Day Two

The next day's hike was to take me near Lake Kerr (a recreation area like Lake Delancy), and would be my first major road crossing (Highway 316). The map showed a Forest Service hunting office (upper left of map) located on the South side of the road near the trail, and I thought it might have water available. The road was paved, and you could hear cars a mile or more away, so it was no problem getting across without flashing anyone. The trail curved toward the hunting office (which I could see was boarded up now that hunting season is over), and I hiked along it a little, then cut cross country to the back of the building. Sure enough there was a pumphouse on one side, and the electricity was still on. I filled my water bottle, drank nearly all of it, and filled it again before getting back on the trail.

Maybe a mile down the trail, I came on a blue-blazed side trail marked with just the word "water". Since I had just tanked up and had a long way to go yet, I didn't stop to investigate. I hiked on till lunchtime. Consulting the map during lunch, I saw I had two more major road crossings left for the day. Highway 314 and FR88 (which was actually paved from here on South). From my experiences so far, I new they would be no big deal.

As I approached 314, I saw a white van through the trees. I wondered if someone had parked there to hike. (I had been following footprints someone had probably left on Sunday. Nothing fresh, but I figured if I'm hiking, maybe someone else is crazy enough too.) I soon saw this was not the case. I saw a green star on the side of the white van, which in Florida usually means it's a county sherriff. And the sherriff's office usually only uses vans to transport multiple prisoners.

Sure enough, I started seeing orange vests through the trees ahead. The jail road-work crews wear the vests for increased visibilty when they are doing road-work. As I got closer yet, I realized that of all the places along the highway they could have stopped, they picked the TRAIL CROSSING for their lunch break!

I didn't have the time to sit and wait for them to move on, so I wrapped the towel around my waist and cinched the hip strap over it to keep it in place, then as casually as I could, walked through the group, crossed the road, and continued on the trail on the other side. Surprisingly, the only words said by anyone was a friendly greeting by someone in the work crew. Once out of sight of the group, I stopped to restow the towel behind my back. Amazing how uncomfortably warm that towel was for just 200 yards or so of hiking in it!

My next destination was a group of ponds northwest of Hopkins Prairie (marked "Tuesday" on the map). I figured on being able to refill my water supply there, as well as cook with the pond water. (I carry purification tablets for drinking water on these trips.) As the first day, I was hiking about 11 miles. It's a good thing I hadn't planned any more, because I just wasn't in that great shape. When I arrived at the ponds I was looking for, I was too spent to continue.

The ponds were bone dry. (Remember the drought.) I had to ration my remaining water until I could replenish at Hopkins Prairie the next day. Other than that, it was a nice campsite, I thought.

After setting up camp, I wandered around a bit, and found not only was it excellent "bare country", but that it was in fact bear country as well. I found a pile of bear droppings about 200 feet from my tent. Needless to say, the food spent the night in the bear bag that night.






Here's the nearest "pond". Looked more like a meadow with the drought.







Just before moving on the next day, I heard a dirt bike or ATV coming up the trail West of me. (All motorized vehicles are prohibited on the trail). Whoever it was turned off on a side trail on the other side of the pond.

Day Three