We took backroads to Crystal River, Florida. It is the last place we would stay until we arrived in Sarasota.  Crystal River became a destination when we planned our next rails-to-trails ride in Florida: the Withlacoochee Trail.

Crystal River was the largest town in the area so there would be restaurants and a decent place to stay. Additionally,  we wanted to see the Manatees that live in the surrounding waters year round.

The headwaters of the Crystal River, King’s Bay is critical for the protection of the West Indian Manatee. The springs in the bay are a constant 72 degrees. The warm water provides a refuge for the manatees that congregate there in the winter months. I have a soft spot in my heart for those adorable creatures.

We stayed at the Crystal River Plantation Inn. The hotel is a stately place and sits on 232 acres of preserve land that houses hundreds of birds and wildlife. It is located on a point that is next to the natural springs of Kings Bay.

The hotel has a restaurant, bar, tiki bar, and pool with just beautiful views. We really enjoyed our stay there. There was also kayak and pontoon boat rentals as well as a bar and tiki hut.

While they can arrange for local tours with the Manatees, all we really had to do was look outside our door and we saw a momma and baby Manatee. It was the first thing we saw when we arrived and it was just so cool. Have to say, there aren’t any really good restaurants there and we tried hard to find them. We ended up staying in Chrystal River for 5 days because we didn’t have our rental until April 1st.

I have to say Mac didn’t like staying there very much. It was noisy and he notices any noise. He is a bit of a snob when it comes to places to stay. He likes his comfort but needs quiet or he barks or just shakes because he is afraid. He doesn’t really like being in the car very much either. The only time he is comfortable is when he is riding in his trailer that doubles as a crate.

We ate dinner a couple of times at the hotel. Overall, the food is good. It isn’t great but certainly acceptable. The bar is fun and usually gets pretty busy since it is the nicest place around.

The Withlacoochee Trail is a 46- mile trail that runs through 3 counties and runs next to the Withlacoochee River. Who ever heard of that let alone try to pronounce it.

We started our ride on the Withlacoochee Trail in the middle. That is Inverness. Inverness is a cute little town with a nice downtown area. We had breakfast at the Deco Café. It is a lovely little place with good food and wonderful people making each item as it is ordered. It was really a place that everyone knew everyone else.

We liked it so much, we went there a couple of times. It is a very local spot but well worth the time to enjoy it. If it were closer to the hotel, we would have come back for dinner.

The Withlacoochee Trail runs right down the street from the downtown. It was a great trail for a few reasons. It is really beautiful and it was the first time we ever saw so many trikes in one place with the possible exception of a trike ride.

Riding south from Inverness, the trail goes by some beautiful lakes and is shaded under some beautiful old trees. The Withlacoochee has some unusual sites along the trail.

Louis Nipper built 266 bluebird boxes and placed them along the 46-mile span of the Withlacoochee State Trail, helping to fill Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties with thousands of bluebirds that were once considered an endangered species in this area. It is so much fun to see the birdhouses and wonder how he had the time to just put them on the trail.

About 8ish miles in, we came upon Floral City and the Hampton Edge Bike Shop. We wanted to stop there because they are a well-known trike shop.

We met Regis and Cindy who own the shop.
While there, I found the ultimate trike accessory-the Smokey Mountain Saddlebag that fits on the seat an you can carry your phone or, in my case, my iPod and speaker, or a wallet or anything small that you want on both sides of your seat. I had been looking for something that would allow me to carry my phone close but not on the front of the trike. This is simply perfect.

It started to rain, very heavily. Rain, what is that stuff. We haven’t seen this much rain in 14 years. We were pretty drenched so we cut the ride short and went back to the car. Mac didn’t mind it at all.

The second time we rode the trail, we went from Inverness north to the end. The trail runs next to Old Florida City Road. There are a number of street crossings, some of them are pretty busy. We did see some places that had a sense of humor like the garage that thought it needed a shark to advertise.

Or the bottle tree company. Anyone want a bottle tree for their home? It could be the latest “needed accessory”.

