St Marks Natioanl Wildlife Refuge

Another great hiking section, and this time again all in the woods, of St Mark’s National Wildlife refuge and away from traffic. It was good trail, and we saw a fair amount of wildlife, including deer, hogs, lots of alligators, and more birds than I can name.

Starting out at the beginning of St Marks we crossed paths with what was most likely a poacher. He was entirely non threatening, but was on the St Mark’s non hunting area, and was too quick with his “I’m lost, I think I’m on the wrong side of the boundary” for my suspicious nature. His gun was in it’s case though, and he didn’t have anything dead with him, and he appeared to go back in the direction we pointed him when we explained where the boundary was. Shortly after meeting him, we came across the first deer of the day, so I’m rather glad we saw him (or he saw us) when we did.

At one stage I was taking a water break and waiting for Ian to catch up to me, and four hogs calmly walked up the trail rooting around as they did. It took me a few minutes to come to my senses enough to grab the camera, and most had disappeared off into the brush by then, but I think I got a fairly decent picture of one of them.

At one point we were hiking along the levee separating the freshwater marshes from the saltwater flats of the Gulf of Mexico. the panorama view was of the west coast of the northern Florida peninsula to our east, and the south coast of the panhandle to our west. At a break in the marsh around an island we could see the blue water of the gulf in the distance. We had originally planned to camp overnight at the Ring Levee campsite, which is the closest to the gulf, on the outside of the main levee, but the weather was forecast to turn to torrential rain tonight and and below freezing temperatures after that for the next couple of days while a major winter storm system passes just to the north of us, so we took refuge inland again.

The forecast didn't lie. It did indeed turn very wet, then very cold. We started out all dressed in winter gear, and stayed that way. The biggest problem was that this was the day we would cross the St Mark’s river. The river is too deep and swift to ford, and there is no bridge. Usually hikers can hail a passing boat to carry them across, but of course on a cold day like today there was absolutely no traffic on the river! After 30 minutes we called a local resort for a shuttle across. They said it would take them 10 minutes to get someone out to us. It was actually almost an hour. That 90 minutes or so was spent sitting in the full blast of the wind roaring down the St Mark’s and in the shade of the trees that come all the way down to the water level. It was cold! I’m not complaining too loud though. We had originally planned to do this section the day before. It was absolutely pouring with rain all day, so we called a no hiking day. We’re told there was no traffic at all on the river yesterday, and even the resort would not have sent someone out in the rain! That wouldn’t have been a whole lot of fun.

After the cold wait, we had the boat driver drop us at the Riverside café, where a couple of cups of hot spiced cider and a bowl of chowder for lunch helped thaw me out. From the café the trail utilizes the St Mark’s paved multi-use rail trail for about 3 miles. This was the first rail line in Florida, from Tallahassee to Port Leon. It is now a trail for the 16 miles from St Marks to Tallahassee.

Interestingly, after not seeing another actual hiker on the trail, on this section, and not on the paved trail, we saw 4 hikers out of the day. One lady was out looking for orchids. She showed us the specific orchid she was here for. It’s not a native, and quite common in Florida, but is not listed in the orchid books as ever having been seen in this county, so needless to say was quite a find. They (there were four little stems) were beautiful, but absolutely tiny and growing smack in the middle of the dirt berm/trail/road. The one bloom that was apparently very pretty yesterday had been affected by last night’s hard frost and was laid down dying, but there were two additional new stems. Later, at Shepherd Spring we ran into two men out dayhiking. The spring was very pretty, and crystal clear. They shared their lunch spot with us and we spent a very enjoyable hour with them. Shortly after that we passed through an area called the Cathedral, a virgin stand of palms, which was quite impressive and beautiful with the sun streaming through the leaves.

On our last day in St Mark’s NWR we crossed some swamp with bog bridges. Real nice bridges, but I assume that either the lower steps had washed away at sometime in the past, or there has been major erosion around the bridge pilings, as some of them took a 3’ step up to the bridge surface. Luckily they were attainable with log assists, a minor tree clamber, and a reverse mount! At the end of the swamp, the forest suddenly ended at the salt marshes of the gulf. It was quite a contrast to stand on the edge of both.

The most surprising find of the day was a perfect undamaged sand dollar in the middle of the forest. The most incredible thing we saw on this section has to be the sunsets borne of the cold weather front. For two nights while we were out on the levees and marshes we saw the most spectalar sunsets. It made the cold worthwhile.

