New Shady Oaks Park open to KRVSA & Friends this Saturda

[Daddy Dave]

Kissimmee River Valley Sportsman's Association is happy to announce that SFWMD is opening the lock and taking down the chain at Shady Oaks Park just north of Hwy. 60 for the use of KRVSA & Friends this Saturday. February 18, 2006.

Florida's Airboaters - Ya'll come. Temperatures are forecast to be near 75 or 80. Entrance is across Hwy. 60 from the entrance to River Ranch Resort. Take paved road north to fork and then left to Shady Oaks Park.

Here's the deal the chain drops at 8 am. We'll launch and run the east side of Lake Kissimmee, taking several rest & relaxation stops along the way. We'll run up the east side of Gardner's Marsh, across the north road crossing and into Lake Cypress. We'll lunch at the new Cypress Lake Lodge and then return through the marsh to Shady Oaks for an evening meal of Uncle John's Pride sausages hosted by KRVSA.

We are asked to vacate the park by midnight. Airboat launching will be available on this site. This is a one day only event.

 

[Daddy Dave]

For those planning to attend - we are going to try to get a group picture of airboaters taking down the chain at Shady Oaks. If you can, try to be there by 8:00 am - if not, we'll see you when we see you.

KRVSA guided ride will be up the east side of Lake Kissimmee with stops along the way and a reorganization stop at 27 Palms - then a run through Gardner's Marsh going in at the Indian Mound and then along the east side crossing the road at the north crossing, then into Lake Cypress to the new Lake Cypress Lodge for lunch around noon - then back into Gardner's past the Oak Head to the Catfish Pond, Billygoat Ridge, Square Pond and then back past the Milk Bus and on to Shady Oaks for evening smoked sausages.

 

[a1mudpuppy]

Where would be the place to get gas at or should we bring a couple of 6 gal. cans? Sounds like a good day of running

 

[blackpowderscout]

There is a Shell just outside of Lake Wales on HWY 60 that sells 93. Lots of other gas stations along the way too. If you need anything higher there are a few Sunocos here and there. As far as AVGAS, Wally's in Dundee and the Citgo in Eloise are the only 2 places I know of.

Adam

 

[Fishin-Gypsy]

Currently, there is no gas at Cypress Lake Lodge - but, Randy Starcher - the owner - said he would make a fuel run with 5 gal cans if anyone was real low. i am hauling 2 5s for others - I can make the loop, I think on my main tank.

 

[SwampMatt]

Is the chain going to stay removed from Shady Oaks? Or is this just a one time permission to use that ramp?

An unscheduled "event" caused Laura and I to have to change our boating plans. We won't be able to make it on Saturday, but plan on taking the boat out on Sunday instead.

Just wondering if we can include Shady Oaks in our possibilities.

matt.

 

[cntry141iq]

So how did this work out did anyone make the trip

 

[blackpowderscout]

It was awesome!!! We ended up with 27 boats +/- and covered a bunch of ground. The weather was near perfect. We left Shady Oaks about 0930 and followed the east shore line up to just south of Overstreet Landing.

Then, after some thirst quenching , we kept going headed up toward the Burial Mound/27 Palms. A1Mudpuppy had little drama on the way with a throttle cable bolt jumping ship but another airboat had just the right size spare.

We left and went through the marsh to the north road crossing (it's had quite a bit of work done to it), jumped it and followed the ditch down to Cypress. The trail through the old fence that near the lake was pretty rough. If you had bad bottoms or took the wrong line you were stuck. But after some fun there we all made it to the water and went to the Cypress boat ramp for lunch.

The food here was good but the service was :evil: . I won't bash the restuarant here seeing how we did have 40 people or so but I won't be going back.

Nicole and I broke off from the group and here and went down reedy creek and jumped into the marsh going to Hatchineha. Cleaned up what was left of my camp and filled 3 big bags full of garbage. Took all of this to Camp Mack.

