San Pedro and Aucilla

Hooray. Hiking again! Of course, after 4 or 5 absolutely perfect hiking weather days when we weren't hiking, the last few actual hiking days have been crappy.

This section of hiking was fast paced, at least until we reached the Aucilla River. We left the Suwannee, and walked across San Pedro Bay WMA, about 50 miles of sand roads across an active logging and hunting area. We walk faster, but there is not so much to see.

The swansong for the Suwanne river was a neat little natural stone bridge with a tree growing over it right at our last trail point with the river. Moments after, in a green tree tunnel ahead of me I saw a doe who stood for several minutes while I got the camera out, and finally “huffed” and sprang off.

Sometime during our shuttling around the back roads to trailheads we saw a farmer’s field with literally hundreds of sandhill cranes seemingly in a line about half a mile long. We were not particularly close to them. I’m sure it would have created a chaotic scene of flight-taking if we had been. As it was we just enjoyed the silhouetted along the skyline. Other wildlife included a tiny ringneck snake, and lots of cat prints. Another day a military C130 flew over, then return a few minutes later escorted by a couple of helicopters preparing to mid air refuel, then again on a third pass over actually refueling.

Then we reached the Aucilla River, and to our pleasant surprise it actually had water in it. We had to stop for a coffee and play break at our first sight of in, and it had us wondering if during the entire course of this hike we will actually ever reach a pleasant swimmimg hole like this on an actual sunny warm day at a suitable time for a lunch or afternoon play stop. We saw an otter playing in the water and really enjoyed the walk along the steep banks until the river sank back below ground in a sink hole. After that we were back to walking in the woods along the course of the river now flowing mainly underground and making frequent appearances in sinkholes scattered along the trail. Each sinkhole had it’s own character: some appeared stagnant and lifeless at first, but closer inspection revealed almost crystal clear water, minnows and other water life, others were longer, like tree lined lakes, with colonies of ducks that scattered on approach. As the river progressed, the forest turned from swamp to pine forest, and finally the Aucilla reappeared above ground in a “normal” riverbed. At that point we turned away from the river and along more stone strewn trail, eventually emerging from the swamp and pine forest on a sand road, and highway 98.

During the brief roadwalk we stopped by JR’s Aucilla River store for snacks and refreshment and bumped into someone I had met at the recent F-Troop project at Three Lakes. Liz restated her previous invite to stop by at her place for laundry, showers, etc as we passed through this area. We still had miles to hike today so could not accept, but may take her up at the weekend.

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