Florida Trail

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    Florida Trail Tales 11: Blountstown to Nokuse Plantation

    Preparing for our first 30 mile day, we got up well before dawn to start hiking in the dark. We’d informed the motel managers that we’d leave the key in the room since we were leaving so early. It was pitch black when we left the hotel, our headlamps on full blast. This was our first night hiking adventures since summiting Katahdin back in August. We followed S.R. 20 for a mile or so before trying to locate a bike path that went through the north end of Blountstown, through neighborhoods. The sky was starting to lighten as we made it to the edge of town and we finally extinguished…

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    Florida Trail Tales 10: Apalachicola National Forest to Blountstown

    Apalachicola National Forest is a wonderful little place in the panhandle of Florida that has a very unique ecosystem. Carnivorous plants can be found and vast ti-ti sloughs stretch across the area. The day had started off drizzly and cloudy at St. Marks NWR but by the time we’d entered ANF it was clear and beautiful. We knew that there was potential for being wet in this entire section, particularly in Bradwell Bay, a well known swamp that the trail goes through. Chris and I had been arguing about doing it or not and during the afternoon we played phone tag with the ANF office trying to find out the…

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    Florida Trail Tales 9: S.R. 221 to S.R. 319

    After resupplying in Shady Grove we got back on the trail through more private logging areas. This time we mostly followed well drained logging roads so there was no water involved—mostly! We had a few miles stretch between U.S. 221 before we crossed over U.S. 19. This was more of a major artery into Perry than the other road had been so hitching would have decent here. We took a short break to dry out our tent in the afternoon sun. We had continuous problems with dew on the tent and had to constantly take time in the morning or afternoon breaks to let it dry. We entered an area…

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    Florida Trail Tales 8: Suwanee River to U.S. 221

    I forgot to mention in the last post that Shamrock Steve had shown up at our motel the evening before after spotting our boots out drying. He’d been doing some hiking around the Osceola National Forest area and had left us a message on our phone but we had been further than where he was planning to hike. He’d seen our note in the journal at the Madison shelter that we were planning on taking a zero in White Springs so he knew he’d catch up with us. After breakfast at the bbq joint that morning with Shamrock Steve we left White Springs. It was a sunny, beautiful morning as…

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    Florida Trail Tales 7: Lake Butler to White Springs

    As we were leaving Lake Butler the sunshine that had decided to poke through during the lunch hour seemed to be retreating. Clouds were rolling in and we still wanted to get another 10-12 miles in before stopping for the end of the day. We left town following a road west and then north before entering the Lake Butler Forest, a pine plantation owned by Plum Creek Timber. It’s a forest but it’s a crappy one. Back when we’d first met Shamrock Steve down near Titusville he’d told us of an area with these weird mounded hills that were a pain to walk across. Then it was some foreign location…

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    Florida Trail Tales 6: S.R. 19 to Lake Butler

    After leaving Buckman Lock we crossed S.R. 19 and into an area that as best we could tell was only used by ORVs. I’m not sure if it was public or private land, but we weaved through all sorts of dirt and mud roads that were completely destroyed by off roading vehicles. There was a lot of trash in this area, too, which is always disappointing to see. We ended up following a fire break line at one point, another section of fluffy sand. *gah!* Eventually we found an old, overgrown railroad bed that we followed until we found what was listed a potential campsite in the guidebook. Yes, our…

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    Florida Trail Tales 5: Lake Mary to Buckman Lock

    After resting up in the hotel in Lake Mary the next morning we ate a filling breakfast downstairs, grabbed a sandwich from the Publix deli (best ever!) and set off on our way. We were aiming to get close to Ocala National Forest so we could walk in the next day. We still had some roadwalking to do, however, and that left us to follow more of the Cross Seminole Trail through some neighborhoods. Eventually we caught up to Max and Amanda from Chuck Norris’ crew and subsequently played leapfrog with them while we paralleled Markham Road and walked up C.R. 46A. At the C.R. 46 junction with 46A we…

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    Trail Tales 4: U.S. 192 to Lake Mary

    Once we hit U.S. 192 we planned to do another 12 miles, or walk until about 4:30 and see where that got us. We stayed on the grass shoulder on 192 for the most part until we turned onto C.R. 419. Luckily 419 is a quiet two-lane country road that is frequented by mostly locals. Steve told us he’d drive up the road a bit and then walk towards us and then walk back to his car with us. Originally we planned to stealth camp near one of the creeks that was listed as a water source in the book and when we passed by it we realized it might…

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    Florida Trail Tales 3: SR 60 to US 192

    As we left River Ranch I noticed the sky had clouded over a bit. We had a road walk to connect to another road walk, this time we were headed for S.R. 60, listed in the book as being incredibly full of traffic and quite dangerous to walk on because of a narrow shoulder and sloped grass sides. Our go to find-somewhere-at-20-miles-and-stealth wasn’t going to work here. So, we’d looked on the map and decided that we’d go to where it said “information” on the map at one of the lock’s at the Kissimmee River and S.R. 60 and hope it was good enough to pitch our tent. On our…

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    Florida Trail Tales 2: Lake Okeechobee to River Ranch

    This entry will be less heavy on photos as this is where our SD card went on the fritz. Instead I will try to paint a majestic picture with my words. Or not. I’ll let you decide. After leaving our stealth site at John Stretch Park we ascended the Lake Okeechobee dike. We’d originally planned to go around the east side of the lake even though it is a few miles longer, mostly because it had an extra city or two for food. Yeah, we plan for food. But when Shamrock Steve told us about the dike being closed on that side we altered our plans and went west. This…