Blountstown Greenway Trail

OK, so I have to take back everything I ever said about Mike DeWitt and my shortest weekend hiking mileage ever. This weekend I covered a grand total of about 3 trail miles, and it took me all weekend to do it!

This weekend was the official opening of the Blountstown Greenway Trail, which has been designated part of the Florida National Scenic Trail and moves 3 miles of trail off the roadway and onto the new trail. Getting the Florida trail off the roadway and into the woods is a good thing, even if on a paved trail. The new greenway section also gives easy blue blazed trail access to the Panhandle Pioneer Settlement and the Apalachicola River for those interested in the side hikes.

Even though I can only claim 3 trail miles for the weekend I did actually hike more than that, starting at the Pioneer Settlement (Sam Atkins Park) on Saturday morning, hiking the blue blaze trail to the conection with the through trail, the westward section out to FL71 and back, into and through the Blountstown Railroad Depot, and out to the point where the eastward trail connects to the new trail, and down the blue blazed spur to the river. I actually hopped on a shuttle bus for the 1.5 miles back to the Depot so I would not miss the ribbon cutting ceremony. I feel I redeemed myself for that lapse by rehiking the entire Depot to Pioneer Settlement and back,then Depot to River and back in the afternoon.

It was a beautiful day for the event. Many families were out walking and bicycling the trail, and generally enjoying the free entertainment and lunch. Everything was very organized, with water stations, music, great food, information booths, lots of brightly colored free t-shirts, balloons evrywhere, a giant pair of gold scissors for the ribbon cutting, and plenty of tp in the porta-potties! It sure looked like everyone was having lots of fun.

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A Pile of Sun Bleached Bones

That's how I thought I was going to end up on this hike. It's another solo backpack trip because everyone else seems to think it's too hot for backpacking already! They may be right!

The trip started with a roadwalk along US98. It was too long, and a little under pressure to get back into the woods before nightfall, but I fnally stumbled into Hickory Hammock campsite just a little after dark, considering myself lucky to have actually spotted the blue blazes on the trees, when even the orange were pretty hard to see by headlamp. There were lots of armadillos out on the trail around dusk, and several scurrying around in the bushes at the campsite after I was setteld for the night. They didn't disturb me near as much as the airboats churning up the Kissimmee River until after midnight though! Even though the airboats kept me awake late, I was still up early Saturday morning. I planned quite a long day into Fort Kissimmee, so fixed a quick breakfast and coffee and got packed up and on my way.

My first stop of the morning was at the Hickory Hammock equestrian campground. You just can't beat orange blazes leading right up to a pair of composting toilets! The campground is currently closed, but the toilets were unlocked and stocked with paper and sanitizer. Between that and the picnic pavillion I just couldn't resist an early break. The next couple of hours took me over the high rise bridge and the long boardwalk. There's not much water round these parts right now, and the high grass on the boardwalks was more of an issue than high water, but it was a very pleasant morning. I saw a several turkeys, and a dog-fight between a hawk and a bluejay. The hawk had apparently snatched a baby bird from it's nest, and bluejay mother bird was defending her irrecoverable offspring. The action was too far away and too fast for photos, but was interesting to watch. I also ran across a much slower red rat snake, which did co-operate for pictures. After a stop at Bluff hammock for lunch I set back out on the trail, which winds through more sloughs and swamp. Again, all very dry right now, but a nice mix of fauna between the dry grasslands and cactus, and the lusher marsh plants, including this bromeliad which had fallen from a tree, but was faring very nicely on the ground.

Over many more dry stranded boardwalks and I finally reached my destination for the day at Ft Kissimmee campground. It started to rain right as I reached the main camping area so I took refuge under my second picnic pavillion of the day and cooked supper while I waited out the storm. After dinner I took advantage of the cold but refreshing shower, and continued on to the north camping area to pick my spot for the night. The campsites here are close to the river and there were many large noisy gators grunting down on the beaches all night. Just at dusk a small herd of deer came racing through my campgound, scattering to both sides of my tent when they rounded the bushes to find me there. I don't know who was more surprised, me or the deer!

