We started this section at the north End of the Ocala Natioanl Forest at Rocman Campground. This is rather significant for us, because the 50 miles of Ocala up to Rodman was the first backpack that Ian and I completed together, about a year and a half ago. It seems like forever, but we remember back then saying that we both had the desire to hike the entire Florida Trail, and that we doubted we'd ever find anyone who would both have the desire and the time to do so. And now here we are, in a concerted effort to complete the remainder of the trail together before the Spring. We are far enough north now to make daily shuttling from Orlando totally impractical, so have started our first road trip. The intention is to make our way north and west from campground to campground, hopefully staying 3 – 5 days from each and dayhiking as we have been, but based from the tents. Today everything went fairly smoothly. We were both fairly organized and got going at a reasonable time, assisted by the very mild weather we have been having. It was in the mid 60s this morning, and will likely remain warm and dry until the weekend. Of course, mild nights means hot days. It was a sticky mid 80s at the warmest part of the day. Fortunately we were on shaded forest roads and in dense forest for most of the hike.
From Rodman it's a short hike up along the embankment of the canal to Buckman Lock from Rodman. The lock-keeper opened the gate for us, and we talked with him for a while. Then it was back in the woods again to Rice Creek Sanctuary where we saw a good size alligator by the creek, and a family of 5 wild hogs, including one white baby hog. That is the first time I have seen the hogs up close. They passed within 20 feet of me, and were not concerned at all by our presence.
The next morning started out with some strange fungus that looked ice rimmed. At 70 degrees, of course it wasn’t, but it served as a great reminder to us how lucky we are to be hiking in shirt sleeves in the middle of December. I scared up a flock of about 40 turkeys somewhere in the middle of Booger Woods. I’m sure they will be thinned out by the end of the hunting season if they continue to hang out in this private hunting area. Back out on roads again, but this time sandy back roads which, after a couple of hours, we had had enough of the great glute workout! The roads took us into Etonia Creek State Park. We stopped for a break at a bench overlooking the ravine the creek has carved. We have not seen anything like this so far in our FL Trail travels. The ravine is quite deep and contains many different types of trees we don’t see much in Florida, very tall skinny magnolias and tulip poplars. The entire trail through this State park was very well maintained, with great blazing, signage and bridges, and the Iron bridge shelter, neat and clean, and complete with two chairs to relax in in addition to the picnic table. It would definitely have been worth a stop for the night if the car was not just 2 miles away.
About a mile into the final hike of this section, Ian commented how some unseen dogs had picked up his scent and were really barking behind us. We both assumed it was hunters and continued hiking. A couple of miles later, we had just sat down for a break when we heard the dogs again, much louder this time, and the staccato noise of a voice over a radio. Imagine our surprise when we were surrounded a few minutes later by a team of Dept of Corrections officers and K9 tracker dogs. They were on a practice ‘escapee roundup’ and had caught our scent and tracks, and had been following us! One of the officers asked if we had just come down the trail, then asked to see our boots. Seeing the tread on Ian’s boots he exclaimed that no wonder the dogs had picked up our scent instead of their intended target, as they had spent all afternoon yesterday tracking us too! They didn’t seem too upset, or happy either, but quickly radio’d in that it was a false track. Within minutes a vehicle arrived to transport them, and they disappeared to restart back where the dogs had first picked up our trail.
It was a little bit of unanticipated excitement for us anyway. It must have been a dog day for us today. Twice more during the hike we passed homes where dogs followed us outside their yards and onto the trail. Neither was particularly bothersome except for the worry that we were leading them away from their homes and along roads.
After a hot roadwalk we finally arrived at Gold Head State Park in the mid afternoon. The park buildings were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1920s. The remainder of the afternoon’s hike took us alongside the ravine of the stream the park is named for: a gorgeous, crystal clear, bubbling spring fed stream.
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