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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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Along the Suwannee River

What a great hike along the Suwannee River. It was marred only by a couple of damp and cool days, and by an ignorant or aggressive landowner who allowed his six large dogs to harass us while we walked the couple of hundred feet of trail at the bottom of his property. He was on his porch, as were 5 of the 6 dogs, as we approached. Rather than call back or secure his dogs, he just allowed or encouraged them to run down, surround and bark at us. I tried to ignore them and walk on, but the most aggressive, a pit bull was too close to comfort for Ian and had to be pepper sprayed.

We started out at the White Springs Nature and Heritage Tourism Center, Mainly becasue it was warm in there, and freezing outside, but once inside spent the time to look at all the exhibits and collect loads of brochures.

A couple of non river milestones on this leg were my fourth and final crossing of Interstate 75 (first crossing was way down south in Big Cypress, an additional twice on the western corridor) and Interstate 10 for the second time. We will have two additional croosings of I10 before we finish.

The hike along the river was a nice workout up and down the banks, along switchbacks, and steep and slippery ravines. One ravine we crossed, Swift creek was running with a good flow of clean clear water. It was interesting to see it mixing with the tannin colored Suwannee water at the confluence. On the bluff above Swift Creek was a perfect backpack campsite; just enough level packed sand for one tent, easy access to the clear stream, and a great view.


For an entire day we played leapfrog with a group of canoers on the Suwannee. They had to do all the twists and turns, which the trail mainly rounded off, but we got all the ups and downs in the gullies and ravines. I think they may have had the easier choice! I had a nice, but brief conversation with them from the old US129 highway bridge at the end of the day.

The terrain around Holton creek is very potholed, with creeks appearing and disappearing from predominantly algae filled pools right now. There is very little water flowing, and the Alapaha River is just a dried up sand riverbed. We saw a large doe, who we must have disturbed drinking from the only flowing water we saw all day, the source of Holton Creek. A little further down the trail was a young diamondback rattler who posed for pictures for a while.

On our first rainy day since Lake Okeechobee over a year ago we stumbled on a pack of wild hog piglets, without mama. They were very cute, rooting around and not really sure what to do with themselves. Later in the day we spoke to a kayaker who had see a large hog dead in the water. Probably our piglets' mother. I doubt they'll survive long alone.

In the Holton Creek WMA we came across a new remote campground put in by the Suwannee River Water Management District. It's part of the Suwannee Valley Canie Trail, and very nice: at least six large raised screened platforms for sleeping, a large covered pavilion, lots of picnic tables, grills and fire rings, and toilets and hot showers.

Two more rivers join the Suwannee during this section, the Alapaha, which was mainly just a sand riverbed with standing water, and the Withlacoochee, which flows into the Suwannee at Suwannee River State Park. We ate lunch at the confluence and watched the trains going by on the trestle over the river, then hiked upstream by the east bank of the Withlacoochee, and downstream again on the west bank almost back down to the confluence before breaking away from the rivers and passing through the old site of the town of Ellaville (no sign of it today). When we rejoined the Suwannee downstream of the confluence it's a much wider river, and seemed shallower, with several areas of shoals.

We’re headed for somewhere warm and a couple days off for now.

Happy New Year.

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Merry Christmas

What a great Christmas Day.

It started off in bed in a small cabin at the Suwannee Valley Campground. Ian brought me my coffee in bed (as all good cabana boys should!) and a bag of charcoal, which I assume was the closest to coal he could find, and receiving the entire bag means I must have been real bad this year. Santa, I can explain!

We did hike today, but just a short stroll today along the banks of the Suwannee and back into the campground where we are staying.

Ian earned his Sherpa patch today. I had decided to carry only my santa hat, water bottle and camera as it was such a short hike. Ian wants to carry his pack the whole way, so he carried the thermos of coffee, sodas and snacks. What a guy.

After the hike we fired up the bag of charcoal and threw a couple of juicy steaks, mushrooms and brussel sprouts on the grill. Desert was microwaved english Christmas Pudding and custard. It was all delicious, and rounded off a great Christmas day.

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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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Palatka - Lake Butler State Trail

The past couple of days have been cool and sunny. Great weather for hiking. However the nights have been cold. We wimped out on the camping for a couple of nights: first one night Deb Blick (from the Florida Trail Association offered to put us up for the night in her spare room, then the next night we wimped out again and ended up in a motel room in Starke. We're back in the tents at Ocean pond now though. Continuing to camp through the winter is going to be a challenge, heat in the morning and a hot shower at night make a massive difference to the day.

