Monday January 1st 2024

Happy New Year

The day began foggy. The TV weather people are blaming the fog on last night’s firework. Something to do with the smoke particles caught by a temperature inversion producing the fog. For whatever reason it was a gloomy start to the day. Around 11AM it started to clear. The temperature finally peaked around seventy degrees after starting in the high forties.

I was up at my regular time this morning despite ushering in the New Year in front of my TV. Today was dedicated to getting settled in here at Hillsborough River State Park. I got my outside setup tasks complete before setting out on a hike around the campground and along the river. Checking my blog history, I was last here in January of 2021. There have been a few changes since then. The most obvious is the a many new fences. They block off river access along the banks that do not have official trails. The paths I recall were pretty well established, but you could clearly see they were produced by people bushwhacking through the area. Now these areas are blocked by fences with posted signs attributing the prohibition to environmental protection. It is more likely safety fears hiding behind the advertised reason.

This morning I followed the trails starting in the day use area about a mile up river along the river. They still haven’t fixed the bridge over the river damaged by hurricane Irma in 2017. The suspension bridge a few hundred yards up river remains the only way to the other bank. I didn’t see any wildlife on my first walk of the day. The birds, turtles and alligators must have still been sleeping off the New Year celebration, but there were plenty of people around. Later in the day, on my second walk of the day, I spotted a couple of Great Blue Herons. One of them was cooperative with respect to pictures.

The campground had a lot of turn over today. The people that have to return to work tomorrow all departed today. Most of the schools are out until next Monday, so there are still a few vacationing families here. Later in the day most of the empty sites were filled.