Urban Hiking

We've reached the southeastern outskirts of Orlando, and spent the past three days hiking round the eastern side of the city on a combination of rural and suburban streets, bike paths, and a refreshing foray through Little Big Econ State Forest. We have both done previous work hikes and day hikes, so it seemed like “home territory”.

The hiking was good, despite being predominantly paved. We both dislike hiking on paved surfaces as continually placing your feet in the same position makes you more prone to blisters. The route took us through Chuluotta before joining the Flagler rail trail and into Little Big Econ State Forest. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon in the shady forest, and especially nice to cross the bridge over the Econ and see the river back in it’s banks without having done too much damage to the area (we kayaked the river back in August when it was in a high flood, which effectively buried the bridge we crossed today).

Out of Little Big Econ we hiked into Oviedo. On the way in we were stopped by an Orlando Parks and Receation dept mower who had seen us stopped for lunch yesterday about 10 miles south, and on seeing us again couldn’t believe we would have walked “all that way”. He was totally disbelieving when we explained to him about the FL Trail and showed him the maps and blazes. In Oviedo we stopped for lunch at our favorite restaurant there. So there are some advantages to hiking in the city, more people and more food!

After lunch the trail picked up the paved bike trail again. We followed it for the next couple of days on and off. There are places where the bike trail was not yet completed where we had to divert off on to a local road. One road took us right past Big Tree Park, so we stopped there for a break and visited the “big tree”, the Senator, a 3500 year old 110ft Cypress tree. Actually, it’s only 2/3 of a cypress tree, the top 50 feet or so was apparently blown off by a 1925 hurricane. Later that day we stopped off at the Urban Café for lunch. It was a new business, and the owner was very accommodating of us, in our sweaty hiker gear and our packs. He took a photo for his wall of fame, and we told him all about the Florida Trail running right by his door.

Back on the outskirts of Orlando again, this time on the northeast side, we crossed Interstate 4 on a nice new purpose built recreation bridge. I know that’s not a cheap way to get trails off the roads, but it sure is nice to see the money being spent and the effort being made for the purpose of recreation. Orlando has many good long stretches of bicycle trail and is obviously attempting to connect them all together. We saw a new piece of trail and bridge being built outside Big Tree park and crossed another trail bridge after the café, as well as the one yesterday. While I would prefer to be hiking in the forests and fields, there is not much of that left in the Metro area of Orlando, so a nice shaded bicycle trail with a well trimmed, mainly level grass border, and safe road crossings is the next best thing.

The low point of this hike was returning to Ian’s car parked one day at Barr Street to find a mindless act of juvenile vandalism. Someone had deliberately backed up to his vehicle, then peeled out I the mud of the parking lot causing the vehicle to get covered in mud. If this had happened by accident it would be no big issue, but you could plainly see from the skid marks in the mud that there would have been no reason for a car to be backed up in that position unless to cause mayhem. Fortunately there is no permanent damage, and Ian took the whole episode rather calmly, I thought. It just goes to show how low some people will go for a moment of mindless entertainment.

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Backpacking with a new friend

This past weekend I spent backpacking with Grant, a recent acquaintance from whiteblaze.net.He is planning an Appalachian Trail thru hike next year and wanted to do a few shakedown hikes. He lives near the Prairie Lakes area which I haven't hiked yet so we decided to hike from the southern East/West Corridor split point to Bull Creek.

One thing we had not counted on was it being the first weekend of hunting season in Three Lakes and Bull Creek, but we ran into a Ranger as we left the car and he said that we should be OK as long as we were visibly orange, didn't hike at dusk or dawn and camped only in the established backpacker campsites. Great advice, except it was dusk already and there was no way we could make it into the first campsite before dark! Fortunately there was a convenient decent place to camp just past the road. We assumed we were close enough to the road to be safe, and there really wasn't much else we could do except hike in the dark anyway!

