This was a long weekend for me, I think a bit longer for my friend Christen. She drove from Cleveland to celebrate her birthday with me in the woods. As it should be, damn it. We have been friends for many years and have hiked previously together. We have always had a grand time on adventures. So, I was looking forward to heading out on this one.
I had to work Friday, but took off Saturday. That meant I had four days, but wasn’t going to be on the road until well after 9PM. I had been so busy the week coming up to going that I had zero time to dedicate to planning my escape. So, on Friday evening, instead of immediately leaving town, I had to go home, organize and pack.
Christen had booked a campsite for Friday night just off the Florida Trail. (Although we didn’t realize our fortune until much later.) After a long ride down, she arrived in the afternoon on Friday. All day I had imagined me somehow getting it together quick and being there in no time. Instead, I ended up getting tired during the ride and crashing in the back of my truck. I got there the next day.
The campsite was at a quiet spot called Camel Lake. How Christen found this place, I have no idea, but I’m sure she can thank the internet. With few campers, mostly people in RVs, the place was a welcome site. First, they has shower. Never underestimate the importance of a shower, and it was warm. The extent of this statement will be explained later. Second, they had an on-site camp-director, so the place was ship shape. You felt safe there, like vandals aren’t going to break into your vehicle while you were gone on safari.
Speaking of safari, it was hot the first day. Regular Florida hot, but I spend a great deal of my time standing in air conditioning, and Christen was visiting from Ohio in April. She also brought her dog, whom I am equally convinced was not enjoying the high temperature all that much.
Before leaving into the bush Saturday morning, our camp director informed us there was scheduled to be a pretty strong storm coming in, with it a ton of rain, but should clear up by mid-day Sunday. We continued driving on to the opposite side of the Apalachacola National Forest and found ourselves at our prescheduled trailhead. Instead of heading straight out, we walked in, turned around at a certain distance and headed back, where the truck was waiting. We ate dinner and crawled into the back of the cab. Waiting for rain.
My pick-up has a bed in the back, for those who don’t know me; storage underneath, curtains, interior locks, the works. This left plenty of room for our gear underneath, and we put the pooch in the cab with the cab and bed windows open, so we could communicate with him, and he wouldn’t feel lonely. He only barked once that night, but it was a little warm for my cohorts taste. Since I figured ahead of time, there may be a chance due to weather that we may all end up in the truck at some point, I didn’t bring the A/C because it was already tight quarters, and it usually is much cooler in North Florida than down in South Florida where I live. We suffered through. Well, I was fine, but Christen was sweating, and she wasn’t thrilled with the low ceiling on my camper top. Never bothered me really, but I can see the reason to expand the cabin at some point. Note taken.
The next morning we realized there had been no site of the promised rain storm. It didn’t exactly look like a perfect day, so we knew it was still on its way. We had already made plans to head into town to visit the local grocery for some tick spray. We found some of the little buggers on all of us that morning. Not good. Nobody had them for over 10 hours though, and no rashes. So, lucky us.
We ate, we shopped, it rained a lot. I worked on a deadline for FtMyersMagazine.com while we visited town, and eventually the temperature outside dropped.
On this trip we mostly day-hiked, and camped at Camel Lake. There was a point where I thought we were going to give up and camp on trail, but with determination we made it back just as sunset crashed down. We decided to work our way down the Florida Trail from camp, get to a side trail and follow it in, bringing us in a full loop back to camp. Unfortunately, maybe two thirds into our hike, we had to turn back. Due to controlled burns, the trail was closed. Unlucky us. I feel this is a good point to mention how much water we, or should I say swamp, we had to maneuver past before turning back. It was what it was. We made it.
Maybe a couple hours before our return to camp, I found out how afraid Christen is of hiking in the dark. Again, this doesn’t bother me much, but I have a good amount of experience running around in the dark. To spite the burn, we pushed on and pushed hard to get back to camp just as the sun went down below the horizon.
I’m not the most hard-core person when I hike, I like my little luxuries, but I know from experience I have the ability to go for about a week without a shower, an still feel OK about it. After that, I become grumpy fast. I’m happy we camped at Camel Lake, an I’m happy we got back with time to kill taking showers and eating. It made for a more enjoyable experience. PLUS, I could more easily see the ticks that decided to freshly plant themselves on various parts of my body. Again, I’m positive none of them were on us for long, Mom. I was just surprised they were there at all, since we doused ourselves with repellant and it wasn’t as brushy as the first day out. Interesting and a little scary.
We made a habit of heading into town each day and eating restaurant food, shopping for variables, and killing time off trail. A cool thing we saw was a graveyard for old trucks. All lined up on the side of the road, rusting in the sun. I’m not sure why it seemed so cool, but it was. Just some on road eye candy. My camera is still not working since I dropped it in the river on the Appalachian Trail. So, I grabbed a couple photos off Christen’s Facebook to share here.
We tried several trail heads. Some were deep under swamp water, some were just enough to let the water sink into your boots, some had little bridges built by volunteers or park services. The sun was strong. The air after the storm had turned crisp and cool. This made the hiking somewhat easier, but after many hours on trail, it doesn’t much matter the chill in the air, it becomes hot from the UV. A great thing about the terrain, there isn’t much climb to it. There are hills, but they aren’t much to sneeze at. I did wish I brought waders with me. Next time I’m in the swamp.
The canopy is frequent. Tall pine and scrub palm. Grassy at times, and swampy others. Lots of birds, and a lovely breeze. It attracts me more than the natural landscape down south from where I’m from, but still it doesn’t attract me as much as the mountains. You get those incredible views from mountains. You don’t get that in the swamp. BUT, Florida does have the most spectacular sunsets ever. So big, so brilliant, and last. It’s got its amazing qualities. Everyone should see this part, the Apalachacola once. Especially, since the small towns we visited
during our trip, brought me back to what it was like in Eastern Glades towns from back when I was young; where close little fishing communities and wildlife thrived. Small town, old world, Florida.
Anyway, we had a great time. I hope we get to do it again soon. My only regret is my friend and fellow hiker, Chrissy, couldn’t have made the trip out to join us. Hard when you have babies to raise. They aren’t little forever though, and there’s always next time, another year, again next season.