The northern route took us past houses and farms and basically just ends. It is begging for additional miles to connect with.C

We had dinner at the Vintage on 5th restaurant. It is supposed to be the best restaurant in Crystal River.

It probably is considering what restaurants are in the town. It was very nice and is very busy. It is a renovated old house and is very welcoming. The service was good  although our waiter was a bit of a talker and not a great waiter. The food was okay,  but we think the chef was just trying too hard to put too many flavors in his plates. I just don’t think it was as good as we thought it might be. While we had a good time, we wouldn’t go out of our way for it on another visit. The problem is there aren’t many good restaurants around.

One of the days, we rode our bikes out of hotel. We found trails around Chrystal River. There is a bike trail through as well as across the town. It is quite nice. It goes past the old railroad station where there is a train station and train on a track.

While we were riding, some man, in an old beat up truck stopped us to ask about our trikes. I was a bit frightened at first because I didn’t know what he wanted and he just stopped in the middle of the road and walked over to us.

Even we have to say, we are a funny sight since Mac is in his trailer and hooked onto the back of Mike’s bike. We do look like a bit of a spectacle. Mac loves his rides. It does attract a lot of people and conversation. It is funny because he loves being in the trailer but not the car.

We rode over to the commercial area of Crystal River where we saw fishing nets and commercial boats.

We rode over to see the fishing boats. We didn’t see too many commercial fishing in Newport Beach. They were mainly large yachts or sailboats. Certainly, not working boats like the one below.

We stopped at the dock and took a look around. Mac was very interested in all of the adventures.

One of the evenings, we went to dinner at McCloud’s Bistro in Inverness. It is in an old home and is very welcoming just like Vintage on 5th only more old fashioned.

It is a very nice restaurant and the food was fine but it isn’t our kind of place. The wine list was pretty limited. It seemed like it was stuck in a time warp from the 50’s or 60’s. They had Clams Casino, Escargot, Shrimp Cocktail, etc. I felt like we just didn’t belong there. We are too young for this particular restaurant.

One of the days we were in Chrystal River, we rented a small boat to go out onto the water and look at houses and see if we could find the Manatees in Kings Bay.

Kings Bay is part of the headwaters of the Crystal River. It is critical for the protection of the West Indian Manatee because the warm springs are a constant 72 degree Fahrenheit. It provides a warm water refuge for the manatees that congregate there in the winter months.

There are about 30 known springs in all of Kings Bay. The primary springs within the wildlife refuge are Idiots Delight, Three Sisters, and the King Springs group, which includes Tarpon Hole, Mullet’s Gullet, and Little Hidden springs. Three Sisters springs is the only one accessible by land and we saw it from our bikes and from the river, but it was roped off.

Kings Bay has a number of islands with remarkably pretty scenery and interesting birds.

We think the manatees were hiding from all of the crowds that jammed up the various spring area where they might want to go. We did see one or two and they were in the protected area that people in the water couldn’t reach. It was just mobbed.

One of the tour boats yelled at us because we were trying to stop nearby. Personally, I don’t think the Manatees would like this very much. I certainly would not want to get into that mass of people looking for them.

Afterward, we stopped for a drink at the tiki bar where we rented the boat which was the Port Hotel and Marina (Ale House). The Port Hotel is seriously in need of refurbishing. I was so glad we weren’t staying there. It would have depressed me to no end and we wouldn’t have stayed.

The Tiki bar there was fun although they were really understaffed and we waited a half hour for nachos.  The drinks took forever too. It wasn’t that crowded either. The view, however, was gorgeous.

For our last evening in Crystal River, someone told us to try Perks Old Port Cove. They didn’t tell us we were close to the end of the road. Off we went to find this restaurant. It took forever. but the views from the road were beautiful. We found the restaurant and the end of the road. Mike had their specialty; crabs, just like they serve in Baltimore with lots of Old Bay Seasoning.

We saw some older ladies that just “ripped” their way through the crabs and finished their platter while Mike was just revving up to eat the first one.

After dinner, we went to see the end of the road and here it is.

It was a slow trip back to the hotel.  It was finally our last night.  By this time, we were more than ready to move forward to our final destination, Sarasota. We are almost there.