A buddy of mine called and wanted some beer so we grabbed some and took it to him in the marsh back behind the Yacht Club. From here we took the trail out to BS Hill and jumped over into the trails near dead river and went up past the Fish House and on into Lake Cypress turned north and rode up to the Toho Canal. We went behind the dike and took the some trails up to the ridge overlooking Bronson's land and sat there till just about dark. That is a beautiful piece of property...its a shame we can't go in there.

Nicole and I then left and rode the water all the back to Shady Oaks and made in time to have some great sausages cooked by Fred Kaley and listen to the moving songs sung by the Ghost Of Gardner Marsh himself, Jerry Renney.

I don't know the mileage we rode but maybe someone with a GPS can chime in but I burned a little more than 30 gallons.

The day was great!! We had more than a few SouthernAirboat members, quite a few of us are also KRVSA members. I also got see one of Waterthunder's motors...it was impressive.

Mood....I don't think the gate will be unlocked since the club had to get a special use permit from SWFMD for the day.

Adam

 

[Daddy Dave]

Hey, Gang. Ditto on much of what BlackPowderScout says.

For me, it was one of the most incredible airboat runs I have ever experienced. What a site that park will be for all of us. Acres of lake side launching, more acres of oak hammock shade and shelter, no whining neighbors - just an outstanding airboat gathering site.

We left Shady and ran up the side of Three Lakes WMA and had perfect airboat conditions - warm enough to not need a jacket, no clouds and no wind. Then to the flat just south of Overstreet Landing where 24 airboats lined up - the 24th was the Ghost of Gardner himself.

Danny Brantley demonstrated his ability to confuse Diet Coke with Midwinter AntiVenom and the fun was on. He turned the bottle up and was on his third gulp when he realized his mistake. Tears flowed, his eyes bulged, crossed and watered and his voice was squeaky for a while - but, in true airboater style - he Gotter Done.

Then, it was up the north edge of the lake where 8 endangered whooping cranes did their bump and grind in Overstreet's front yard. On to the Indian Mound where eagles circled the crowd and four more boats joined the group coming in from North Cove. On from there down the eastern trail of Gardner's Marsh to the North Road Crossing where everyone made it through with no problems - no one got stuck and only one bolt on A1's beautiful new ss metalworks needed tightening.

We then broke northeast and went down one of Brantley's "secret" trails to pop out at the Toho Ditch on Lake Cypress. Then, we simply overwhelmed the new Cypress Lake Lodge's kitchen and service staff. Randy Starcher and his wife - the owners - finally jumped in and Adam and Nicole and A1 and Me and Fishin-Gypsy finally got our burgers. Took about 1hr & 15 mins to feed the 60 or so invaders. They promise to do better the next time. The food was very good.

We then ran back through the Hole-In-The-Wall, one challenging dry ground run - and back across the North Road Crossing to Oak Hammock at the Catfish Pond. Another social hour :wink: :lol: and then through Gardner's to North Cove, then to the Pig Trail and on to the Bus. Quite a few more boats had joined our ranks by then and Junior Jurnigan cornered many of them for 15 new KRVSA memberships.

From there it was down the western edge of Lake Kissimmee and around Brahma Island to Shady. KRVSA served up free food aplenty - thanks to Crofton & Sons Meats Uncle John's Pride sausages - and stars by the millions- what a backdrop for the incredible songs of Jerry Renney, Jr.

Kinda makes you think the Great Spirit gave his blessings to KRVSA's effort and this event.

 

[woodswoman]

Well said Big Daddy! Excellent job by the KRVSA and President Danny. This ride was so much fun! Harry T- your boat is awesome-thanks for letting me hop on for awhile! Shady Oaks is just what the name implies, beautiful old oaks everywhere you look, I'd never seen it before. Must say it was just too good for words to describe to sit out there under that night sky, next to the campfire and listen to songs that provoked some heart-felt emotion, those passionate love songs of our beloved airboating heritage. Thanks Cptn. Phil for making me drive your boat.

When can we do it all again??