Our "campsite" was a decent enough place to camp, complete with a log to sit on, a flat space for my tent and two conveniently spaced trees for Grant to hang his hammock. We were a little concerned about the stealth camping, but decided we would be up shortly after first light and get on our way suitably garbed in blaze orange shortly after light. We heard surprising few hunting sounds before light. The most obvious hunting sound was the approach of a truck, or ATV, and then a very loud and very bad fake turkey call. We both laughed and commented on how unrealistic it sounded and no animal was likely to fall for that. The sound of the same vehicle driving away was the next thing we heard.

We had a good hike, but seperated briefly on a roadwalk stretch connecting the Three Lakes area to Forever Florida. Unfortunately, in the few minutes we were out of each others' sight we took different paths and ended up losing each other for the remainder of the afternoon. I knew I was on the trail, and as the afternoon got later, and not having seen Grant's footprints in quite some time I stopped to wait. At least in Forever Florida there is no hunting, so I felt safe hunkering down by the trail. Grant eventually caught me up, having taken a detour to get some ice water from the restaurant at Forever Florida. By this time though his feet were severely hurting, and there was very little chance we would make it to our intended campsite before dark. As it was over the border of the Bull Creek WMA we were fairly sure there would be very active hunting there, so reassessed our plans.

Forever Florida is an eco preserve that allows tourists to stay in cabins or camping on their grounds. They have a small camping area that backpackers can use if paying guests are not using it. We decided to give it a try. On the way we passed several deer in the road (the toour bus drivers seed the roads with corn as they drive) and a pygmy rattle snake. We found the campground empty except for a Forever Florida cowboy that was living in the campground temporarily until more permanent accomodation could be provided. He was very agreeable to us camping overnight. Shortly after we had set up camp we were visited by the Game Warden. He was also happy we had stopped as they apparently get quite a lot of poaching on their property from the Bull Creek hunting area and was happy to know we were safe on the grounds for the night.

The campsite itself is a cleared area with several buildings. As we stopped at the picnic table I wondered if one of the buildings might contain toilets as it had several cubible like doors. Investigating the first one I indeed found a flush toilet and running water! Even better, continuing down all the stalls, the last two contained actual solar heated hot water showers! What a find!

After a very pleasant night we set out for our final day's hiking, but realized we had little chance of completing the entire loop to our proposed destination. Instead we decided to take a connector trail short cut back to Grant's vehicle parked at Bull Creek. It turned out to be a good thing, as we returned to find a flat tire!

So not the weekend we planned, but a good hike for me anyway!

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Tosahatchee

Florida is supposed to be in a drought, but someone forgot to tell Tosohatchee that. We spent the first 5 minutes of the hike attempting to take the high path along an old disused dirt road, but eventually realized the futility of trying to keep our feet dry. Within a half mile or so we were knee deep in cold water. The hiking went well for the first hike out in a while. The trail was mainly wet, but in some places just very muddy, and in a few rare places is was actually dry.

At some stage in the swamp we heard a very loud double boom that sounded like a building being blown up. We were curious, but kept hiking. Later we learned that the Space Shuttle had landed that afternoon. What we had heard was the sonic boom. We were very close to Kennedy Space Center in Tosahatchee. The boom sounded different here than it does from my home in Tampa when the shuttle lands. Much louder of course.

Just as we were starting to get discouraged with the wet, mud, lack of wildlife (other than the voracious hoards of mosquitoes) I walked past a tree and caught a furry grey movement out of the corner of my eye. There were three small raccoons clinging to the tree. One fell out as I turned to look, and he slunk away to hide in the grass. The other two posed, to a varying degree for some photos. I know raccoons are considered vermin, but they sure are cute when they are little and before they have figured out how to beg or steal food.

After a brief time out on the roads as we passed through Christmas we entered Orlando Wetlands Park. I had hiked this section previously, but as it's just a partial day's worth of hiking I rehiked it. OWP is a water utility wetlands facility that assists in the treatment of waste water from Orlando. The park is officially closed October through April, but hikers are allowed to use the perimeter trail. It was a quiet walk, apart from the buzz of mosquitoes. We saw a couple of otters, armadillos, turtles, and the rear end of a wild hog, as well as many buzzards a couple of hawks and an owl.

