Osceola

Want to know what happens to thin blooded Florida hikers when the weather turns cold?

We freeze! We set out all geared up like ninjas. You'd have thought it was an arctic expedition. We both swore we were over reacting and we’d be hot shortly, but we still had most of it on at the end of each day!

We're back in the woods on twisty, turning, uneven, but very well blazed, and recently maintained trail. It's hunting season and we've spent the last few days hiking through State land and private hunting areas. We heard a couple of shots early, but not seen too many hunters, and fortunately no close encounters. We felt safe enough with our orange coverage and the lack of visible hunters. The biggest concern was when emerging from the tree line next to an automated corn feeder, or onto a road that had been seeded with corn. Usually there was a hunter’s stand in line of sight, and each time this occurred we were cautious until we could confirm the stand was empty. That really doesn’t seem like a very sporting way to catch a deer, but I guess it saves having to walk to far in pursuit of your prey.

Ironically, the place we felt safest hiking was through the Olustee State Battlefield. I was here earlier in the year for the Olustee Battle reenactment. It looks a lot different here withouit thousands of people dressed in period costume.

We've been hiking through pine trees and palmettos as far as the eye could see. It was cold, windy, damp and misty. All at once sometimes. We did have some sunny and clear, but it was still cold. The trail was good, but had a couple of areas of blowdown debris and a boardwalk that had been smashed up by falling trees. At one point we passed through a hunt camp where some oblivious hunter had literally set his camper and tent extension right over the trail. Thankfully no-one was home.

We passed a couple of trail shelters on this section, one open sided one in the Osceola Forest, and the Randy Madison shelter, a private shelter for FT members doing long hikes. It is a great little screened shelter situated by a small stream, with a wood stove, plenty of chairs including a rocking chair, covered porch, fire ring. A great little location. If we had been backpacking we would definitely been tempted to stay even so early in the day. As it was we ate lunch and moved on. As we left the property we heard an unknown and unseen female voice wishing us Merry Christmas.

This afternoon we reached the banks of the Suwannee River. I had hiked this small section earlier this year, so it was familiar territory. I was surprised to see that the river actually seemed higher than last spring, however several side streams were now dry, and there was a substantial amount of wind damage, trees down, etc that I did not recall. We ended the day at Little Shoals where the Suwannee runs over a small rapid.

We decided to treat ourselves with with somewhere that is not a tent, preferably with indoor running water in a nice warm bathroom, to stay for Christmas. We're in a cabin at the Suwannee Vally campground. My Christmas present to Ian is giving up the full size bed to him, I'm in the top bunk of a set. We've got a heater, small bathroom, fridge and microwave. I've had a hot shower, and I'm settled down with a cold beer and popcorn, warm and cosy, and with a wifi connection! How much better could Christmas Eve get?

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