[at-l] Valentine's Day Hike - Trip Report

[sblovedoves at bellsouth.net (SBLoveDoves)]

This past Saturday, Rich (Solar Bear) and I hiked about 12 miles in the
Seminole State Forest, just north of Orlando.

There was a fairly light rain throughout most of the day, but we had decided
early on to just let our clothes get soaked instead of putting on rain gear.
It was sort of fun to do that, especially since it wasn't really cold out
that day.  The temperatures stayed between about 65 and 75 degrees, which
makes for great hiking weather in my opinion.

At one point, I was walking in front of Rich, down a narrow part of the
trail, and I probably would have stepped on an eastern diamondback
rattlesnake (about 5 feet long) which was slowly crossing the trail in front
of us, if my view had been obstructed at all by rain gear or anything else.
Instead, I saw the snake in time and stopped just a few feet from it.  Then,
the snake stopped moving forward and we both looked at it for awhile (from a
point beyond striking distance, of course).  It really was a beautiful
creature (with a very distinct and bright pattern, as though it may have
shed it's skin recently).  But, I was also happy when the snake felt
comfortable enough to continue moving across the narrow trail clearing and
off into the saw palmettos, where we could no longer see it.

Further down the trail, we saw dozens of scrub jays and a few other types of
birds too.  And, the sharks teeth that we found in a secluded little spring
area near the trail were pretty neat too.

So, all in all, it was an exciting and beautiful Valentine's Day hike with
my sweetiepie (who had written a very romantic poem and presented me with it
the prior evening). :-)

Cheryl / Swamp Blar