[at-l] Florida Trail trip report (long)

Saturday, December 23

Arrived at Suwannee State Park at 4:00 p.m.  Found out the trail doesn't go 
through the main part of the park on the south side of the river, so we went 
to a highway where the map showed that the trail crossed.  We hiked about an 
hour until we arrived at the river, although we were on a bluff not close to 
the water.  Set up our tent (the hard top to our new tent) and went to bed at 
6:45 (we'd gotten up at 3 a.m that morning for our trip.  Slept well except 
that I kept sliding into Dan.  We heard beaver tails slapping the water early 
Sat. night and early Sun. morning.

Sunday, December 24

Hiked along the Suwannee River all day.  The weather was a bit chilly but 
sunny and dry.  We decided to eat our Christmas dinner tonight so we wouldn't 
have to carry it. There were beautiful white beaches along the river, and 
large cypress and live oak trees.   We stopped at one about 1 p.m. to have 
lunch and clean up, on the Alapaha River, a tributary.  The trail follows it 
upstream a short distance to a bridge, then back to the Suwannee.  It was 
chilly, but warm enough to clean up a little.  That's nicer than staying 
dirty all week.  I combed out my hair and fixed it a bit to make me feel more 
human.  

After some road walking on a trail re-route, we did met two men in a pickup 
who were taking pictures of the big cypresses and the Holton Creek rise 
(headwaters).  That was fascinating.  A rather still looking pond was 
actually the beginning of Holton Creek.  It has an average discharge of 288 
cfs.  A hundred yards downstream the creek was already 10 feet wide and 
flowing swiftly.  When the trail returned to the Suwannee River, we camped on 
the trail on a narrow, flat, sandy top of the river bank.  It was like a 
river levee, and like many other places on the river, the water behind the 
"levee" drained away from the river into low areas where water would collect 
and cypress trees grew.  But those low areas are dry now.  We ate our 
Christmas dinner...canned turkey, stove top stuffing, craisins, mashed 
potatoes, three little pies (cherry, blueberry and apple) and chocolates.  
MMMMM!     

Monday, December 25

We continued hiking along the Suwannee.  It was beautiful.  There were white 
sandy beaches along the edge of the river.   In some places the river bank 
was a vertical wall of eroded, rough limestone.  We thought we might stop to 
use the phone (Christmas Day) at the campground near highway 129, but it was 
on the other side of the river and we weren't certain how far it was from the 
trail, so we skipped it.  We crossed under the highway at that point.  The 
Florida Trail stays near the river but also passes through the backyards of 
new houses in a development area.  That night we found a beautiful beach to 
camp on.  Dan set up the tent and then built a fire.   Instead of going right 
to bed because we were cold and tired we sat up for an hour or so and visited 
by the warmth of the fire.  That was special.  The noise of the interstate 
was four trail miles ahead but only about .5 mile as the crow flies, and 
could be heard from the trail.  Down on the beach it was quiet, with the 
river bank blocking out the noise.

Tuesday, December 26

Today we are hiking 12 miles to White Springs, FL.  The carillon was playing 
Christmas music and could be heard for 20 minutes before we arrived at the 
Stephen Foster Culture Center.  We thought that the SFCC had cabins to stay 
in but when we arrived there was only camping and it was still pretty chilly. 
 We enjoyed visiting the culture center, which the trail passes through.  
There was a small motel just outside the park which was reminiscent of the 
hiker hotels on the AT.  It was small, old, but clean so we stayed.  I washed 
out our stinkiest clothes and hung them in the room to dry.  They almost 
didn't.   The one café in town closed at 2:30, so we had to quickly go to eat 
without bathing which I didn't like.  But the food was good.  We decided to 
go back there in the morning for breakfast since they opened early.  The 
Florida Trail is on the north bank of the Suwannee River to this point.  It 
crosses to the south side in White Springs.  We have met no hikers or 
backpackers in 3 days/50 miles.

Wednesday, December 27

Before leaving town we had a nice breakfast at the Country Café, and we 
needed it because it was a long day, especially with the re-routes.  We ended 
up hiking about 22 miles, starting out for the first few miles along the 
south bank of the Suwannee River, but leaving the river for the last time 
where a re-route begins.  The Big Shoals on the trail were not accessible 
because the trail was routed away from there.  The long re-route was sparsely 
blazed and difficult to follow.  Dan was using the old map and didn't see the 
route that Jon Phipps had penciled in until later and many re-steps looking 
for the trail.  We didn't have enough water to cook and when we finally found 
water at Robinson Creek someone had thrown the carcasses of four deer in the 
water.  Dan went upstream slightly to get some water, but it was difficult to 
get.  He filtered out most of the leaves and sticks out with a bandana and 
then we cooked with it.   We sat on the edge of the road to eat.  It was 
actually hot today.  I hiked in the afternoon in shorts and a jog bra. I 
think Dan said it was 76* on his thermometer.  That was the warmest it had 
been all week.  It's been rather chilly up to that day.  Many hunters were in 
the woods, and we used orange bandanas on our packs or heads.  We finally 
reached a road at dark but didn't know where the West Tower campground was.  
Dan decided we would walk down the road, although in the light of all our 
many side trips that day I wasn't crazy about another one.  We found the 
campground .2 miles to the south, with water and privy...nice.  Dan set up 
the tent while I got water and cooked.  We were beat, but the temps were 
still warm so it wasn't too bad.  We both slept well and didn't have to 
cuddle too close to keep warm.  

Thursday, December 28

We wanted to get up and out early that morning to cover the remaining 16.4 
miles by 4 p.m., but couldn't because we were beat.  It had begun raining in 
the night so we didn't hear the alarm at 6 a.m.  The stove wouldn't light, 
but the caretaker heated water for our oatmeal for us.  We finally got 
underway at 8:30 a.m., in a light rain and 60* temperature.  Around noon we 
reached the one shelter in the 85 miles we hiked.  It's nice and spacious, 
with a tin roof and no walls.  The MSR fired up this time after cleaning out 
the sand.  We were almost finished with lunch when a group of about 10 scouts 
arrived.  The rain came down harder after lunch, and the trail continued 
through pine plantations and scrub palms of Osceola forest.  We saw three 
wild turkeys today.  In order to meet our ride at Olustee Battlefield at 4 
p.m., we decided to road walk on 250A for several miles.  We were having a 
grand time in the rain, stomping in the puddles and splashing each other.  We 
had just crossed I-10 when a friendly ranger stopped to talk and he suggested 
that we stay on 250A to get there quicker.  Harry, our shuttle, drove up 
while we were talking.  He had reached Olustee early, and came looking for 
us.  We did not turn down the ride, and aborted the hike with 5 or 6 miles to 
go.  This was a good move, because the rain soon increased.

As we hiked, we wondered if Nimblewill Nomad was ahead or behind us.  Later 
we found out that when he reached a point near the GA/FL state line, he took 
a break for Christmas.  Otherwise, we might have seen him.

This was a wonderful backpacking trip.  The river adds a certain charm that 
was missing in our Christmas 1999 backpack on the Florida Trail in Ocala 
National Forest.  We especially enjoyed the 50-mile stretch between Suwannee 
River State Park and Steven Foster Culture Center.

Gutsy and Dan
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