Sunday morning I set off north past the Ft Kissimmee Cemetery. I took quite a nasty fall somewhere on the north end of Avon Park. Right into a cow pat. Fortunately a fairly dry one, but landed awkwardly on my front, with the weight of the pack pinning me down, and an arm and hiking pole stuck up underneath me. I gave my knees a few good scrapes and bruises on the way down too. After releasing the pack and struggling up from under it, I took a short break to wash up with wet wipes. While patching up the hurt parts a hawk flew down and landed in a nearby tree, voicing his displeasure at my intrusion. My inactivity at least gave me the chance to snap a couple of shots.
My other successful bird photo of the day was the only turkey of the weekend that stood still for long enough to make its photo debut. I stalked it for a few minutes, quite surprised that it didn't fly off as I got closer, snapping shots every few paces. Eventually I was close enough to see him swivel slightly on his single leg. Yes, I had been stalking a hunter's decoy turkey! After snapping this shot I hurried on, no doubt watched from somewhere by the hidden hunter whose chances of a last day of turkey hunting kill had just been negated by my tromping through his hunt area. I'm sure glad for my bright orange tshirt and bandana covered pack!

Today's lunch break was taken at the newly replaced Tick Island Slough bridge. It is the same design but shorter than the one I recently helped build at Monkey Creek. It was nice to see a completed version. After lunch I approached the Kicco area, with it's beautiful old oaks trees. I scared up an owl in one of the trees, and he flew up into a tree ahead of me. It was kind of a long shot through the trees to get a picture of him, but he turned to face me right as I clicked off a shot.

After Kicco is a long, hot, walk along a dirt road through cow pastures. It was a very breezy afternoon, for which I was greateful as there was absolutely no shade for 4+ miles in the hot mid-afternoon sun. In the first mile a passing truck stopped to offer me a ride, but I explained that the purpose of the trail was to hike, and he continued on. Two miles later, having seen nothing else but cows, sunbleach cow bones, hot dry road and no shade I may have reconsidered, given the opportunity, but none presented itself. I was oh so grateful to see the first shady oak grove at the north end of the pasture though. A half hour break here managed to sustain and re-energize me for the remainder of the hike into River Ranch.

Being a Sunday night there was little activity at the Ranch. There was one other occupant at the campground, a large popup camper with a 3 generation family out for a long weekend. As I set up the tent and prepared to wash out some socks (and the cowpat encounter t-shirt) they came over to my site and offered to share their evening meal. Great trail angels. After my shower (I think I used up the full $11 for my tent site in hot water in that shower) they re-appeared with foil packets of real food cooked over their fire, chicken, fresh veggies, apple salad, and cookies. It was a wonderful change from everything dried and prepackaged I had eaten the past couple of days.

Sunday night was the quietest of the trip. The strong breeze from the afternoon died down completely immediately after I had just washed out everything I was carrying and was hoping to air dry! So Monday started out with wet clothes and a bag of wet laundry to be carried. It was also to be a long road walk for the majority of the day. Walking along any road is never much fun, but walking along one as busy as SR60, with not a single spot of shade or place to get off the road in 5 miles or so was gruelling. Fortunately for me, the breeze from yesterday reappeared early. It was cloudier than yesterday, but during a break under the SR60 bridge over the Kissimmee river I managed to hang up my wet laundry and tent to dry out, lightening my load somewhat. The breeze and clouds also made the road walk a little more bearable for the first couple hours, but my luck gave out and the sun came out strong again shortly before I reached the turn north into Prairie Lakes and another two mile road walk along another dirt road.

