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.
View more photos in my Picasa album
No comments:
Post a Comment