We hiked to Alabama!

It’s Spring again in north Florida. Warm enough to start out without a sweater, clear blue skies, and gentle breezes, getting warmer during the day, but never uncomfortable. Even better, we were back off the road and into the forested Blackwater area, and heading north towards the Alabama line. Nice trail, but with multiple blowdowns from the recent storms. We cleared what we couldn’t easily walk around, leaving only a few larger blocked areas that we couldn’t see a way to clear.

One of the high points of the four days hiking was the actual highest point on the Florida Trail, at around 300 feet. We took suitable anti-altitude precautions before ascending though! Other noteworthy points in the hike were the crystal clear, cool springs we crossed, the beautiful deserted sweeping sandy beach on the Blackwater River at Deaton Bridge, and walking along the banks of Juniper Creek, a clear, slightly yellow tinged creek, not dark enough to be called blackwater and only noticeable because of the white sand riverbed.

We encountered a couple of Florida Trail rarities on this section: Shelters. Having seen only a couple on the entire lenghth of the trail from Big Cypress, we passed 3 in Blackwater State Forest, and Hikers! We also crossed paths with four backpackers headed south, but they were not attempting the entire Trail, just a couple of days out hiking the loops in Blackwater.

We took our time on this nice forested section, and with such beautiful weather. Our goal is the Alabama State line and the northern terminus of the Florida Trail. The adventure was drawing to a close,and the end was bittersweet. We were running have run out of northbound Florida Trail!

The last day of hiking was warm and with clear blue skies and a strengthening breeze. At least right up until the last half hour when it clouded up, just in time for our State line photos, and then dumped rain on us for the mile hike back to the last road crossing and the car. It couldn’t dampen our spirits though. We are both happy to have hiked the complete length of the trail, and amazed thinking back how quickly it has seemed to pass, but how long ago we hiked certain places.

Today we met up with Brian, who now has only about 50 miles of the Florida Trail to hike as he continues on his Eastern Continental Trail (Key West to Newfoundland) hike. Brian and I met before he started hiking. We have been expecting him to catch us since we started re-hiking in November, and hoping he would not pass us by without even seeing each other during one of our overnights away from the trail, or our many trips back home. We had been in contact over the past couple of days hoping we could finally get together before Ian and I head home. Today was the day. We managed to meet up and eat real food for dinner. There are severe storms forecast for this area tonight. Brian accepted our invitation to spend a dry night, and I’m happy to report the guys are both snoring away, one at each end of the RV, while I’m bunked on the table for the night.

That’s all for now. We’ll all be taking a break for a couple of days, then returning here. Brian to continue NOBO on the trail we've hiked this week, and ian and I to hike the more traditional NOBO end of the Florida Trail from Harold to Fort Pickens.

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