After leaving our stealth/trespassing campsite for the night, the morning was dawning as if it was going to rain. It was spitting when we got up that morning, we ate our breakfast in a hurry, took down camp and hit the road, literally. We had a couple of miles left before we entered the woods […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
