Florida Trail: Clearwater Lake to The 88 Store

Trail Miles : 410 to 463

Clearwater Lake To Alexander Springs:

The moon is full when we awaken and we walk down to the waters edge.  A great blue heron is standing silhouetted along the shore.  The eastern sky is getting lighter in color.  We sit quietly in stillness and watch. This feels like we have entered a sacred moment watching God's re creation of a new day. Hallelujah and Amen!

We hike through undulating terrain today with pine, oak and scrub and an occasional palm hammock.  White tail deer, with their one foot plume of a tail, bound away when they see us.  Squirrels scold.   A scrub jay chatters away on top of an old snag and when I point my phone to capture its image, it flies away laughing.  Such are the antics of nature.  

We hike over 3 miles of a recent control burn.  Smoldering still, a log flares then burns low. It’s hot walking across this blackened earth.  Some of the burn came out well while other areas were too hot and most of the canopy is gone and the trees will likely die.  These control burns are good though. They create a mosaic in the forest and make it less likely to have a catastrophic fire. They will bring new life.  

We realize that a lot of Florida is made of ashtray sand.  It is everywhere and comes in all kinds of colors: grey, pure white, off white, yellow, orange, brown.  I’m sure there are other colors too.  All along this trail we see the mounds of it.  I like to think of the millions of ant miners under the earth we tread upon.  

It’s  10.5 miles to Alexander Springs and it’s two miles too far for Hawkeye Mark’s leg.  My heel/lower ankle is hurting too and upon closer inspection I realize the plastic heel cup in my shoe has become misshaped  and is pushing on the inside of my heel with every step.  Ugh!  I will need to get new shoes.   I’m slightly relieved though as I thought I was having some weird tendon issue.  

Alexander Spring is amazingly blue and we float around in the cool waters.  The spring visibly bubbles  up.  Seventy seven million gallons of water per day are released.  It’s pretty amazing and well worth a stop.   

We set up  camp and ask a fellow car camper for some ice for Mark’s  leg.  With him settled I go find a place to recharge our electronics.  The closed concession stand has some outlets. I decide to take one more swim with most of the visitors gone.  It’s very tranquil.  I check the area for gators and don’t see any, so I swim out towards the bubbly water.   I stop a bit before the middle because I get the urge to scan the waters again for an alligator and low and behold there is a four to five foot  gator heading down the river at a good clip.  I turn around and swim back ashore at a good clip myself with my heart beating in my chest.  I tell the attendant and he just chuckles and tells me that gators are shy.  Some man named Mike double checks with me on the gator’s size before he heads out to do his evening swim.  Apparently Mike works here and swims every evening.  I’m told there used to be a really big alligator who lived here, but they ended up killing it as it got big enough to where it might think a human as easy prey.   

When I get back to camp Cheryl, our next door camper, brings us a wonderful dinner.  Thank you Cheryl and Bob.  They are from Michigan and took pity on us two hobos with only ramen for dinner.  As I have said repeatedly before, the people we meet are some of the best part of this trail.  

While I am away getting our charged up electronics, a bear steals our food! Mark was sitting at the picnic table  watching fireflies and hadn’t closed the box yet and the young bear saw an opportunity too good to skip. Upon closer inspection of the palmettos behind our camp we discover all kinds of contraband as wrappers and containers litter the ground.  This bear has a routine it appears.  Bad bear.  Bad us, as I guess we need to keep the box closed all the time.

Alexander Springs Part II:

All night long that darn bear comes back and I harass him in return.  Go away bear!   In the morning we discover that he doesn’t like healthy stuff and we find my protein shake mixes and Probars.  The snickers and chips  are all gone.  Go figure.  We tell the camp office and they say he does it all the time and we need to make sure the locker is closed even when we are sitting there.  They just want to make sure he wasn’t aggressive and he wasn’t.  He was just persistent and when we would shine our flashlight he’d kind of hang his head like he was a bad boy.  It’s sad really.  I wish we and other campers had been more diligent.  We really didn’t realize that they would steal your food when you were sitting less than 10 feet away. 

We move to another site because Mark’s leg is still hurting and we don’t want to hear the bear all night again.

 We can’t hike today so we will canoe!  It is  fun and we enjoy the scenery and wildlife.  It's very peaceful on this slow river.  Later we swim  and chat with other campers.   

Tonight we discuss what to do:  keep campground camping, hike or go to my sisters again.  We are starting to think we won’t even make our original goal of half the trail.  We are feeling a bit trapped.

Another Day at Alexander Springs:

 Mark’s leg is much better this morning, so we decide to stay and rest it another day for good measure.  We are getting into this campground thing.  We have rarely done it in the past and are starting to settle in.  Ha. We try our hand at the double kayak today and travel a total of 6.5 miles.  We push it a time or two and the synchronicity of paddling fast in unison feels really good.  We have got to do more of this.  We see alligators and lots of birds and some new flowers.  We later just sit by the ‘spring waters’ and swim, people watch and read until all the people depart and the waters still and the clouds illuminate with the last rays of the setting sun.   The water looks green from the trees reflection, they are really very blue in person.  Sitting around our campfire we pop some jiffy pop popcorn and bask in the glow of the Christmas lights that someone left behind.  We marvel at the stars and the number of people around us cooking their food over an open fire.  Only a few generations ago our ancestors lived this way by necessity.  Are we choosing it by ancestral memory?  Mark leaves for a bit and returns with some homemade blackberry brandy.  The lady who shared it was reading and Mark asked her what is was.   She responded, “ Paranormal Erotica”.  What do you say to that?


