#344 b Ocean Pond ;Sanderson, Florida

After staying in Jacksonville for one night I did not like that park, Sam I am. We went west a little and found a place called Ocean Pond which was a national forest campground. This is the way free camp described it.

Ocean Pond Campground is located on the north side of Ocean Pond, a 1760-acre natural lake.

Sixty-seven campsites are available for tents, trailers, or motor homes.

Many of these campsites are waterfront sites allowing guests to enjoy the water or fish right from their campsite. A beach area, boat ramp, drinking water, hot showers, and flush toilets are located in the campground.

No sewer hookups are available; however, a sewage dump station is located near the campground entrance.

Electrical hookups are available at 19 of the sites.

They had a nice lake called ocean pond and I was looking at the way the wind was blowing and I wanted to do some kayak sailing. I planned it out a good bit and looked at where I would be landing drove there first and dropped the bike off.

There were some folks there and I asked them to keep an eye on it for me and they said happy to do it.

After dropping the bike off India and I drove to the furthest end of the lake to the source of the wind. At the Marina and I begin to kayak out until I caught some wind and then I would sell across the lake about maybe a mile or so. I had put in some coordinates so I'd know where to go. It might not seem that important but it can get a little confusing out there on the water and it gave me a good guide on where I was supposed to go. I didn’t see it coming because even as Osceola was windy it never looked choppy. When I was out there I hadn't thought about taking a life jacket and that was kind of stupid because I'm sure the lake was you know 20 to 100 ft deep or something and it was so choppy. I mean at some point I thought oh my god I'm going to die. I wouldn't have been nervous if I had worn a life jacket because worst-case scenario if something bad happens you capsize but you’re still safe. Without a life jacket, you feel like an idiot and so it wasn't the best feeling in the world but it was exciting I’ll give you that.

I sailed as fast as lightning because the wind was blowing hard. I made it across the other side and the bike-watching guys were there and said, Well you made it. I was like yeah I got a little squirrely out there but I'm glad I made it and they kind of gave me a quick clap. I told him I was going to leave the kayak here for a minute and hope nobody would mess with it. They said they would keep an eye on it much as they had with the bike. I hopped on the bike and rode it back to the campground and then of course took the truck back to the kayak. The trip was easy in a truck but pretty tiring on the bike but I survived the workout. It had required a little bit of planning and all but it couldn't have gone any better except for that scary whitecap’s part. It was very exciting to have accomplished it.

The other thing that we did while we were there is the next day we went on a nice hike and it was a couple of miles down into a forest called the orange trail.

It had a lot of new wooden boardwalks crossing the swamp part and we just really enjoyed it.

Address

Sanderson, Florida

GPS: 30.240568, -82.435036

Elevation: 164'

Get Directions

Management

Public - Forest Service (USDA) (Official)