[at-l] trip report -- Florida Trail-- part 1

[Kyvcat at aol.com (Kyvcat@aol.com)]

eArThworm and Vcat's Swamp Thang
eastern part of the Apalachicola East section of the Florida National Scenic 
Trail
Part 1 

Actually, this wasn't totally, or even mostly, a swamp thing, but that seemed 
like a good name for a four-day hike on the Florida Trail. 

After I accepted eArThworm's invitation on at-l for someone to join her on 
her birthday hike, we made plans. On Friday, Feb. 18, I drove the five and a 
half hours from Tavares north to Tallahassee. Thanks to eArThworm's great 
directions, I found her place with no trouble. She lives in the very sort of house 
you would expect from an outdoors person and naturalist, cedar surrounded by a 
yard full of trees, screened porch in the back, bird feeders and a squirrel 
playground in her back yard. Ha. The playground is really a couple trees and the 
screen on her porch.

We had met before, but had fun getting re-aquainted, watching Weathercarrot's 
DVD, and organizing our packs for a Saturday departure. Also, as Hummingbird 
mentioned, eArThworm's house is a combination of AT library and natural 
history museum inside. It was a great place to visit.

We had carefully figured out exactly when we needed to leave Tallahassee, but 
assumed we would wake up in time and didn't bother with setting alarms. Turns 
out we got up about a half hour later than planned, but decided to stop at a 
local outfitters despite being late. Then -- surprise -- we found we were an 
hour ahead of schedule, so eArThworm gave me a tour of the FSU campus, 
including the library where she worked until she recently retired.

We even managed a short stop at Leon Sinks, an area with many sinkholes. 
There is a trail of about three miles, IIRC, that takes visitors by many sinkholes 
of various sizes, but we had time to visit only one. This would be an 
interesting place to visit at another time.   Orlando, about 40 miles from where John 
and I spend the winter, is a long distance from Leon Sinks, but we often read 
of sinkholes there opening up to swallow cars or even houses. 

>From Leon Sinks we proceeded to Crawfordville to meet eArThworm's daughter, a 
very charming, outgoing person, who joined us for lunch and then shuttled us 
to the trail. The subway in Crawfordville is not used to folks in hiking 
clothes, boots and gaiters. We got a few looks. I had not hiked on the Florida 
Trail before, so I didn't know what to expect in the way of landscape. Probably 
every expectation would have been wrong, as we passed through quite a few 
different environments during our four days on the trail. Our first day was to be 
only three miles because of our late start. We planned to stay at a campsite 
marked on the FTA map. 

We started the hike on Rt. 98, just south of Rt. 319. The trail started off 
through a wooded area with fairly easy walking and then took us onto a bog 
bridge. The area wasn't really very wet, so we figured the need for the bog bridge 
came in another season or a wetter time. The weather was perfect for hiking, 
not too hot nor the humidity too high. With the easy going and good weather, 
we overshot our intended stopping place. We had expected some kind of marking, 
perhaps a blue blaze to the campsite, but there was no indication of where it 
was and no way to tell where we were.

At 4:30 we decided that we needed to stop to have enough time to pitch tents 
and cook meals before dark. We did drop our packs and go a ways up the trail 
to see if we were just short of our intended stopping place, but apparently we 
weren't. Our only limitation was that I had forgotten the cardinal rule of 
getting water whenever it was possible. I had gotten focused on the campsite, 
which the guide said had water, and expected to have plenty upon arrival. So we 
passed up a really good water source. Fortunately, eArThworm had some extra 
water and was willing to share.

We pitched our tents in the only place clear enough for them, right in the 
middle of the trail. We decided nobody else would be along at that time of the 
late afternoon -- probably more to justify our putting our tents there than 
from any real reason to believe nobody would be hiking then. ;-) We then started 
perfecting our campsite technique. For a long time I've had a Thermarest thing 
that, coupled with a mattress pad, makes a chair. Also, for a long time I 
haven't carried it with me because of not needing it and so not wanting to carry 
the weight. But I knew I wouldn't have the shelters and picnic tables of the 
AT on this trip and decided to bring it along. It was well worth the 9 oz it 
cost me. eArThworm has one of more the chaise lounge variety, and we used our 
chairs constantly in camp.

