Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Preserve

We left Lake Manatee and took the Sunshine Skyway across Tampa Bay.  The gulf coast truly is spectacular. 

We made a mail stop in Tampa then traveled north to Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Preserve.  We had scoped out a primitive campsite for $10 a night complete with running water and showers through SWFWMD at Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park within the preserve.  Camping required a permit that was only available to pick up in person at the kiosk in the park between 9am and 5pm.  It was about 3:15 pm when we left Tampa, we weren't sure if we would make it, considering the traffic on a Friday afternoon coupled with the timid speed our van travels at, but an hour and fifteen minutes later we pulled into the park.


We located the kiosk and managed to snag the last available campsite.  We pulled into our site and took a quick tour through the campground and immediately decided to extend our stay an additional two nights.  After speaking with Mary Ann at the kiosk again, for us to stay three nights would require that we switch campsites daily.  Reservations can be made in person only at the kiosk, but through previous reservations by other campers only alternating campsites would be available each day for us.  This was fine with us, considering all we were getting for $10 a night.  We also found out that Pasco County residents can camp for only $7.50 a night!

The Starkey Wilderness Preserve is one of the largest undeveloped tracts in Pasco County.  The preserve consists of three tracts; Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park, Serenova Tract, and the Anclote River Ranch Tract.  The park is named after Jay B. Starkey, Sr., who purchased the land in 1937 and then developed a cattle ranch and timber operation before donating the land for public use in 1975.

Here is our campsite the first night; we were in campsite #2.

We built a fire that night and while we were sitting around enjoying the evening we had a visit from a very hungry armadillo!  It's a little hard to see and he was moving quickly, but we managed to catch a few short videos of it rooting around for beetles and bugs.

We visited Clearwater Beach on Saturday.  Below are some pictures taken from the Causeway leading to Clearwater.

Our first stop in Clearwater was at the public beach and it was so overrun with people we decided to visit the residential districts to see if we could find something a little quieter.  Fortunately, we were on our motorbike and were able to quickly find discreet parking near a residential beach access.

After we left the beach we stopped by George's Aunt Shari's old house in Palm Harbor.  George still remembers the address even though he was last there when he was about 8, and Aunt Shari hasn't lived there in over 25 years!  Sadly, the house recently went into foreclosure and is vacant.  Investment property anyone?

This was our camp the second day, we were in campsite #15.  At the campsite beside ours (#16) there was a resident Gopher Turtle.  We named him Howard.

We moved from site #15 to site #16 on our last day.  Here is our camp at site #16.

Cabins are available to rent for $20 to $25 a night in a separate area across from our campground.  I took a walk around the cabin grounds to check them out.  The cabins are very nice and well kept.  There are larger ones that can accommodate up to 8 people and smaller ones that can accommodate up to 4 people.

We spent Sunday exploring the park's hiking trails and the Mc Neil Homestead.  The Mc Neil Homestead was purchased by James Mc Neil, a Civil War veteran (Confederate, Florida Infantry), in 1882. However, there are Mc Neil family members buried on the property before 1880, thus it is believed that the Mc Neil family lived there for some time prior to purchasing the land. Mc Neil used the land for farming, and possibly turpentine production.  The land was later surveyed in 1847 by Deputy Surveyor George Watson for the newly-formed state of Florida, and later became known as the Mc Neil Homestead. A board was formed to encourage settlement in the area and decrease the threat of Indian attacks while also improving roads.

A Pasco County Historic Landmark, its preservation was accomplished by the BSA Explorer Post 604 and members of the BSA of West Central Florida Council and various civic organizations in the area. The property passed through several owners including J.B. Starkey and is currently owned by SWFWMD.

After checking out the Mc Neil Homestead sites we continued on the trail where we came across some wetlands. 2,300 acres of wetland communities in the Serenova Tract combine with the wetlands in the Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park to form a connected 6,000-acre wetland ecosystem spread throughout approximately 18,000 acres of conservation lands.

We had a great 3 mile hike and along the way decided we should stay an additional night at Jay B. Starkey park.  The weather was supposed to be spectacular until Tuesday so we decided we would try to squeeze in another gorgeous beach day.

While we were preparing our fire for the evening, Howard came out of his burrow for dinner.

The layer of ice in our freezer was starting to look like holiday icicles.  We had been actively working to consume all perishables so we could let it defrost it, before filling it back up with groceries.  On Monday we finally got through the last of what was in the fridge.  George had been craving Chinese Buffet for a while and he found one for $5.49.  While our fridge and freezer thawed we went to Sunshine Buffet.




These were our fortunes followed by our "learn Chinese" words.  George got Pomelo and neither of us was sure what it was, so we had to look it up.  It became learn English and Chinese!

After the buffet we visited Fred Howard Park in Tarpon Springs.  Fred Howard Park protects many important and disappearing Florida habitats such as sea grass beds, wetlands, mangrove estuaries, salterns, coastal scrub, long leaf and slash pine flatwoods and turkey oak-long leaf pine sandhill

Many unusual animals inhabit Fred Howard Park including some endangered and/or threatened species, such as eagles, gopher tortoises (aka Howard's buddies) and fox squirrels. The park also has many different kinds of butterflies and birds.  But we just spent the afternoon lounging on the beach and playing in the shallow, warm, clear waters of the gulf.

These next few pictures are taken while standing a good ways out into the ocean.

That evening, Saul the snake was my washroom attendant.  While he didn't hand out soap, paper towels, or a spritz of perfume, by the time I finished my shower, he was fiercely guarding the trash receptacle.