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Saturday, December 8, 2001 - Osceola National Forest
48 miles. Suwannee River, FL to Ocean Pond Campground Osceola National
Forest, Olustee, FL
Last night the long awaited cold front from the
northwest made its bid to push into this part of Florida. It was a feeble
attempt. It rained a tiny amount and never really did cool off. This morning was
mild and humid with a high of about 80*. Now the front is purported to come thru
on Monday. We shall see.
It was foggy again as we started the ride. Apparently
fog is a common occurrence here at this time of year. This fog cleared off more
quickly than others and after an hour it was just overcast and warm with a south
wind. While riding thru Wellborn I put my dog behavioral changing theory to the
test. We went into the town park down a dead end road. On the way in a dog came
out barking and into range of my trusty water bottle. Dogseye! er I mean
bullseye. On the way out the dog barked but did not enter the roadway. Pavlov
has nothing on us.
Just south of Wellborn we got on U.S. 90 which we will
follow all the way into Jacksonville tomorrow. Ten miles brought us to Lake City
(pop. 10,005) and several miles of All American strip riding. Then we went west
about 10 miles into the Osceola National Forest where we are camping. Osceola
was a Seminole chief who led his people for years against encroaching settlement
of his tribe's territory. He was eventually captured and imprisoned but won
respect as a foe to be reckoned with.
It was here at Olustee that the confederates fought a
Union force on February 20, 1864 in the largest battle of the Civil War in
Florida. Each side was about 5000 men and after a sanguinary conflict the Union
force withdrew back to Jacksonville having suffered 2000 casualties to the
Confederate's 1000. As a percentage of forces engaged it was the bloodiest
battle of the war.
We are camped on the shore of Ocean Pond, a shallow
lake a mile or so across surrounded by a forest of pine. The campsites were all
full so we camped by the pond but after a while the campground host came up and
made us move. They are upgrading the other loop of the campground and it is
closed. Therefore they are allowing free camping on the second loop which has
opened things up to the riffraff. He did allow us to camp in the closed loop for
the night which turned out to be a blessing since the partiers were just starting
to descend.
As we moved our tent we heard three generators going
accompanied by radios. After dark from our more distant campsite we could hear
boisterous voices and faint revelry which must have been accompanied by underage
drinking. It is interesting what is and is not tolerated. We had sympathy for
those responsible campers on that loop that had offered to let us camp in their
sites as we were forced to move, and were now forced to endure this obnoxious
indignity.
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