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Well this Thanksgiving weekend we decided to do an overnighter. We headed back to the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park and do a longer hike up along the Suwannee river. Well I learned something new about hiking in the US as opposed to Newfoundland, Canada. Even hiking you have to reserve a campsite. I guess I am just a small town guy. Down here they call them primitive camp sites *groan*. Well, it seems that Thanksgiving weekend is very popular for campers. All of the sites there where booked. The rangers pointed us to Torreya State Park.

Torreya was about a 2 hour drive past White Springs. So we got on the phone with the Torreya ranger and booked us a "Primitive Camp Site". Upon arriving there where some groups of teens booking sites. Luckily they didn't want to do any hiking so they where all located in the regular sites. We grabbed a map and headed out on the trail. The trail we where to take was called the Torreya Challenge. It is about 7 miles to the site up and down a moderately hilly path. No, it wasn't an AT Thru-hike, but for a couple of web developers, it was plenty of fun. I recall getting to the top of on hill and saying, "Here is a great place to stop and eat lunch".

When we got to camp we say the Apalachicola River to the right of us. What a view. The photo below through the trees was the view from the campsite. A short walk down the hill brought you to a rocky peninsula. Since your basically in the river, I got some great shots from there. I also filtered my water from there.

That evening, we where tending to a small fire and heard a rustle in the trees. I looked over with my headlamp on and saw a set of eyes staring back at me. The creature slowly walked off looking back once in a while. If I would have known that I would find my food back six feet from the tree it was hanging from and torn apart by some critter, I may have chased the eyes into the woods. However, all I was left with was a bag with a hole and a pile of oatmeal, chocolate milk and empty fruit bar wrappers. Grrr, they where great bars.

Torreya State Park, Florida

Walking the Florida Trail - White Springs, Florida

Nov 4, 2006
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White Springs

On Saturday two friends and myself went for a hike on a section of the Florida trail. Starting in the town of White Springs (Dueling Banjos playing in the background) we hiked south on the Florida trail. The trail followed the path of the Suwannee river. Florida hasn't gotten much rain this year so the river was very low. This was actually interesting to photograph because it turned a rust color and the varying depths changes the tones.

The walk is a nice change from most of the landscape I have come across in Florida. There are actually some hills. Because it was so dry, there where no signs of swamps. The only thing that would give away a previous location of swampland was Cypress Knees jutting out of the ground.

About 5 miles in we came upon a washing machine sitting in the middle of the forest. It was my assumption that this was used by the local Native Indians in the last century. My theory would be flawless if I could just figure out where they plugged the darn thing in.

White Springs

For this trip I decided to wear my Chaco's (sandals). Well I figured that since there where hills, I would tighten them from there normal loose fit. After about 30 minutes, the strap wore a nice red groove into my toe. I loosened them up and I was set for the rest of the trip.