Challenging Florida Trail

 

After camping on my own at Cumberland Island and Simmons State Forest, I decided to take the next step by hiking a 45 mile portion of the Florida Trail.

The Florida Trail is ~1500 miles through many different state and national lands but also includes walking some roads, even under a train track. Orange blazes line the path on trees and even this street sign pole.

Because I was new to backpacking I had some firsts. I filtered water for the first time. Blackwater is drinkable but still looks like tea after being filtered, but that’s fine. I also dug and used my first cathole. Google it, if you don’t know. Nothing like doing new things in your 60s!

After the trip, I decided the word “challenge” was the perfect word to describe it. The hiking itself was doable. Since the most I’ve hiked with a 25-pound pack was just 3 miles, I figured 10-12 miles would be a good daily number so I planned for 4 days. But I found that I averaged 15 miles a day. I completed the 45 miles in 3 days so John picked me up early. Which was good, because the nights were my biggest challenge. Temperatures dropped to near freezing every night. I thought my sleeping bag was rated to 0 F but either I remember wrong or it was just the survivable number, not the “I’m comfortable” number. The second night I used everything I had by wearing all my clothes and even putting the bottom half of my sleeping bag in a large garbage bag. It was better but certainly not comfortable.

During the day, however, temperatures were great by being in the 50s and low 60s. That meant I rarely sweated while hiking. The first section I hiked was a bit challenging because it was up and down with lots of roots and across small bridges.

I had pictured time to think about the meaning of life while hiking. Instead, it was a time to either focus on exactly the right place to place my next step or in watching for the next blaze on the trail. Also, I saw only 13 hikers going the other way the first two days and none the last day. I did talk to about 4 people that weren’t hikers but was mostly alone with my thoughts. This trip was kind of a meditation really.

By the way, I got lost a few times by either losing focus on those blazes or a few areas that were poorly marked like at sections on the road. In fact, one guy stopped his car to tell me to head one direction when it turned out the completely wrong way. I found happiness every time I saw a blaze on this trail.

The trail through Stephen Foster Folk Culture State Park and Little and Big Shoals Area was great. I passed along some swamps.

The hike is off and on along the Suwannee River. It’s a blackwater river (dark with tannins) with several little waterfalls (shoals) in this section.

This was my view as I sat and ate breakfast.

Some sections were a bit wet but not bad. I thought this was a fun creek crossing.

Camping the first night was on a bluff above the river all by myself.

The trail through Osceola National Forest was much more challenging. It wasn’t just a bit wet. It was constantly alternating ankle deep water, mud, spongy sphagnum moss, and some, wildly celebrated by me, dry portions of the trail. In fact, there was two spots where the water was up to my butt. Some of these sections were quite long (150’+?). I also slipped to my knees once given the base is a combination of sand, leaves, moss, and broken branches. Challenging! These are pictures of the trail.

Luckily, a thru-hiker I talked to advised me to move my sleeping bag from hanging below my back pack to above my pack to keep it out of the water. I also changed out of jeans to my yoga pants which could be pulled up to be sort-of shorts or at least it dries quicker than jeans. Being short meant this water was much higher on me than the typical hiker. Wading through the water in shorts also meant I was scratched up by those under water branches.

The last challenge was the finish of my hike. I started hiking the last few miles but noticed smoke above the trees. I figured it was a controlled burn but I didn’t know its area. I called the Florida Forest Service. It was controlled but recommended I didn’t walk through that section. So I called John to change the pick up point then had to backtrack to the road.

I haven’t decided if I want to do more backpacking. I certainly don’t want to do the parts of the Florida Trail with miles of walking through the water. But maybe more places like Cumberland Island.