The 2020 Annual Citrus Meet!

Hello again TW,
I Google Imaged "Citrus Campground" and the camp sites look much better than I assumed. I don't know if they were the primitive sites or not but they look good & spacious. Also, I saw a pic of a cave. HELL YEAH! Do any of the trails that we will be driving through go near the cave? Is there only one cave?

 

There's at least 3 caves out there, but one of them is on the south side of Stage Coach rd and it's not legally accessible to vehicles.

Be advised, there are three campgrounds in Citrus WMA. We're staying at Holder Mine which is a little smaller in terms of RV sites than Tillis Hill (where we stayed the last couple of years), but has a crap ton of primitive sites which Tillis Hill lacks and also allows dogs which Tillis Hill doesn't. The third campground, Mutual Mine, I'm not sure about. The one time we were set to investigate it, it was closed so we weren't able to see what facilities it had.

 

OK @Taco No Baka. Sounds good!

 

Oh, and the two caves everybody normally visits are about a quarter to a third of a mile hike off the trail. I expect a group will probably head back there to check it out at some point. I've seen'em a couple of times so I usually pass on it now.

 

OK. Sure. Been there, done that HAHAHA!

 

I have one boy 5 years old, how many do you have?

I would love to go together but no way am I doing a 3 am wake up call, I will leave right after work and hopefully arrive at the campground by 10pm or 11pm.

 

Welcome to come by, it is a weekend event

 

2 boys. 18 & 22.

OK. So you're gonna camp both nights. Well, I'll see you there. If anything changes I'll let you know

 

Cool beans, if anything changes with me I will keep you informed too.

 

As I have previously mentioned we've only camped once before and it was primitive camping at Lazy Springs. Our tent is a standard square one that can be set up in about a minute. We have sleeping bags and air mattresses. Well, we didn't sleep very good on the air mattresses so we are going to use our sleeping bags this time.

I know that there is some sort of pad that you lay on the ground and then put the sleeping bag on top. What is the name of this pad and how thick should it be?

Also, my sleeping bags are rated at 40 degrees.

Thanks

 

Okay, serious question. Who feels like they know their way around Citrus well enough to be a trail guide?

I'm thinking with 40 or so trucks being there on Saturday, splitting into groups would be a good idea. I'm thinking a minimum of 3 groups but maybe 4 or more depending on how many guides step forward. I figure we could shoot for 8-14 trucks per group.

I figure we could break it down like so...

Group #1 (Mine): For folks that don't mind pinstriping, aren't afraid if it gets a little wet, and don't want to risk the verbotten areas. (aka: the trail exploration group)

Group #2: Wants to avoid pinstriping and/or mud but are willing to risk our beloved FWC stumbling upon them in a verbotten area. (They want to stick to the known challenges and are more focused on photo ops and playing than exploration...for example.)

Group #3: Prerunner-types with a need for speed. (Want to find the tamer, straight trails to haul ass down.)

Other groups could be duplicates of these if we have a majority of folks that want to be in a specific group, or variations of a group.

So any would-be guides want to put their hat in the ring?

 

We can print out maps for whoever leads and I can mark some good spots for photo ops on your maps. There is literally over 100 miles of legally drivable trails. I will mark a few of our mud holes (hopefully it rains before you all come) and some of the steep hill climbs. There are some pretty wide trails i.e. 10 that are graded regularly and pretty flat with no ruts. There are also some trails on the west side that have some interesting sand pits. I say pits but they are generally flat and look more like huge dirt tracks. It doesn't say you can't go in them and they are right off the trail but it also doesn't say you can just fyi. Anywho I will print you all some pretty good maps and mark them for you. We try and go out every weekend and try some new trails. Give me an idea on what you would like marked on your maps and I will include it.

 

How cold does it get up there at night? I want to make sure I am prepared for it.

 

I really don't know what to expect with the weird winter we've been having. It could be anywhere from the 80s to the 40s. Just have to wait until it gets closer and keep an eye on the weather forecast for Inverness, FL. That should give you an idea of what it will be like. Personally I'm hoping for it to be in the high 50s to low 60s during the day and maybe in the high 40s at night so the fire will feel good.

 

Were you stepping forward to lead a group?

 

There is 2 groups that I wouldn't mind running with

 

You should definitely lead a group. You should know Citrus as well or better than I do.

 

I can lead but my group will be the same as yours

 

I mean I could if nobody else will but my problem is I forget trails and just drive around at random

 

Haha, I figured it might. That works though if we have a lot of folks that want to be in that sort of group.

I was thinking Friday afternoon, some of the more adventurous of us could go hit Trail 11b on the south side and see what it's like now. It looked like it had some interesting areas when Guy, Adam, and myself went down it back in '14. It was dry though and I managed to make it through with two broken CVs and an open rear diff...going down hill. After what the rest of Citrus looked like back in October, I wanna see what it looks like now. I figure we can hit it from trail 24 and head back up from the south so the interesting spots are uphill instead. Hopefully it won't be too wet though.