiddler Crabs seem to have disappeared from our boat ramp. Used the showers at the Womack Creek campground; although the well is Sulphur based, it is better than bathing in the brackish river water. So far it has been cool enough in the evenings to have a fire and there is plenty of downed trees to cut and split.
On Wednesday night we had a plethora of rain; thunderstorms dumped ten to fourteen inches (we got a good foot) across the Panhandle; the locals called this the rainstorm of the century. By morning, our camper was sitting in a puddle with water almost up to the axles. The associated pictures taken in the morning show how far over the banks the river swelled. The river stayed high until a low tide carried the excess water into the Gulf of Mexico during the following night. On Friday, our last day camping at Loop Road, we returned to Apalachacola for supplies and had a late lunch (early dinner) at Lynn's Oysters in EastPoint. 
On Saturday morning we moved to Cotton Landing on Kennedy Creek in the Apalachacola National Forest (NF). Except for three vehicles checking out this three campsite campground, we were alone for our four day stay with terrific weather and lots of space for Yukon to run. This area alongside the Creek is super quiet with lots of night stars. Keeping Yukon out of the water is our biggest task; although we haven't seen any Gators here, the locals say there are some big ones.
OOPS: A CAMPER PULLED IN AT DINNER TIME AND A GATOR SWAM BY :(. The camper family are Kiwis that live North of their capital on a twenty acre Truffle farm and are traveling for a year in North America with their two children. We shared stories around our campfire until late in the evening. 
On Tuesday we head further North; stay tuned for our last Blog on this trip as we head back to Southern Ontario.
Tidbits:
  • Storm, our truck, now has over 200,000km
  • Kiwis had a sound receiver connected to their phone that can identify bat species; really neat
SPOT:
  • Loop Road, Tate's Hell SF 2024 04 08-12: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=29.99046,-84.53607&ll=29.99046,-84.53607&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
  • Cotton Landing, Apalachacola NF 2024 04 13-15: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=30.05169,-85.07268&ll=30.05169,-85.07268&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
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