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Post by swampdog on Dec 9, 2023 9:45:36 GMT -5
Richloam has been a family favorite all my life. Unfortunately the open access, “run what you brung” mentality has changed it. You aptly described it. I think they had a non-hunting shooting recently at “four corners” east of SR471. There’s game there for sure but most users aren’t hunting. They’re just hindering the hunters.
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Post by Stumpy on Dec 9, 2023 10:16:42 GMT -5
I hunted Richloam years ago. Now I just drive on by and hunt the swamp. Closed gates in the off season helps with keeping the mud slingers out.
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Post by johnnybandit on Dec 9, 2023 15:53:04 GMT -5
Richloam has been a family favorite all my life. Unfortunately the open access, “run what you brung” mentality has changed it. You aptly described it. I think they had a non-hunting shooting recently at “four corners” east of SR471. There’s game there for sure but most users aren’t hunting. They’re just hindering the hunters. I have lived 30 - 35 minutes away my entire life except the year I lived in South Florida...
I used to go out there all the time. I was on double session in high school and got out of school at noon in my Junior and Senior year.... we would go squirrel hunting out there a few times a week after school. I had private land I could hunt in both Levy and Hardee County but Richloam was close.
I also used to drive it after work during spring, summer and fall, to relax.......
But it got to where it was no fun any longer... But after two run ins with palmetto berry poachers and a run in with two guys loading a deer in the back of a truck in July, I got to where I wore a pistol in a chest holster while I rode around. Between that, the jeepers and mudslingers tearing the roads up and seeing just how bad bad they can make them, the trash thrown and dumped out there, The drunk teenagers, picking up nails in my tires from where the drunk teenagers use pallets to make bon fires (especially bad at four corners) it became not enjoyable out there..... So I stopped going.....
On a whim I went out there on a Sunday afternoon in September.... I was hoping to see and photograph some snakes..... I went in on Center Grade, Turned North on Hog Pond towards North grade..... That water crossing on hog pond that has been there all of my life and has never been a problem... You could cross it in any vehicle that had enough ground clearance to keep the water out of your air intake...
When I got to the water crossing it looked torn up.... So I kicked it into 4wd to be safe... It was bad. And I was wishing I had kicked it into 4 low and locked my differentials. But I got through it.... I had already decided I was not going through it again and would go out to 471 on North Grade..... But then when I got up close to where the actual pond is.... There was a new water crossing that had never been there... it looked sort of torn up too..... So I got out and probed around it with my Hickory walking stick to see what the bottom was like.... it was SOFT.... My walking stick is 4.5 feet long... I was pushing it into the mud a good 2 feet or more with one hand and never found a hard bottom.. I said screw that.... Backed up and found a place wide enough for me to get turned around.... I opted to go back through the water crossing that has never been back but was now bad... But I knew I had made it through..... But this time I put it in 4 low and locked my rear differential.
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Post by swampdog on Dec 9, 2023 19:07:12 GMT -5
Yep - that’s the current Richloam. Here’s what you can’t do out there…. Say hello to an FWC officer.
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