We started this section from Gold Head Branch, and after a brief walk through Camp Blanding and some private hunting land for the remainder of the morning. After that we deviated from our maps. The remainder of the mapped walk from Camp Blanding to Lake Butler is a road walk connector. The other night at Debs, she had mentionned that the Florida Trail would shortly be moved off the road and onto the Palatka to State Butler State Trail. This is an old rail bed that the Florida Trail has just received permission to route the Trail along. It has not yet been blazed, but will be soon. Deb told us that it had been recently mowed and was ready for hiking. We would be the first hikers to use it. We couldn’t pass that up, so armed with directions on how to hook up to the start point, we set out. It is a great addition to the trail that moves 25 miles or so of trail off the road. Yeah!!!!

The trail was mainly maintained, but there are a couple of rough patches, and a couple of old railroad bridges that might need a foottread to add a bit of confidence crossing them, but were passable. We just loved being off the road. We saw more wildlife than we would have hiking the road: a herd of about 20 wild hogs, several bobcats, small black snake, chicken, wildflowers, etc. Much nicer than cars!

At the town of Hampton there were a couple of areas of rough trail, but we battled on through and were soon on the long straight well maintained grassy old railbed that we had come to expect. At the end of that day's hike we returned to the start car at the Hampton ball park to find a business card on the windshield from the local police officer saying how he wanted us to know that he’d been watching our cars for the last couple of days (the other car was parked in the same spot yesterday, and both have FL Trail stickers in the rear window) and that they were happy to have us here. How is that for a welcome message for the new trail!

On the final day of hiking we came to the old trestle bridge at New River. We had been warned that this bridge was out and we would have to descend into the river bed and ford the river. Before starting out this morning we had made a scouting trip to the next road bridge upstream of this point to see how much water was flowing and whether it would be feasible to try to cross. It looked low, so we decided to chance crossing it. As we approached the river I spotted something running or hopping by the bridge. At first I assumed it was a large jack rabbit, but as we approached Ian realized it was a Bobcat. It could cross onto the bridge easier than we could, and it took refuge on one of the bridge pilings and watched us warily while we tried to get close enough for photos. Eventually I made my way down the embankment to the river bed, hoping that it would make the cat move into Ian’s view, but suddenly it just disappeared as stealthily as you would expect of a cat. Down at the river we finally decided it was shallow enough to wade across. It wasn’t too cold or deep, and there was a nice solid sandy bottom with no slimy mud. Continuing down the trail were two additional washed out bridges over creeks much smaller than the New River, and both were easily navigated without getting wet.

Around lunchtime today we passed through Lake Butler and joined up with the original FL Trail leaving us just a half mile road walk before turning north and heading into the Lake Butler Forest. It was nice to be back in the woods, but we had both enjoyed the long straight rail trail walk, and especially the 30 mile road walk it had saved us.

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Finishing up the Western Corridor Roadwalks

What a difference a couple of days can make. Last week we were seeking shade and breeze for breaks. Now, a rainy front a couple of days ago has left breezy and much cooler conditions that we have experienced the past few weeks. The next couple of days are supposed to be even colder!

Still, there's hiking to be done, so I just concentrated on getting into the sunny spots and out of the breeze.


The past couple of days I have been hiking alone again. My hiking partner Ian decided some time ago not to hike the Western Corridor, while I chose to hike most of it in short day hike and weekend chunks as it is close to my home. I have completed the entire 222 miles of the Western with the exception of a couple of short road walks connecting the weekend hikes. Ian needed a couple of days off to get some chores done, so I figured it was time to complete the Western connections. I'm shuttling myself using my car and bicycle, so though the hikes aren't particularly strenuous, adding the shuttling in adds some complexity.

First of the three connecting sections was the northernmost section of the Withlacoochee State bicycle trail, through Dunellon, crossing the Withlacoochee and Rainbow rivers, then out alongside the busy highway for the final 5 miles to Pruitt. Later the same day I also connected a tiny couple of miles from Hog Island to the south end of the Withlacoochee State trail.

The hike for the final day started at Richloam Fire Tower, then after only a mile in the woods, followed busy roadsides before turning onto a quieter country road for the last few miles into River Junction. The only things worthy of the camera today were the Little Withlacoochee River and a rather garish Christmas display where I stopped for lunch.

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