After lunch was more hot sun and dry, treeless trail. The one shade tree I found in several miles was shared with a wary turtle, who just chose to stand stock still while I took a break and some photos. The absolute highlight of the day, and possibly of this whole trip, was the sight of Godwin Hammock. After a whole day in the sun, this Oak hammock in the middle of the seemingly endless wiregrass and palmetto scrub fields is an oasis. The entrance to the Garden of Eden could not have been more enticing or welcome than the two massive trees, one complete with a hunter's tree stand (empty) guarding the trail's entrance to Godwin Hammock. I was so grateful for the shade I collapsed on the spot. Absolute paradise: lush, green and tropical. I swear I saw parrots! What I neglected to do, in my semi-delirious state, was take any photos of the entrance to this Oasis. After my break, enticed deeper into the lush greenery, I realized only miles later that I had forgotten to go back out in the hot sun to capture this idyllic spot.

There is supposed to be a campsite somewhere in Godwin Hammock, but I confess I never found it, despite looking. I had lingered long enough in this beautiful mile or so of meandering hardwood hammock that by the time I reached its end, and the emerged back out into the grasslands it was late enough to warrant stopping, campsite or not. I pulled out my GPS, took a reading and consulted my maps, and was apparently right on top of the campsite. I dropped my pack and wandered back for a few minutes, but still did not encounter the campsite. Returning to the pack, I pitched my tent right on the boundary of hammock and prairie for the night.

I fell asleep quite early in the quiet campsite, only to be woken at around 10:30 by what sounded like a dog size animal walking around the back of my tent, sniffing and scratching around. I assumed it was probably a fox. My stirring inside the tent sent it running off. A few minutes later a single coyote howled not to far off, followed by a cacophany of howls from all around. The serenade lasted well into the night, and was a little scary for a while when it was close by, but drifted away as the night went on. Each time I woke in the night I heard the coyotes calling across the prairie.


The final day of this trip is through the main area of the Prairie Lakes/Three Lakes management area. The trail blazes were a little sketchy, misleading or missing in places, and I got off the trail a couple of places, but managed to make my way back to it with the compass and dead reckoning. There were also a couple of places where the trail was rather overgrown, but in general it was a good trail. In the afternoon, after lunch at the dry pond campsite, the oak trees turned to tall pines with little shade. The strong breeze of the past several days did not materialize today, and the last hour or so of hiking was very hot. I was glad to see the trailhead parking and kiosk, and just had time for a quick shower down with my remaining water before my ride arrived.

Thanks to Mark for driving out all that way into the middle of nowhere to take me back the 80 miles back to another middle of nowhere to pick up my car.

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Grunting Gators and Breakfast to Order

This is a short entry for a rather long hike. Most of this section is road walk: hot and not much other than passing cars to take pictures of.
The weekend started out with a Friday evening car drop and a dike hike for about 6.5 miles before making camp beside the river right at dark. The evening was very pleasant so I left off the rain fly, but turned to fog overnight making everything very wet: clothes, sleeping bag, tent, everything. I also think I shared the river bank with some mating gators. I woke about 3 am to a growling outside the tent. It was very dark and foggy out, but suspecting it was a gator close by I didn't want to turn on the headlamp to know for sure, and certainly didn't want to leave the relative safety of my little no-see-um mesh security blankie. It may be small and flimsy, but might look big enough not to tackle to a gator!

So I huddled up in the dampening bag, and went back to sleep. I woke early, heard the same grunting, but further away. I figured it was safe enough to get coffee started from inside the tent while it lightened. I was up and packed up by the time it was full light. Across the river I could see several gators on the bank. I didn't venture down, but assumed I had a similar bank below me, probably with similar occupants. I had places to go anyway, so shouldered the pack and set out for the day. The plan was to get to Yates Marsh campground before it got too hot. The fog was lifting, but still quite misty on the river and across the cow fields. After a mile or so the lock stucture loomed eerily out of the fog, and the trail trined off the dike and onto road.

Did I mention everything was totally soaked? About an hour into the road hike the sun was out, it was very humid, and my clothes were even wetter. My hiking skirt, which usually dries very quickly, was sticking to me where sweat was running down my back. It was rather uncomfortable and probably looked it. On the 7 1/2 mile road walk 4 separate motorists stopped to offer me water. Fortunately I was carrying plenty, and drinking it regularly. I had already stashed myself another gallon up ahead on the trail so didn't accept, but as I explained to the potential trail angels, if I didn't drink mine I'd have to carry it, and if I accepted extra I would also have to carry empty bottles. I thank them for checking though. If the circumstances had been different I would have appreciated it.

