Water, Water, Everywhere

In early 2024, I did a 3-day and 45 mile hike in the Suwannee River section of the Florida Trail. It was definitely a challenge including a flooded Osceola National Forest.

Then in late 24, I planned on a 6-day and 90-mile trip of the same section plus more but only finished 4-days and 60 miles. At that time the planned last 2 days of hiking was highly damaged with down trees by hurricanes so I had to stop early. It only fully opened in February.

So now, I wanted to finish the whole 6-day trip. Turns out that Osceola National Forest was flooded again. Hiking 16 miles is tough. Hiking through ankle to thigh deep water for half of the time is very tough. The good news is that by hiking through cool water all day I didn’t sweat and my feet didn’t get hot and swell up.

The worst section was up to my hips. It grazed the bottom of my backpack plus was just scary not being able to see if I might step in a hole and go deeper.

I also found an issue where the base layer was sphagnum moss. If I stepped on the moss, I was OK but the longer I stood (trying to find the next safe step), the more I would sink in. Like quicksand, I guess.

The next section is through the Big Shoals area. There was still water on parts of the trail but it was ‘only’ ankle deep. The trail along the river was quite pretty with azaleas blooming.

As I was eating lunch at the Shoals and feeling proud and happy I was through the wet section, a hiker came up. Turns out he was the same guy who warned me in December about the closed trail. I was excited to tell him I was redoing the trip. He paused before telling me about the river problem. The times I visited in 2024 the depth of the Suwannee was 58’ and 52’. This time it was up to 66’. What that meant was the next 4 days would have an occasional flooded trail along the river. But, more importantly, every time a spring or creek ran into the river meant the crossing may be very high and some of those bridges were flooded. He mentioned the water at some crossings were chest high. Now, I’m brave enough to handle hip high, but chest high means holding my backpack above my head and hoping I stay on my feet. Because I was hiking by myself, it just didn’t seem smart to continue. I had to stop at 2-days and 35-miles. Given that temperatures are rising and mosquitoes were coming back, it looks like I’ll have to wait until fall to finish this cursed hike!

That hiker took a picture of me beside this root on the trail. BTW, I haven’t decided if the hiker is a trail angel in warning me of dangers ahead, or the harbinger of doom.

Anyhow, I hiked on to a campsite and stayed the night before John picked me up the next morning. I saw this new bridge. The hiker had helped build this and it was done without heavy equipment. It replaced the rope bridge that I’ve used in the past.

As I left, one crossing was knee-high. One was a flooded ‘bridge’. The 1^st picture is from my early-2024 trip. The 2^nd was this trip from the opposite side of the creek. It appeared to be ~1.5’ deep water then a step up to the boards but those might be floating and most likely not stable. I ended up bushwhacking further up the creek to cross.

Ending on a happier note...morning on the Suwannee River.

Spring ferns

The Weird of Gainesville

Of course, being who I am, I had to do more weird things. An unexpected event was when I was walking home with a couple people from dinner. This young man ran up and started picking loquats from a tree. He gave us samples (very good and juicy) along with a lecture on the loquat tree. Very unexpected.

Every morning I took a hike. The stated purpose was to geocache (and I found quite a few), but mostly it was to just walk. One morning was to Depot Park. The building is a science museum.

The final morning I did a longer hike of 6 miles total to the University of Florida. This is the 10-ton chert Turlington Rock (that is Turlington hall in the background). It’s common name is the Turlington Turd!

Statues at the stadium.

And the bat houses!

After John picked me up, we drove out to Cellon Oak Park. The Cellon Oak is the co-champion (largest) live oak in Florida. It was definitely big!

Kayaking with Road Scholar

This is my 4^th Road Scholar trip and definitely the closest location. I signed up for a kayaking trip based in Gainesville which is less than 1.5 hours from home. My purpose was to see if I wanted to buy a kayak and go on the many rivers of Florida. Of the group of 14 people, I was the youngest (just 3 years younger than a couple of them) but the least experienced on a kayak. The answer to my question was that, while I really had a good time this week, I enjoy backpacking more.