Anyway, our campsite technique was first to pitch the tents, get water or do 
other essential chores. Then we put our chairs where we wanted them. Then we'd 
get everything from our packs that we thought we would need for the evening 
-- cook kit, food, water, fuel, and, in my case, even my pill box and contact 
lens stuff. The goal was not to have to move once we got seated until after our 
meal. We didn't always manage, but we got better and better at it. That chair 
thingy really saved my back too.

This first night, I brought out the chocolate chip muffin I'd snuck along as 
a birthday cake for eArThworm and put a couple candles on it. Since we were 
both busy with our tents, I managed to get the candles lit and start singing 
Happy Birthday before she noticed what I was up to. This was the beginning of a 
fun trail party. There was a lot of humor on this hike and a lot of fun and 
laughter. I wish I could remember some of our banter, but I suspect it was 
probably of the you-had-to-be-there kind. 

The first night was cold. I had decided to bring my new Western 
Mountaineering 35-degree down bag. (An aside here about the dangers of spending most of the 
summer in Damascus.   I got to know the guys at Mt Rogers outfitters very 
well.) With temperatures expected to be about 40 to 45, I knew this bag was 
borderline because I sleep very cold. If I laid on my stomach or back on the pad 
with my arms folded so that no part of my body hung over, I was warm -- just too 
uncomfortable to sleep. If I laid on my side with a knee cocked out, I got 
very cold. I didn't have to touch the ground. Just a body part hanging over air 
was enough to bring shivering cold. I put on my thermal top and bottom, a 
micro fleece shirt, fleece socks, and a balaclava. Not enough. So I added my rain 
suit. For some reason I had the notion that I would become toasty as soon as I 
put this on because of a VB effect. Not so. I was really cold and don't think 
I slept at all.

eArThworm said she didn't sleep well either, but mostly because of the huge 
moon. After we were in our tents, I often thought she had her headlamp on 
because of the bright light outside the tent. She even thought her headlamp was on 
and tried to find it so she could turn it off. One of the differences between 
the At (at least the parts I've hiked) and the FT is that, on the FT, 
campsites will mostly likely not have trees. In fact the whole concept of bear bagging 
was ludicrous. Our only choice at this first campsite was a pine tree so tall 
we would have had to have been lumberjacks and climbed waaaaaaaay up to have 
reached a branch. So, foolhardy or not, our food bags were in our tents with 
us.

eArThworm's lounger chair is really nifty, especially the way her tent is set 
up. The lounger stays on her pad at night, so she can pull back the tent's 
entrance flaps and sit in her lounger to cook on her stove just outside the 
tent. The closest thing to breakfast in bed I've ever seen on the trail. And 
because there's no vestibule over the stove, the cooking is safe.

Other gear comments: I was also using a new internal frame pack, the Granite 
Gear Ozone, for the first time other than a trial run. I have always used an 
external before. I loved the fact the Ozone weighed at least two pounds less 
than my Kelty Tioga. And it fit very well and was comfortable. Very light packs, 
like the G4, kill my back, but there is enough suspension on the Ozone for it 
to work well for me. I did not like having to dump everything out to get 
anything. With the Tioga, I was used to being able to get to things in the pockets 
and to knowing exactly where everything was. With the Ozone, I could find 
things I needed during the day as we hiked because it does have two open pockets 
on the outside, but even though I packed according to what I expected to need 
first or last, once in camp I always seemed to be getting everything out so I 
could get to something else. 

This was the first time I had used the Nomad 2-for-2 on my own. It was always 
big enough for two before, mostly because I left my pack outside. Now, I had 
to laugh about two people using it, because my gear was spread out the length 
of the tent. I learned to unpack everything at night and not repack till 
morning. I really like this tent. In Florida humidity there was more condensation 
than I had experienced before, but I had my pack towel and would just wipe it 
down. Usually it would dry in the sun before we were ready to go again.

Vcat