This was written for my blog so it may be worded funny.
I have been off the trail for six months mostly due to the summer heat here in Florida. I was so glad to see a local Hammock Forums hang called The 2nd Annual Summer's Last Gasp happening nearby. One of the people responsible, FLRider, asked if anyone wanted to do a 20 mile hike into camp. Well, I am a sucker for hiking so I signed up knowing darn well my feet and legs would suffer.
Meeting My Hiking Partner
I took Friday off and got an early start on the road to meet FLRider at the Pat's Island Trail Head for 10am. I got there a few minutes early and found some strange tracks that turned out to be Florida Panther tracks. It's too bad I didn't get to see the maker. What a treat that would have been. FLRider showed up and he*shuttled us down to the Florida Trail SR19 trail head.
Off we go, having lots of great conversations about hammocks, gear and our experiences. In my daily life I rarely have the opportunity to have such great conversation with like minds. hiking in Florida is not as common as you would find out west or even north.
The Hike In
Florida is an amazing place to experience outdoors. There are so many strange plants and animals to enjoy and the weather can push you to your limits while looking like you are enjoying a sweet summer jaunt on camera. The humidity and sun are constantly sapping your strength and will to move forward. It is truly a test of your persistence.
Every 100 yards or so there is a 3 inch banana spider waiting for you to walk into her web. I don't care what the texts say, they want to suck your life force out. So I held my polls high to stay them off. Keeping a close eye on where my feet went I saw blue-tailed lizards, anoles, black racers, a beautiful and huge fishing spider. There were tracks from deer, bears, coyotes, bobcats, raccoons. On one pond in the Juniper Prairie Wilderness we saw two beautiful whooping cranes dance under the setting sun.
Around the halfway point we stopped at Juniper Springs Campground to replenish our water supplies. Let me tell you, water and A/C never was so cold and marvelous. At every one of these stops, my feet showed more signs of blistering. I have been down this road before. A few blisters isn't going to take me away from this great experience.
At Camp (Hidden Pond, Ocala National Forest)
Walking into camp we hear Grinder's warm welcome, "It's about time!". Good to see everyone again and meet some new folks. Found a spot to hand right by the fire with a view of Hidden Pond. Can't complain. The weather showed it was supposed to get down in the high 60s. I didn't bring my underquilt so I did a few sheet bends on the ends of my Tyvek ground cloth and had a makeshift one in no time. I was tired so I had a little dinner and got to bed. I took some ibuprofen and a bunch of Benadryl to help me sleep. Always the first night out I have a hard time sleeping. It was little warm and humid, but the humidity would cause me to get a chill on occasion. So the top quilt was on and off me all night. Slept pretty well all the same.
Hike to Silver Glen Spring
Saturday morning I was up to watch the sunrise. Nothing like looking out over the end of your hammock in the morning ro watch birds on a beautiful pond. The group woke up and we had breakfast. I was feeling pretty good. When everyone decided to do a 10 mile hike over to Silver Glen Spring I jumped in with both blistered feet. I replenished my empty water Aquafina bottle at the pond and headed out. First bit of excitement was that we thought we lost Grinder somewhere. He had headed out on the trail because he claims to be a slow walker. We met up with some hikers that headed out before Grinder and they said he never passed them so FLRider went back down the trail to see if he could find him. Well he came back, but no Grinder. Ah well, I am sure he got ahead somehow. We set back on down the trail. Some time later, I heard a familiar voice from behind. You guessed it, Grinder caught up. He had taken a side trail for a bit and caught up. Slow my ***.
The first stop was at an old cemetery. The dates on the headstones dated around the late 1800s to early 1900s. On headstone, for a young girl, stated "she died playing with fire". I guess that was a warning to others.
The second half of the trail got interesting and fast. Since FLRider's trip a few weeks earlier, the Southern Sandspurs bloomed. These wicket plant's seed pods latch on to anything they can find. My socks seemed to be well suited for their spikes to catch on like little mines of pain. As I walked they worked their way deeper into the thin socks and into my skin. I had to stop and take 15 minutes to scrape them off with my knife. My let was bleeding, but I felt a little better. This time I let someone else with pants lead hoping it would lessen the quantity of pods. Well nope, that didn't seem to make any difference. The whole groups suffered through this part of the trail. Grinder, being the wiser of the bunch, had enough and headed back to camp. He had already out hiked us and had seen the spring before. We finally pushed through and make it to the spring.
Silver Glen Spring is a very pretty little park. The ranger was an older gentleman who would not budge on policy so we all paid the full rate to get in. Well worth it. The cold clear spring water was the best possible medicine we could have found. The lot of us just stood neck-deep in the water for about an hour.
For the hike back we took an alternate path that took up a little further but we did not have to deal with the sandspurs again. Thanks for that FLRider. It's good when someone knows the area enough to give you options. Towards the end of the evening and the hike, I started to slow down. this would make 30+ miles and I was in no shape for a marathon. "Keep on swimming".
We spent Saturday evening enjoying more talk around the fire. What a great bunch of people. I find these hiking trips a good filter. People who want to fight, argue, make enemies, do not tend to want to hike in to do so. All you are left with are a group of like minded folks who just want to relax and enjoy nature.
http://skunkapeblog.com/2nd-annual-summers-last-gasp/
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