We stayed at an inn located in several older homes. I was amused that one of the oldest houses in Gainesville was the McKenzie House where I stayed. It was built in 1895. The house I grew up in was built in the late 1860’s or maybe 1870’s. I never considered it “historic”.

The trip included three kayaking 3 different rivers, Ichetucknee River, Santa Fe River, and Silver River. Each are popular and a bit different for kayaking. The Ichetucknee River had clear water with a fast current so not as much work was needed to kayak it.

It also seemed like each day the leaves were greener and more flowers were blooming. This is the Sante Fe River from the next day which was a blackwater river with a slower current (more work). Plus, we got to swim in a spring. It was 72 degrees which is cool but still fine for swimming.

One day was spent hiking at Paynes Prairie. This area had LOTS of alligators along with different birds.

Plus more alligators at Sweetwater Wetlands Park.

This cool part of this park is that is was a man-made wetlands to treat water for Gainesville. It was less expensive than a water treatment plant and much better for the environment. The water is sent through a settling pond, this piece of equipment to skim off floating trash, then into different cells full of water plants.

At Silver Springs, we kayaked and saw several manatees swim past us. We also had time to walk around. There were several shows filmed here long ago including several Tarzan films, Creature of the Black Lagoon, Moon Raker, and Sea Hunt.

The trip also includes a lot of lectures, talks, and films. This included springs, the Floridan Aquifer, underwater caving, wetlands, water treatment, birds, pine trees, cedar trees, and plants. This is a picture of a limpkin (which I’ve never heard about before this trip).

Danger, Fear, and Fame in Ocala National Forest

There are dangerous things in Ocala NF to consider. It’s Florida so there are alligators in some of the ponds, though I never saw one. There are coral and rattlesnakes, though again, I never saw any. There are black bears in the forest. There is even a requirement that you must use a bear canister or a bear hang to store your food at night (I used the bear hang method). I never saw a bear but I saw a LOT of bear scat.

The trails themselves can be dangerous. It’s easy to trip over roots or branches. With the hurricanes last year, there was more branches on the trail than normal. To me, vines are the most dangerous on most trails. You can get your feet caught in a vine then fall. But, on this hike, it was grass that was the most dangerous. One section of the trail was through knee-high grass. I stepped on the drooping grass then my other foot got caught in the loop. I fell to the ground. Then, the momentum from my backpack pushed my face and nose into the ground. Luckily, I didn’t have a bloody nose or black eyes but it did mark my nose which hurt for awhile. I had to go to my optometrist when I got home to adjust my bent glasses.

Forget the bears, worry about grass.

As far as fear, three times I was quietly hiking along when a flock of birds suddenly and loudly came out of the grass or bushes beside me. I may have screamed twice. I don’t have a picture of those flocks but here are some sandhill cranes. They are pretty big (especially compared to me) and I had to ask them to move off the trail. They were polite about it.

I also saw an eagle, woodpeckers, robins, herons (no pictures), and osprey in their nests.

For hikers on the FT, 88 Store is a famous place. After several days without a town or store, it’s a place to have some food and a beer, a shower, potable water, power to charge a phone, and a restroom! I enjoyed some snacks and an ice cream sandwich. Yes, it’s a dive bar for the locals but friendly service and appreciated.

Several hikers mentioned that “Jupiter Hikes” was on the FT. He’s a YouTuber who does videos on backpacking, especially ultra light. I’ve watched lots of his videos. Unfortunately, he was further north and west on the trail.

However, I met “Nimblewill Nomad”. He’s the oldest hiker to finish the Appalachian Trail at age 83. Now he’s 87. I met him as he hiked 4.2 miles from his home/campsite to the 88 Store to enjoy a beer. Then he has to hike back. Pretty amazing to be able to do that at 87.