The road walk was hot, but I got a good pace and balance between hiking and rest/rehydration/shaded breaks and it was mercifully quick. By 11am I was at my water stash, and shortly after that into the campsite. I pulled everything out of my pack and adorned the oak trees with drying articles while I ate lunch. The breeze was strong and by noon I was fed and re-energized, and everything was dry. What to do with the rest of the afternoon? The obvious answer seemed to be to hike some more. So I set off. In the breezy, shady, trees the hiking was good, and fun. Apart from the cattle sharing the trail, which generally ran off at my approach, I also saw deer, turkeys, and several armadillos. I soon reached the Yates Marsh trailhead, where not only had I stashed my second gallon of water (I was assuming I would arrive here having consumed a night's use of water), but Jack Hailman who had shuttled my car, had also left a gallon. I managed to get a gallon and a half in every available water container I was carrying. After restashing the remaining 1/2 gallon and the empty bottle for later collection, I set off on another hot 6 mile road walk.

Reaching SR98, the trees were finally aligned to provide an occasional shady spot again. At a culvert bridge I decide to take a short break off the road. However, down by the water, others were also taking a shady break. A big gator was the first I saw, and I wasn't even in a hurry to tackle him just for shade, but when his friends on the opposite bank decided to swim my way also to investigate, I figured I'd be safer up on the high speed road!

The remaining road walk was mercifully short anyway. Instead of an almost 6 mile walk along US98 Jack, the trail leader for this section, had advised me that a new trail route had recently been blazed through Chandler Slough. The new trail was delightful, winding through cypress and oak stands, it was nice and shady for the most part, but judging by the high water marks on some of the trees, may need a high water bypass route when this current drought ends.

The final hour of the day was spent with a mission. I was back parallelling US98, there was about an hour or so of daylight left, and the objective was to cross the Kissimmee River bridge before dark. There is only a fairly narrow walkable edge on the bridge, and even walking against the traffic, I knew I needed to accomplish it in daylight. I succeeded, but it was a windy crossing and quite intimidating on the metal grill center section.

Finally, on the other side of the bridge, only a mile or so away, and completing my marathon 25 mile day, in 96 degree heat, and with a fully loaded pack (though decreasingly so through the day as I consumed the heavy but necessary water) I reached the Basinger campsite, where Jack, Liz and Bob were camping as part of their weekend trail maintenance session. As I stumbled in at dusk they had food and drinks to share. A three course meal, no less! The only effort I had to make was erecting my tent and attempting to reduce the salt on my skin and my sweaty odor. I cleaned up a little, changed into a dry nighttime shirt and relaxed for an hour or so before retiring to bed.

What a great night's sleep. Exhaustion may have had something to do with that, but it was also a warm, dry breezy night, and I slept on my pad and sleeping bag and under only my silk liner. Next morning, surprisingly I was not even stiff from the hike yesterday. Even better, my trail angels provided a full cooked breakfast of pancakes, sausage, bacon, cooked to order eggs, fresh juice and coffee. Amazing. The only bad part of such a great night was that I spent yesterday carrying a sleeping bag and a whole day's worth of food that I didn't need! At least I didn't have to carry it anywhere though, as Jack and Liz had shuttled my car to here to end this weekend's hike. Thanks Jack, Liz, Bob, and all the other trail angels of this weekend.

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Cross Florida Greenway

The Cross Florida Greenway has an interesting history. There was once a plan (1820s) to prevent sailing ships from having to sail around Florida to the south, by building a cross Florida Shipway. To achieve this, the St Johns, Oklawaha, and Withlacoochee rivers would be linked with an artificial saltwater waterway. Seawater would flow from the Atlantic to the Gulf. Most of Florida would become an island. Fortunately, the potential sea ports were not deep enough to justify investment in this project and it died.

