Christmas in July

Yep you guessed it another backpacking trip in the middle of the summer, and where else would you rather be than Christmas Florida. We figured what a better way to spend my 40th B-Day than out in the woods on the great Florida Trail. Well lemme tell yea it was a totally different trip.
 We had our parking areas plotted out and our trip, but after a little scouting trip I didnt see what i wanted to in St. Nicholas rd. parking. There wasnt a great place to leave a truck overnight. Me and James talked about it a few times and figured it would be ok, but both of us were a little worried about the situation. Saturday morning I was still a little worried, and i guess so was James. He called me and we changed areas, we decided to meet up at Taylor Creek Rd. and Hwy 50 then we would find a spot in the Tosohatchee W.M.A.   there was plenty of parking there we knew but it was unscouted by us. No problem, so we drove around and found a spot, did a fast scouting trip down a trial and found the orange blaze that we needed, great , now lets get to our starting point. Yates rd. Just a few mins down the road we get there. Now we are ready for a none prairy, nicely shaded, July hike! HMMMMMMM,

Yep were are in the right area.

Thats us, and no we didnt plan the white shirts, just trying to stay cool.

Did i say plenty of shade?

  As you can see the shade didnt happen quite as planned, but surely we will get in the shade soon. We start out about 11 am, and in no hurry, we just want to enjoy the walk. As always there is plenty of laughing and talking. The sun isnt too hot yet, and there are some clouds, this section is just a road and then the shade in about 30 mins or so ( about a mile ).
 We did learn from the last trip, so water wasnt a issue, all together we had more than enough, and also had sun screen, and plenty of bug repellent .
 After about a half hour we make it to the trees we all wanted, the shade was going to feel nice, and with the breeze it would be even better.

did i say shade? My Bad!

So it turns out there had been a fire out there, dont know if it was a wild fire or control burn, who cares NO SHADE!! LOL. Its all good, we are still enjoying the moment and enjoying the trail. Trail? What Trail? It tuns out that when there is a fire, the blaze orange gets burned off of trees also, and when there is no canopy the grass grows faster. There were a few blazes and at times the trail was easy to find. There was a time James says " I may have to break out the compass". and he did. This isnt what i would call a easy hike at all. Dont get me wrong it was still fun, but we had to split up and find the blazes at 1 time, and had to use some skills from our orienteering races. I really am glad that we didnt bring anyone new out here. This kind of walking really is harder than normal. I dont think Debi really had this kind of hiking in her mind, i know i didnt.
 On the plus side we are out in the Real Florida, and to be honest I really enjoyed the change in scenery difference from ocala. There is nothing wrong with ocala, but change is good.

Trail? What trail?

there it is, now if we could just catch up to them.

 Debi and me slowed down as the grass got taller, and the ground got wetter. The thing about no shade is tall grass, and disappearing trails. The advantage of no canopy is well we found one.

  this is the only one there, i have no idea what brought it out there, but i was nice to see.
 Did i mention the area was alittle swampy at times? We were close to the great St. Johns river, and it turns out the closer to the river we got, the more water the ground would hold. So squish squish with every step. Advantage in this is no hills to go up and down, disadvange well to mention a few, wet feet ( which can add to blisters on your feet), skeeters , skeeters , and a few more skeeters.

watch out for the nails sticking out o the wood

You Can Do It

Any one find the shade yet?

After a couple of hours and a few miles we came to a cross trail. That was a good spot for lunch, and a much needed break. The trail did get much better in this area, we weren't far from a good stopping spot for the night.

Lunch time!

 I havent really talked about any animals, mostly because most of what we saw were the signs of animals, it seems that the hogs really like it out there, and the deer probably enjoy it there also.James did see one deer that was running off, i guess we are alittle loud out there.
 Back to the trail LOL, after a break and some food, we are off again. Not much longer after lunch we came across one of the most interesting creek crossings .

watch your step

Yea that middle one is just a little bit wobbly, First i cross just to check, Then Debi ( who wasnt very happy bout this one ) , James then Ken. Come to find out, that when everyone crosses the blocks get looser and looser, We almost got a good laugh at Ken getting wet, but he made it.

Its always good to see trees! SHADE!!!

gettin closer

We Made IT

WOOT WOOT!!!! 

 So here is camp, oh yea did i mention? We arent supposed to just camp anywhere out here, and the campsites were just too far to make it there in a day trip for us. So we " winged it". We figured the worst thing that would happen is they would ask us to leave in the middle of the night. So here is camp, we were right on the water, and hung out on the bridge all day. The breeze was nice to have and the conversation was great.
 We didnt set up right away for obvious reasons, We did some looking around to find a good spot to hang our hammocks. We knew that we werent going to do a fire because of the heat. So no "work" just relaxing. We get the Therma-cells out  to help with the skeeters, And i was impressed how well they work.
 It was nice to have a cup of coffee and some fig newtons, and just chill on the bridge. All we needed to do was set up the hammocks and go to sleep.

debi and my set up.

Debi was petty worn out and not feeling good, so we set up earlier than Ken and James, so she could lay down when she was ready.
 We really just hung around the bridge most of the day and listened to the bull frogs, or was it hogs? hmmm, Shhhhhh dont tell Debi..She was on boogar alert all day and night. The hogs were bad out there but i think there were more frogs than hogs. Or were they BOOGARS?!!!

 The sun was starting to go down and BAM!!! a rainbow appears, the pic doesnt do it justice, you could see all the colors and it went forever.
 Ken and James decided to set up there hammocks on the bridge so they could enjoy the breeze all night, i didnt think it would work but they pulled it off .

I just hope no one wants to cross the bridge tonight. That couldnt happen right? well come to find out, it could.
 Deb and I went to bed about 9 or so, and didnt take long to fall asleep. Then a couple of hours later i hear Ken say " someones coming", my first thought is gamewarden, so i wake deb and get out of the hammock, and see the truck lights, then i hear them talking, nope not a gamewarden but a couple of guys which seem to be frog gigging. But i think we ruined there spot. After they left it was hard to fall back asleep, but i managed to get a few more hours, deb not so much. We left our pillows at home trying to save some weight but it wasnt worth the sacrifice. And when the therma cells went off the skeeters would tear us up.
 So its morning, about 6 am , time to start the coffee and try to wake up, eat some instant oatmeal , and bandage up the blisters, break camp , and head off.
We left somewhere around 730 am. We have about 4 miles to go, hopefully the trail will be nice to us. Yea thatll happen. i have one word SWAMP. Yep its gonna be a wet walk out and thats not good for blisters. Te trail wasnt bad for the most part on this leg. But when it got bad it was BAD.

at least there is shade

deb with here flops on due to the blisters, walking a few miles with flops was the lesser of 2 evils

SWAMP, and yes we went right through the middle, flops and all

getting ready to leave 

Powerline Road, I can see for miles and miles!!!!

I forgot to mention, we had a armadillo right under debs hammock, and Ken and James chased off a black racer on the trail. Didnt see many ticks, and No Chiggers!!

We made it out about 10 am with a few blisters and wet feet, but all in all it was a Great 40th Birth Day, and cant wait for the next trip!!!!!
 Thanks Debi, Ken, and James for being there! Yall made this trip a great one!!!!!!!!

 So everyone is getting on board for this blogging stuff, check out there blogs and see how they enjoyed the trips. Their blogs are just starting, and i am very interested in the progression of the blogs. Thanks again for reading!

Debi
Ken