My last part on the trail was crossing Buckman Lock. A fun trip!

Five Day Backpacking through Ocala National Forest

My last solo backpacking was on Florida Trail (FT) through Osceola National Forest and further west for 4 days and 60 miles of hiking. This time was Ocala NF for 5 days and 75 miles. The adventure started by taking the Amtrak to Deland, FL then uber’ing to the FT trail head on the south edge of the forest. When I finished up north, I uber’ed again to Palatka Amtrak to return home. More excitement!

Over the 5 days I saw 6 day hikers, 5 section hikers (like me, doing a section of the FT), and one thru-hiker (coming north from the Everglades going to Pensacola). Positively crowded. Perceptions of hiking greatly changed depending on who I was talking to. The old ladies hiking a couple of miles were surprised I would hike so long and camp overnight,. The 2 greatly overloaded first-time section hikers were surprised with my small backpack (20-23 lbs). One of the section hikers and the thru-hiker was advising me to cut back further on my weight and kind of surprised I only hiked 15 miles a day on my last hike. They talked about doing 20-25 miles per day. On the final full day, I challenged myself to hike 20 miles. Did it, but I’m still feeling the effects a few days later.

One section of the Florida Trail just recently reopened after last year’s hurricanes. There was so much work done to clear downed trees. I felt that whole area was just gorgeous and surreal.

I camped overnight among pine and oak trees, under palm trees, beside a wet prairie, and beside a grass prairie with pine trees.

Osceola NF and Suwannee Section Florida Trail

Earlier this year I hiked 45 miles of the Florida Trail. I have been eager to backpack longer distances now that the weather has finally cooled down here in Florida. I decided to repeat what I did before but in reverse then add additional miles. The “plan” was to go 90 miles but after talking to two hikers on the trail, I chickened out on the last section due to heavy storm damage from Debby, Helene, and Milton hurricanes in the final section that have altered the trail. It was questionable whether the whole section was open. Even in the section that I hiked, there were lots of trees down with root balls to be stepped around and fallen trees going everywhere.

There was evidence of LOTS of work by volunteers in clearing the trail.

I ended up hiking ~60 miles over 4 days. Osceola National Forest was much better than last time. A major portion of the trails were flooded at that time including a long section up to my butt. This time is was almost completely dry except a couple of small sections. While there was still mud in some areas, I could walk the edges to stay dry. Some of the previous flooded trail was now soft moss that was pretty nice on the feet!

Love that I saw these pitcher plants. They are carnivorous like Venus flytraps.

The rest of the hike was either along the Suwanee River or just inland.

Had to laugh about several of the creek crossings. The app of the trail suggests walking on the log to stay dry. Because I’m a gymnast who has trained to balance with a heavy backpack. I’d rather get wet then slip, especially while solo hiking.

John picked me up at Graffiti Bridge (Suwanee River Bridge). It’s an old bridge that people come from all over to take pictures and/or spray paint the bridge. It was remarkably PG rated with most of the graffiti about who loves whom or what school was the best. Apparently it is famous with bikers who bring there bikes there for a photo shoot. There were 3 different bikers there taking pictures while I visited and one took this picture of me.

The worst part was that last morning that got down to 24 F. Sleeping wasn’t that bad (I bought a new sleeping bag that is designed for those temperatures), but packing up and hiking in the morning was rough. I couldn’t carry a big coat so I wore everything I had plus wore socks as mittens. There was a frost for a few hours until it warmed up. Did you know tents are heavier with frost?!

The whole hike was like an expensive resort with a silent retreat (I only met 4 people on the trail the whole time). I practiced mindfulness as I focused on the present moment to find the next blaze and watch every step so I didn’t trip on a root or branch. Instead of yoga, I stretched by taking ridiculously high steps climbing down and then back up every tributary along the Suwannee River. Like a fitness camp, I lifted weights by carrying my backpack the whole distance. What a deal!