In the 1930's the plan was resurrected as the Cross Florida Barge Canal. This time, a series of locks and dams was proposed to basically achieve the same aim: create a continuous waterway across the state. This time, there was also a need to create jobs, so the plan was initially funded and work started. Money soon ran out, and the project was once again shelved until the 1960s, when once again someone imagined it would be a good idea, and work recommenced, clearing huge tracts of land of their native vegetation, flooding river valleys, and digging huge pits which would eventually be flooded to form canals. Fortunately, this time, when the money ran short and environmentalists stepped in, the decision was to permanently scrap this idea and to turn the corridor of potential and actual desecration into a conservation and recreation area. The Cross Florida Greenway is that area. It is a linear park 110 miles long. The Florida Trail runs through the Greenway for part of the western connector leading up to Ocala Natioanl Forest. The terrain in this section is varied, from cleared fields, massive diggings, and soil midden piles, overlaid on a gently rolling natural landscape.

The structure in the photo on the left is one of the bridge pilings that was built to take US441 across the canal. The canal was not completed, and neither was the bridge. US441 currently runs quite contentedly across the solid ground it was built on. Apart from this artifact, there is little evidence of the intended canal plan along this portion of the trail. Instead is a wonderful protected corridor of shaded oak trails and open areas of new young pines.

One of the unique features of the Greenway is the Land Bridge. This is a bridge over Interstate 75 that was built specifically for the greenway for the sole purpose of enabling wildlife and recreation to safely cross the highway. It has no roads leading to it, and it was not originally built as a road and converted to a trail. It was purpose built, and even includes native plantings and a window in each direction (with safety bars, of course) to allow viewing of the poor folks down below driving while us lucky hikers and bikers are enjoying a day on the trail.

A small complication this weekend is the weather. What a difference a week makes. Last week, in this area it was hot and very sweaty with nightime temps in the high 50's and daytime of high 80s. This weekend ranged from below 40 degree mornings, and hardly made it above 60 during the day, add a brisk and cold wind and it was downright chilly.

This weekend, I'm self shuttling with my bicycle, which can be challenging. First off, I don't do it with a full backpack, so it's only really feasible for dayhikes, or from somewhere where I can leave the backpack securely while I bike and hike. I try to avoid busy highways, as drivers just don't give bicycles enough room. Finally, there is something much more comforting about having the car at the end of a hike rather than seeing a bicycle and knowing I have to bike back to my start point, so I generally leave the car at my destination trailhead, bike to the starting trailhead, hike back to the car, and then return to the start for the bicycle. It seems like a lot of work to hike, but I can generally cover the miles 4 times faster on the bike, saving time on a linear hike that I would have spent backtracking to the car. So I get to hike a little further in the same amount of time, provided there are reasonable road routes between trailheads.

On the Pruitt to 49th street portion the trail skirts along the deep pits that were intended to become the canal, and up onto the banks, and what I assumed were the dirt piles that were dug from the pits. There are "hills" and switchbacks on the trail, and rocks. You don't get to see many of those for most of the Florida trail.
I passed through one area that was very recentlky burnt, with a few logs still smoldering, but for the most part the trail was fresh with spring green. This created a nice varied trail, ups and downs, lots of spring flowers, mainly shady forest, and a few beautiful areas of young oak trees, and young pines. A thoroughly enjoyable hike, though I would not have complained if it had been 10 degrees warmer!

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Store 88 from yet another angle

This is a solo weekend hike of 33 miles. Fast and hot. The trail varied from paved bike trail at Baseline road, to gravel in Marshall Swamp, then a 3 mile road walk before plunging into the Ocala National Forest. The Forest portion of the trail is brand new. It replaces what used to be listed as a long road walk. The new trail is awesome. Thank You Florida Trail Association! It has a couple of rough spots where the tread will assumably eventually even out, but it for the most part well blazed, with lots of boardwalks over swampy areas, and mainly nicely shaded.

