After the family wedding near Lake Louisa State Park in FL, we headed north to NH to provide support for our son's Christmas Tree Farm spring planting and his wife's (our daughter-in-law's) recovery from liver surgery. That went well and then in June we headed south to VA to support our daughter's recovery from back surgery. The back surgery was essentially a failure and other family events were announced during the recovery period; these combined resulted in us going to FL in August. However before heading to FL, we squeezed in a family get together of our children and their families at my brother-in-laws' vacation home in Ellijay, GA and a return trip to VA to support our daughter's recovery from her second back surgery since her first surgery was unsuccessful (her recovery from the second surgery is looking promising).
We wanted to do some camping for a handful of days before we hooked up with family in central FL. With the summer heat in FL, I opted for picking a location with shore power. Even better, the RV section of Salt Springs Recreation Area camping offers full hookups so that and their honoring of my Senior Pass is why we ended up there. Here is the camper parked at the campsite.
During our stay, I decided to try biking on Forest Road 29. This road ran along one boundary of the campground but due to fencing and foliage was really only accessible from the main road. Fortunately, the main road (FL Highway 19) had a reduced speed limit of 45 MPH on the section I needed to bike and I only had to ride about a quarter mile from the recreation area entrance to get to the forest road. When deciding on riding the road I hadn't noticed that it led to the now defunct Fort Gates Ferry. The signage for and on the road alerted me to this fact. The signs indicated it was seven miles from the main road to the ferry launch point. After my first bike ride on the forest road I didn't travel all the way to the launch point but turned around before almost reaching it. After that initial ride I looked online for information about the ferry. The information provided said the ferry hasn't operated for years. The ferry was mostly a small barge that was tugged across the Saint John's River by a boat. The online pictures had one small car on the barge. It looked like the barge would hold a larger vehicle but not much more than that. Regardless, the second time I rode on the forest road I reached the ferry launch point. Here are some pictures of the dock and river from that point.
In the last picture of the dock, you can see a private dock nearby. In fact there a several private residents and a Fort Gates community. An additional public forest road (75G) near the end of Forest Road 29 led to some of the community's private residences (see picture below). There was another private road between the dock and Forest Road 75G that I assume led to other residences but I didn't trespass on that road so I can't verify that assumption.
I had noticed when riding Forest Road 29 that it was the best road surface for a forest road I had experienced. So the fact that the forest road was the only way to get to the ferry and community residences helps explain why is was in such great shape. A section of forest land off Forest Road 29 and closer to the main road was denoted for firewood harvesting with a permit. I only saw pine trees in this area and no oak/hardwood trees.
We prioritized Jane's quilting during our stay at the recreation area but we felt the need to swim at the springs a couple of times given the opportunity. One day that we went was late in the afternoon and on a weekend day and understandably the area was fairly busy. A young alligator was even hanging out on a small island.
The second time we went was on a weekday and the area was a lot less busy. You see very few people in the pictures below.
In addition to the alligator, we saw fish of various sizes from minnows to large fish (I estimate 18"-24" long). These large fish hung out near the head of the springs regardless of the day and therefore the busyness of the area. I took a short video of the larger fish as seen below.
After leaving Salt Springs and heading to central FL to meet up with family there, our plans
are to meet up with family in TN, then CO, possibly WI and then back to NH for our son's Christmas Tree Farm sale.
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