The final part of the day was a short road walk past the site of the original wooden Ft Christmas.

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Annual Juniper Backpack trip

The annual Juniper Wilderness backpack trip is usually a fun filled time: it's on familiar territory, and usually the same core of friends, with a few new ones thrown in each year. This year was no exception. We all had a great time. I suffered a little from the shortness of breath caused by my recent cold, and coughed all through the cold night. Ian suffered worse though, he had brought his lightweight sleeping bag and it turned out to be the first night in the 30's this year.

The hike in was good, and we saw many more other hikers on the trail than last year, which was immediately after a forest fire. This year the ajor trail damage was caused by windstorms. There was an area about a mile long that was constant blowdown of small trees, hundreds of them. It was like trying to hike through pick up sticks. The saddle campground at Hidden Pond was occupied, so we continued on out to the opn campsite by the lake, which I think most of us prefer anyway. There was no drunk naked guy at the Pond this year, but there were at least two other groups camping around the lake. Just as we were setting up our dinners someone called our "Bear" and sure enough a large Black Bear was wandering along the opposite lake shore. It apparently circled all the way around the lake, as someone later saw it while taking a bathroom trip, but it never bothered us.

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Time with the Family

Back in Orlando after a great visit with my family in England. Spent a week plus between their various houses. Unfortunately I was sick with a cold, so I really didn't do much, and don't recall too much of what I did do, except a visit to Laura's school to watch football (soccer) practice.

The flight home was hard on my ears, and I didn't get much rest. Fortunately Ian was feeling magnanimous and actually picked me up at the airport. He told me he never does pickups! For whatever reason, I'm glad he changed his policy this time. I'm snuggled up in my futon mattress on the floor of his sitting room. I'll be staying here for the foresseable future until we get back out hiking. Orlando is close enough to the remainder of the Eastern Corridor of the FL Trail that we still need to hike that we can stay here at Ian's and do some day hikes to get us up thru the sububurbs to the southern Ocala National Forest. We plan to start hiking early next week, so I need to work on getting rid of this cold. I'm going to have a tough time hiking with this stuffy, runny nose.

San Zoilo

WOW! How can you put a couple of the most intensely emotional and unexpectedly fun weeks of your life into words?

This past week was spent at the competitor English language program run by VaughanTown at San Zoilo monastery in Conde de los Carrion. I was correct in my assumptio that both programs were essentially the same. Both were staffed by an Anglo Master of Ceremonies and a Spanish Program Director, who traveled with the group, and whose primary function was to encourage the group bonding experience and keep the program flowing, as well as dealing with minor issues that arose during the week (Dr visits, heating issues, etc.) The host locations, while being very different were very attractive and comfortable, both situated on the outskirts of a small historic village, and both had their own charms and attraction. The food was good, the wine flowed freely at mealtimes, but the absolute make or break enjoyment factor came from the participants, who were about as diverse as one could possibly imagine in a group of around 40 adults. One to one conversations, which I had expected would remain on a fairly superficial level, actually ranged from the simplest subjects to intriguing, socio-political, religious, and personal matters. From mature to juvenile, borderline psychotherapy, serious, humorous, and everything in between. If that were not enough, mealtime sessions were even more animated and hilarious. It is amazing how a simple explanation of any topic can go totally off on a tangent at the simple miscommunication, or explanation of a word or idiom! No topic was sacred!

This week I knew alittle better what to expect. I was pretty exhausted already from the over participation in the previous week's activities, and my voice was somewhat strained. Undaunted, I engaged Pedro in a four hour long conversation on the ride to northern Spain. The bus got a little lost, but it was a pleasant detour following the Camino de Santiago. Our accomodation for the week was at the restored Monastery of San Zoilo. The rooms were lovely (wouldn't it have been nice to get a picture?), and the weather continued sunny and warm, though still a little chilly in the mornings for me. The Monastery was very close to town, a nice easy stroll for the one to one sessions. The Camino passes through the center of town and the hiker and biker pilgrims were out in force. The Monastery itself is beautiful, with the cloisters and church also available for walking one to ones. The hotel was open to other guests as well as our group, so the after dinner drinking tended to be a little more subdued and earlier to finish.