The Marshall swamp section is beautiful, with lots of tall trees, high palmetto and spring flowers. There had been some rain the previous day and the mosquitos were out in force early in the morning. Of course, I had forgotten my bug spray! As long as I was walking the bugs basically left me alone, but as soon as I stopped to look at something, or take a picture I became a stationary buffet.

After The Marshall Swamp trailhead ends the Florida Trail section of the Cross Florida Greenway, and requires a 3 mile road walk, the highlight of which is the crossing of the Oklawaha River on the Sharps Ferry Bridge. It was hot walking so I spent a short break sitting by the bridge with my feet in the water. The bridge itself is an old metal mesh construction, so the first couple of cars that went over at high speed made me jump a little. It was interesting watching the shadows of cars on the water as they passed overhead though, but the noise was not too conducive to relaxing. Good thing I only had time for a short break. Back on the road, on the other side of the bridge I noticed the speed limit was supposedly 15MPH!

Where the trail disappeared into the Forest is less than a mile from the intersection of SR40 and CR314 at Nuby's. Having not passed anywhere to resupply with cold water and have lunch I opted to walk up to the corner Gas stations to do so. I also managed to catch a ride back to my car at Baseline road to relocate it here, giving me an easier ride or walk back to the car when I get finished for the day. Thank you Trail Angels.

So I was back on the trail at 1pm. The next couple of miles were the roughest of the new trail section, a little boggy in places, and a little slow, but nothing too bad. The trail cuts the corner between the two highways so you are rarely out of the sound of traffic. As I sighted SR40 the first time I thought the cut through was either shorter than advertised or I'd taken a U turn. There was a little blue car visible parked at the end of the trail. Thinking it was mine, but absolutely sure it couldn't be, I approached it to take a look. It wasn't. However, there was a fruit stand across the road. If I had known that, I could have saved myself the extra walk to the gas station and resupplied here. However, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to relocate the car (and enjoy it's air conditioning for my lunch!). Continuing, the trail on the north side of SR40 was a dream: Wide tread, well maintained, a good mixture of sand roads, trees, scrub and brand new boardwalks. After about an hour I came across a couple of puddles that required skirting, then a swampy area about mid calf deep through cypress knees. I was almost done for the day anyway, so just slogged through without worrying about getting my feet wet. It only lasted about 1/10th of a mile, then I was back on dry ground, and very soon reached the trail crossing at 145th Ave, where I had already decided I would stop for the day, having completed 16 miles.

At least, I was hoping I would not have to walk any further today. My options were either to somehow get a ride back to my car, or double back the way I had come, an additional 8 miles back to the car. As I took a break and considered my options, I noticed a sign on the trailhead stating that the trail was closed! "Hike at your own risk". I thought this was a little extreme as it had mostly been some of the best and fastest hiking of my day. However, it has been very dry here, with the exception of the little rain last night. In wetter conditions I assume the swampy area may be harder to deal with. I've since learned that a bridge is planned for this area, but has not been engineered yet.

My decision was that I would not rehike the trail, but instead take the road walk back to SR40, then to CR314 and my car. I had no signal on my cell phone, but by staying on the road hoped to spot a pay phone or impose on someone at a house on the road to call a taxi for me. As I hiked, several fire trucks came roaring past with sirens blaring. With the forest this dry I was sincerely hoping that there was not a big fire nearby. About half a mile down the road was a small country store. I went in to grab a cold soda, and got talking to another trail angel who offered me a ride back to my car, as long as I didn't mind dogs, and his dog Buddy didn't mind me. Buddy had a good sniff (I was pretty sweaty) but didn't seem concerned! Thanks George for the ride back to the car.

During a hot night sleeping in the car I tried to decide how far I'd hike the next day. My options were a little more limited for the next stretch, as I'm headed deeper into the woods and would not likley have any opportuniies for rides back to the car. My choices seemed to be a shorter hike to an intemediate trailhead, with the hope (but not much) of finding someone there willing to give me a ride, a hike to the same trailhead and double back to the car, or to push all the way to Store 88 where I knew would be several people who would drive me back to the car. Looking at the mileage I realized that it was about 17 1/2 miles, almost exactly the same as I had force marched friends Dick and Olga last year on April 1st on a short day hike gone wrong! So I decided to hike the whole thing in their honor.

