Camping next to a battlefield on the Florida Trail

This morning we woke up very early in our room in White Springs. The bed and breakfast was the perfect place to spend the night. The best surprise was that we even got to do laundry, which I didn’t expect because we finished the day pretty late. Once we were all packed, we left the house and headed back through town. On the way we stopped at a gas station that sold hot food. Then we both had breakfast sandwiches and some coffee to get us going. I got all my food and resupply at the store last night, so I didn’t have to worry about it this morning. After grabbing what we needed, we continued along the road that runs through the town. We finally made it back to the trailhead that took us back into the forest.

We spent the first hour walking through the nice, flat pine forest, which we had walked through last night to end the day. They were the best possible kilometers to ride a second time and I didn’t mind at all. I remember really enjoying this next section of the trail as well. I don’t really remember anything about it in particular though. After walking for an hour or two, we left the forest and arrived at another nice trailhead. Kunjungi B4m9x. This one had covered picnic tables and trash cans! So we were able to throw away our coffee cups and other rubbish and also enjoyed a short break at one of the covered tables. Then we walked through an area that had a lot of fun graffiti. And not long after we were back in the quiet forest once again.

I liked the name of this bridge. It reminded me of the song «Walkin Man» by James Taylor.

The next section of the trail was really nice because it followed the Suwannee River. There were excellent views of the river directly below to our left as we walked along the narrow path, winding along the steep banks. We even passed one of my favorite trees on the Florida Trail! For some reason, I remembered this tree by chance the other day and it made me wonder where it was on the trail. And now, just a few days later, we were walking beneath it. The tree is on the right side of the path, but its roots rise above the path forming a kind of natural arch. It really was one of the coolest trees I’ve found on any of the National Scenic Trails. It certainly makes at least the top 10 list!

Such a cool tree that the trail passes right under it. This is the angle after I turned to look at the tree before leaving it behind.

As we walked along the nice flat trail, I tried to be a little productive. I’ve been doing a mediocre job lately with my writing and other social media work. When I finished the triple crown of 8,400 miles of border-to-border calendar year, I decided to take some time, at least for a week or so. But after losing the beat, I really enjoy not having to worry about editing. Honestly, it’s hard to imagine that I managed to edit, write, and create that much multimedia content during the first 11 months of the year. I’m very happy I did it. Looking back, I realize that managing that in conjunction with the CYTC definitely made things a lot more difficult. It was a bigger challenge than anyone could imagine. But I will always be able to treasure those precious memories I wrote down so thoroughly, and I’m proud of the way I managed to fit them all into my absolutely wild routine last year.

A great Florida Trail marker.

Throughout the morning it rained lightly on us. At first I didn’t even need an umbrella or anything like that. Honestly, it was nice that it rained on us. But as the morning progressed, the feeling got a little better and I was grateful to have my umbrella. Luckily, I managed to do a lot of writing and video work before the rain started coming down harder. Once I uploaded a few things for the first time in weeks, I felt like I had been productive enough. After posting almost daily for an entire year, it’s been strange to do less for the past two weeks while I’ve been in Florida. It’s going to be very strange to end this year and change my daily routine in every way imaginable. The writing and video work is only a small part of it.

I couldn’t resist trying this Rap Snacks Honey Bun. I thought it had to be so much better than regular honey buns! But it didn’t really taste much different.

The morning passed quickly as we continued through the Big Shoals State Park area. We were mostly on the road over the course of the morning and then hit the road around 11am. That’s when the rain definitely picked up and got heavier. In theory I should have been wearing my waterproof pants. The umbrella keeps me incredibly dry and comfortable, but it can’t protect me from all the rain. Especially when it’s a little windy or raining sideways. My butt ended up soaked after a while when it rained harder. Slide, on the other hand, didn’t wear rain gear or an umbrella or anything like that all morning! He ended up soaked completely and didn’t bother putting on layers. It’s generally too hot down here to wear rain gear when it’s raining anyway. It was so funny to follow him and just watch him get completely soaked as he fell on top of us. We were both just laughing and having a good time. A little rain won’t ruin our time.

After about an hour of heavy rain, we were both completely wet. I could have wrung out my shorts because they were so soaked. Even with the umbrella, the rain will eventually drip onto my backpack in different places and soak me anyway. But then the sky brightened and turned blue again, and we felt like we were about to dry out! I knew it wouldn’t take long to dry out once the rain stopped, especially if the sun really came out. The best thing about the rain stopping was that we were finally able to sit down and enjoy a break again. There’s no point in stopping if you’re just going to get wet or cold in the process. Now that the rain had stopped, I had dried off quickly and was feeling great.

Later that day the trail opened up and went through this vast field of palm trees.

We continued walking along a dirt road for about an hour and the sun warmed us pleasantly. Then, in the early afternoon, we passed through a kind of camping area. Slide wanted to stop and get some water, so we headed there. We were both drawn to a fire tower in the center of the campground and decided to climb it. Then, halfway up, Slide noticed that there was a huge bee’s nest in the tower. We got out of there quickly and fortunately unharmed. But that could have been bad. Apparently those bees are just protecting the fire tower. We then drank water at the campsite and chatted with one of the guys who was stationed nearby. He seemed friendly enough, but he looked at us both with an almost unsettling expression and wide eyes. The only way to explain that look is that it’s almost as if the person looking at you doesn’t see you as a human being. In his eyes you are something completely different. Sometimes when people look at me in that strange way, it makes me feel like I’m a piece of food or some other novelty. I just can’t think of any other way to explain it.

Once we left the camp area, we headed back into the forest and moved quickly. The trail was flat sand covered in pine needles. And there were many pretty wooden walkways and boardwalks along the way. Later the forest opened and gave way to a field full of small palm trees. The trail itself was widened and was almost two-track. And the sky was still bright blue and almost cloudless! We had covered about 25 miles by 4 pm, which felt pretty good. We weren’t making the best time in the world, but that would certainly do the job. Lihat juga Z5p7n. That also meant we only had about 12 miles left to go during the day, so hopefully we should finish in a pretty reasonable time.

Although it was still early, it seemed as if the sun began to set shortly after. At 4:30 pm, the sky lights up and the sun is just beginning to set. In an hour or two everything would go completely dark. Earlier we had thought we might stop at a gas station later this afternoon. But for now it just didn’t seem like it was going to be in the cards. Today we would have to travel about 40 miles just to get to the gas station. Which probably wouldn’t even be open after 8 pm So who knows where we would camp near the store. Instead, it seemed to make more sense to stay a little short of the gas station tonight. There was one last place to camp before starting our next road hike, and it seemed like our best option.

A rather blurry image I took after dark as we walked along this wide boardwalk. It was an almost eerie scene at night! Slide was right in front of me and we were maybe 4 or 5 miles from the battlefield park.

It was just after 8pm when we arrived at a nice flat area covered in pine trees with a couple of picnic tables. Just beyond the nearby fence we would be reaching a sort of battlefield park area. Lihat juga Q2r8k. It was nice to not have to worry about camping next to a road or anything like that. The surrounding area was nice and quiet and was just what we needed. We both set up our tents and then had to do a thorough tick check. In fact, Slide has found a bunch of ticks recently that have made us nervous. Plus, they’ve almost exclusively been really tiny ticks, which seems even worse. Tonight he found one more with himself, so we both looked it over intensively before entering our tents. Lucky for me I didn’t find any ticks tonight! I then went into my tent and did some quick stretches before calling it a night.

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