It didn't dampen the experience though, I had great fun again, and met more wonderful new friends from all over the world and all over Spain. I think I am particularly most likely to stay in contact with Nigel and Stephanie, who live not to far from my parents in England, and Javier from Madrid. I'm sure I will be back in Madrid sometime in the next year or so, and Javi is intending to be in Orlando early next year.

I will definitely be back for more.

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La Alberca

I'm sitting in a laundromat in Madrid waiting for my clothes to dry. I'm exhausted, my voice is almost completely gone, and I just had an exhilerating week of conversation and fun with complete strangers!

The purpose of this visit to Spain was to participate in two English immersion programs for Spanish speakers who wish to increase their conversation, comprehension, and presentation skills. The philosophy of the programs is to take an equal number of Spanish and Anglo participants to a fairly remote location, where all everyday activities are conducted entirely in English. There are two companies running the programs: Pueblo Ingles and Vaughan Town. They are essentially competitors, and I couldn't decide between the two, so decided to give both programs a try. Their programs appear to be essentially the same from what I have read. I had a basic idea of what would be involved: breakfast at 9am, two Spanish and two Anglos (english speakers) per table, followed by four hours of one to one conversation sessions, 2pm it's time for lunch (2 and 2), siesta. At 5pm an evening group activity, two more hours of one to one sessions, an entertainment hour, then more two to two over dinner at 9pm, with the day officially ending at around 10:30pm, when the bar would be open and those still willing to chat could do so over a few quiet drinks.

That was the theory anyway. Despite the various explanations on the websites, I could never have anticipated the actual experience. From the initial bus meeting point, where we Anglos had been instructed to “grab yourself a Spanish, and talk his/her ears off on the bus”, I realized that this week was going to be far more complex than I could have imagined. My bus trip was shared with Estrella and Frederico, probably the first terrified Spanish people I have ever spoken to for two hours each. We started off on the basics of family and work, interspersed occasionally with the bonus (for me) of having a tour guide to explain the features of the area, the kinds of wine produced there, the agricultural processes, the history, culture, etc.. Conversation flowed naturally into so many different subjects that wouldn’t usually occur with a casual acquaintance or even possibly with a long time friend.

Our destination was the outskirts of La Alberca, a small historic village in the northwest of Spain. Accomodation was in large apartments shared by an Anglo downstairs, with the Spanish taking the more luxurious upstairs (that's OK, they paid to come here, and they're working!). The complex itself was laid out round a main building which housed the dining hall, bar, and meeting room. My apartment was right next to the main building, and had a nice sunny lawn area where we tended to hang out in the afternoons enjoying the sun. The weather was wonderful the entire week at La Alberca, though felt a little cold to me coming straight from the Florida heat.

The staff was Brian, the Anglo Master of Ceremonies, Mayte, the Spanish Program Director. There primary function was to encourage the group bonding experience and keep the program flowing, and dealing with minor issues that arose during the week (Dr visits, heating issues, etc.) They did an awesome job: the week went smoothly, and the group cohesion was an incredible thing to experience. I would never imagined, without seeing it, that such a diverse group of people could share such an intense experience in such a short time. The conversations were far beyond what I had expected, and more fun than I could imagine. Scattered among the one to one conversation sessions were other activities such as phone and conference calls, group activities and impromptu skits. Though these were a source of fear, they were a great source of amusement for all, even the terrified participants.
Top the whole thing off with some very intense dinner conversations, late night parties, disco dancing, ancient ceremonies, and the very occasional lapse into Spanish (only once or twice), and it made for a very enjoyable, intense week.

I have committed to a similar session with the competitor company starting early tomorrow morning. Foolishly, I did not anticipate how exhausting this would be, nor how many clothes I would wear! Hence the laundromat. When I'm done here I'm going to eat and go back to my room to siesta!

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