The plan was for an early hot oatmeal and strong coffee breakfast. I was up before light and out of the car to start up the stove. However, the local contigent of B52 mosquitos was out doing a pre-dawn re-enactment of the "Battle of the Flesh Eaters!", and I appeared to be the primary target. I quickly abandonned the fire idea, grabbed the stove and took refuge once again in the car, with two bottles of green tea, a breakfast bar, some apple slices and almonds. It would have to suffice.
I was on the trail at 7:20, just light enough to see the blazes, and with 3 quarts of water. The trail continued in pretty good shape, but a little overgrown with ferns in places, so not quite as smooth as yesterday. Actually, that may just have been me that wasn't so smooth and fast! There are several new boardwalks, lots of blazing (too much?) in some places, some highly ambiguous blazing in a couple of parts, and some missing blazes in one recently burned patch. I lost the trail for a while in this area, partly due to the burned trees, but also the sun was up and very low on the horizon, making it rather difficult to ditinguish color on the trees. I finally spotted a blaze and bushwacked a little through some burned palmettos to get back on the trail. I was soot streaked for the remainder of the day from that little jaunt!

I saw the bony remanants of some creatures dinner. I'm not good at bone identification, it could have been a deer, or a dog, but it was dead, so I moved on. Shortly after that I heard the sound of a shotgun fairly close by. That's not my favorite happy sound while hiking! It prompted addition of my blaze orange bandanna wrapped around my hat desert style for a couple of miles. But soon I was north of CR314. Past the halfway mark for the day, away from the sounds of traffic, and beyond the point of no return. I didn't expect to see anyone, person or car for the remainder of the hike. The trail is beautiful though: nicely shaded, mostly wide, clear, and fast paced, a few small ups and downs, and lots of beautiful trees. One of the amazing things about hiking deep in the trees, is the breeze in the trees, and the sound of the trees talking to each other with rustles, creaks and cracks. Shortly after my lunch break I startled a whole herd of deer who had been grazing before my intrusion. No sooner than they had moved out of range I heard another sound in the woods; a sound I remember well from last year's Ocala hike. Not the bounding of deer, but the stomping crash of bear. Not near as close an encouter this time, but off through the trees, and with a small cub following along behind. They were well out of range before I even had a chance to get the camera unhooked for a shot.

The absolute bonus of the day though, was the sight of a tree falling. I don't recall ever seeing a tree fall in the woods before. It was awesome. First was a long creaking groan, followed by two very sharp cracks that echoed though the forest, a melange of cracks and an extended whoosh and whoomp. Then a moments silence, as the surrounding trees shuddered, attempting to fill the gap in the sky where one of ther own had sacrificed itself to the wind. I sat a while to let the forest settle. The tree fell to the side of, not actually on the trail, but close enough that I had a good view of it, and I wanted to make sure that no others were ready to immediately follow its example.

Very shortly after that I came upon the Junction of the East and West connector trails. It may just be me, but this sign just doesn't seem to have the presence that I would expect of such a momentous place. Here is where a hiker makes the decision that affects the next 300 - 400 miles of hiking. Go East, through wilderness, springs, very little access to services for 100 miles or so, then ultimately through through the outskirts of Orlando, or go West, shorter remaining forest, across the Cross Florida Greenway, and almost continuous access to services and resupply for the most part, but a 60+mile road walk. It seems like a big decision. Hopefully, most who make it have already determined their path before approaching the very understated sign!

The very best thing about the sign is that it is less than 1 mile of hiking from the 88 Store. I had not had to ration water or go thirsty, but it had been very hot, and I had consumed all but a couple of ounces of my now warm water. A cold beverage was defintely welcome. I stumbled up onto the deck, enjoyed a cold one while the breeze cooled and dried me off. Barmaid Julie provided the final trail angeling of the trip by volunteering husband Gary to drive me back to my car.

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