Little Big Econ

Well first of all i think we should thank our sponsors OMG and LOL, because there was a lot of Oh My God this hurts, or Oh My God are we almost done. But like always there is a lot of laughing out loud, we seem to always find the fun in things. 
 To be honest I dont think we were ready for 8 miles, and we were kind of in a pickle with planning this hike. We know this area pretty well and knew it was going to be a hard day but i think it was harder than planned. This was a great learning experience for Deb and me, and I'm pretty sure James leaned something also.
 We started out pretty much were we finished on our first hike. We didnt do the paved on Curryville road, ( about 1.9 miles )we started on Whispering Forest Trail . So we started off in pretty good spirits except for Deb having problems with her bag, but she got that fixed pretty fast. This area had a little bit of everything to see from the palmettos, to the wide open areas, to the fern forest, and even The Little Big Econ river. We really only saw 2 people on the trail until we got into the Econ area, and then it got busy with people ( but we knew it would be).
 The campsite that we wanted was taken, but we did get our second choice, which i thought was a great location. We were surrounded by trees, which did give us plenty of fire wood. The one main problem with this area to camp in is the college is not far and the students love this place to party in. We did have noisy neighbors til about 2 am, but again we knew this could happen. This is still a great place to camp out, and it is pretty close to the house.

The thinking man.

Debis' favorite thing about hiking 

I love the signs in the middle of no where. We didnt stay here .

Brave brave girl LOL.. and $10 richer.

Can you see it on her face " Would you please hurry up" LOL

SSSSSSTTTTTRRRRREEEETTTTCCCCHHHH!!!!!

A lonely tree 

James and Me

Flagler Trail

OMG are we there yet!!??

The little big econ

We Made It!!! now weres the coffee!!!!!

There it is !!!!! looks like we can stay for a while..

 All in All we had a great time, and did get to learn a lot more about backpacking. We cant wait to get out there and do it again........

Juniper Springs Canoe Trip

A Great way to end a great day!

First we all need to say Happy Birthday to James. Dawn put together a surprise b-day party for James and it was a great day for us all. Almost the entire family was there, the others live out of state. There was only one boat that rolled over ( sorry Maria ) and very little spats. We did get separated a few times, but did get to meet up at lunch time. The spring river was low but not too low, the current was pretty strong at times, and got challenging more than a few times.  We had six boats floating and 15 people, 11 "adults" and 4 kids.
 We didn't see as much wild life as i thought we would, 1 deer , turkey, 1 otter, a few coons, and loads of fish and turtles. Oh and we cant forget Faiths " humongous man eating bug ".
 There was camping after the float, but not all of us were able to camp overnight, bummer. But we did get to enjoy the stories of what everyone saw and did.
 The people at Juniper Springs were great to us. From start to finish they were right there for us, if we had any questions they had the answers. The area was very pretty, with much to see. The main spring is right at the beginning of the canoe launch, and they bring you back after you are done, JUST DON'T BE LATE lol. The vans come every hour until 4:30 pm, you cant launch after 11:00 am. There was a van there at 3:00 when we got  to the end. I don't think this is a great canoe float for the first timer ( although we had some 1st timers there ). There were a lot of trees down that you had to go over at just the right spots, or under, or around. The river isn't very wide, and with the " strong " current, it made it challenging to make the turns in some spots. There was 1 small " rapid " that was a lot of fun, and did surprise me when we heard it , and saw it. I didn't stop to take pics of it, due to the sound of Debi when we saw it, i figured it was best just to hit it running LOL.
 I am going to load up the pics that we took, this is almost the whole gang of us.

Pamela and Brian 

Savannah, Noah, Dawn, David, B , And James ( his knee )

Debi and Shawn ( me ) 

Maria, Angelia, and Ken

Chris getting pushed off a log crossing by Ken, stay tuned there is more.  Ken  1 Chris  0

Chris freezing the water was cold! 

James helping David before lunch

Nap time for one of the twins, and daddy to be the bed

Savannah's dirty hands, enjoying lunch! She got to learn how to paddle all day.

Lunch for everyone!!!!! 

Faith and Chris 

Pamela, Brian, and Maria

Chris forgot that Ken wrestled in high school, his sneak attack didn't work. Ken  2  Chris still  0
LOL!!!!

James the Birthday Boy!!!

Dawn "chilling"

Angelia swimming

The end of the trip for us all

Another 1 down for a nap! Told ya canoeing is hard work.

still smiling

Gotta give the ladies a helping hand

still happy

telling stories about the day around the camp fire after a
great meal of burgers and dogs!! 

You gotta love a camp fire

           

Joshua Creek to Chuluota Wilderness Area

We are planning on walking the entire Florida Trail, but we are in no hurry. The goal is to complete the trail in 10 years or under. We are not walking the paved areas, but do plan on walking the loop sections. We are also planning on walking the Eastern and Western Corridors. We are also not going to be doing the trail in order, we are going to plan hikes around available time off from work and other events. We will have more family and friends on our hikes from time to time.  

We started out on a short hike, it was 4 miles from start to finish. Debi, James and I didn't know what to expect in this spot but we were very happy with what we saw. We didn't stumble into any wildlife except for a couple of cows and squirrels. The water levels were low so nothing major to cross.

The Map of the trail we walked

The three of us, Debi (left), James (middle), and Shawn (right)

The Florida Trail

Debi not happy! LOL , she did great 

James waiting

Got thick in there LOL, I loved this section cant wait to see more

This is the trail we started on ( picture is out of order )

The end of day 1, great little starter hike. 

 We are planning our next outing, we are wanting to do a overnight trip. It wont be too long, probably close to 6 miles a day.