Fort Clinch Tent Camping

For something new, I tent camped at a nearby state park. The trip started exciting enough. When I got there, they said they didn’t have my reservation. After looking through the computer more, they realized I was a month early. I really screwed up on my reservation! I’ve heard about people doing this but this was a first for me. Luckily, there was an opening for tent camping (RV sites were completely full).

The sites were nice, but given that I’m used to camping with no one nearby it was weird having neighbors. But I had clean water and a bathroom fairly close so that was cool.

My first hike was a combined hiking and mountain biking trail. There were a lot of ups and downs with roots and rocks. Kudos to those mountain bikers. It was hard enough hiking without tripping over the roots. I am not a mountain biker so this trail looked tough to me.

The second hike was along the beach. Sunrise was pretty.

Lots of birds.

The fort.

I met a lady who was shark tooth hunting. She hadn’t found any sharks teeth either. But she met a guy who gave her a handful of teeth he had found that morning since he had so many at home. She gave me a few of those teeth. Very nice!

Short trip, but fun.

Ocala National Forest

I decided to backpack Ocala again after my trip last year (1,2). This time was shorter, only 3 days and 50 miles. The forecast changed for my 4th Day to steady rain and 40s during the day and freezing temperatures overnight. I was not ready for that so I called John for an early pick-up. I am quite wimpy.

The first night was interesting too. My shoes got wet getting water from the nearby pond so I kept them outside the tent. The next morning they were frozen solid. I couldn’t fit my feet into them until I brought them into my sleeping bag and squished them to break up the ice. Besides the shoes, instead of dew on the tent it had ice. What fun!?!

It was peaceful hiking then I would be surprised by a fellow hiker along the trail. Over the trip I met 1 thru-hiker traveling south, 5 day hikers, and 7 overnight hikers. Oh, and a Boy Scout troop hiking the trail. Compared to my West Virginia trip, this was a busy but very flat easy hike.

The most interesting encounter was a place called Hidden Pond. The locals hike out to this camping spot. I was there to fill up on water when I noticed 5 teenagers preparing to camp. There were reports of an aggressive bear there just a few days ago. I warned them but being teenagers, they felt they could fight the bear or something. The next morning they hadn’t seen the bear but had heard it. Nope...I was happy to be camping elsewhere.

I didn’t see that many animals: sandhill cranes, egrets, herons, deer, and squirrel. I also saw bear scat and bobcat tracks.

Went through one area that had a controlled burn 4 days before. A few logs were still smoking.

With 50’s most days, the hiking was good. No sweating! So, an enjoyable trip.