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