Ground Hog Day:




My sister delivers my new shoes and a bit of food and we think of hiking out, but decide against it.   It’s hot and Mark still feels  a little something weird in his shin.   So, it’s another day of reading and swimming at the spring.  We are obviously now getting into it! 

Do you remember me writing about being impressed with the young men Mayor and Schweppes? I think we were in Kissimmee Prairie when I wrote about them.  Mayor is the guy with the blind dog. Well, we discovered that he is a writer and today I  finished  reading one of his books entitled,  “Lost on the Appalachian Trail”.   It’s a fun, inspirational read.  You can find it on Amazon.

Just after finishing Mayor’s book, Mark and I meet Kevin Newsome.    He’s a successful, professional photographer from Tampa.   He tells us how he stumbled into a book signing of a young man who hiked the AT. Listening to the young man’s adventure piqued his curiosity and he began to voraciously read hiking books.   When I mention Mayor, his eyes light up and he exclaims how much he’s enjoyed his books too.  Well, Kevin soon realized that what is missing from his life is an epic adventure. He  is currently planning, training and full of passion to hike the Appalachian Trail in 2020. You go Kevin! 

It’s the people we meet who are living for life, not things, that inspire both of us most. People who go after their dreams, whatever they may be.  People like Kevin. 

Many people you meet in life, say they want to travel or hike or be fit or ___you fill in the blank.  Yet they do little or nothing to achieve their goal.  I often do the same. Why is that?   I’m still not sure, but it is the current question I’m pondering. 

Mayor writes at the ending of the book I finished today: 

“What I’m trying to say, is make your priority whatever it is you want to do in life, and it can happen. If you truly want to do something, you will find a way; if not, you will find an excuse.”

Earlier in Mayor's book I remember some words along the lines of : If you simply realize that if you never give up or quit on something.... then the only alternative is to succeed at it or die of something; possibly old age in the process.   

Mark and I have decided to just keep trying to hike this trail until our time in Florida runs out, or until we die.   

Alexander Springs to Random Camp:

It felt like we would never leave Alexander Springs.  One perfect swimming day after another finally came to an end when they kicked us out for not being able to pay.  Just kidding.  Mark is ready to try again.  If at first you do not succeed.....

And look what we find on the trail.  A gopher tortoise.   It must mean something.  Go slow like the tortoise perhaps.   We start calling ourselves team tortoise.

 It was walking towards us and when it sees us it turns and begins walking away.  Funny thing is that it is walking our speed.   When Mark walks slow, he only feels tightness not pain.  He’s finding out that frequent stretching of his calves seems to help.  We are not giving up.  

We are hiking in Ocala National Forest and today and  that meant lots of pines and oak scrub.  I also get my first tick. I feel it when it implants in my thigh and I quickly scrape it off.  We meet a big group of Boy Scouts and another group being led by  the Florida Trail Association’s Central Florida chair person Bill Turman.  We have a lovely chat with them all.  

Later at Farles Lake picnic area we take a quick dip in the water and picnic, of course.  It’s a bit hot and humid.   We also see these cool Toyota’s all geared up for some off road swamping with snorkels and stuff. A few pairs of vehicles come by and take a selfie photo. It appears they are required to stop here.    There is a rally of sorts going on and 36 teams are entered with two vehicles per team.  Here is one of the teams. 

We  find a lovely camp spot under some pines with a view of the lake at mile 429.5.    We get  our tent up and our bear bag hung before a thunderstorm hits.  Now the rain is gone and we are hanging out and wondering how long before Mark can put in longer miles.  We will see.  Right now it’s time to watch a show.  The sunset hour has begun.

Random camp to Juniper Springs:

Magic morning hike under glory skies through hills.  Yes hills.  Little bitty hills that were fun to go up and down.  Can you see the undulations?  

It’s much cooler today and the humidity is basically non existent.  We didn’t sweat at all going our tortoise pace. I think we are getting in shape.  Haha.  We see some humongous spiders across the trail and break through many seemingly invisible silken strands.  We also see egrets and sandhill cranes. We  love the call of those birds.

Juniper Springs is a tropical oasis with lots of palms in the pines.  I dive into its pristine waters and the pool police scolds me.  I take a timeout and walk around.  This campground was  built under the new deal in the 30’s by the CCC.  We have it basically all to ourselves, as the famous canoe run and wilderness area is closed to visitors due to bad bears.  This means we will be walking a forest road tomorrow.  Oh well.  We are professional road walkers by now and sandy forest roads are favorites of ours.  We can walk side by side  and chat.  

A Canadian couple we met at Alexander Springs walk by our campsite.    They invite us to their camp for wine.  I was just wishing for a glass of nice red wine.    

Wine, sunset, laughter and talking into the night. We discuss family,  politics, science and universal health care.  We get to hear their perspective which is basically our current President seems to be leading toward a more dictatorial style of leadership and our country's lack of single payer health care is  appalling.  They like the health care system in Canada. They also find it surprising that many of our food prices are higher than in Canada.  Eventually, it is time for us to walk home to our tent.  We have a headlamp, but get lost anyways and wander around the campground. I’m getting cold in my thin windbreaker, tights and flip flops. We resort to  following  the exits to the gatehouse and take a photo of the campground map to find our way back.  Haha. Warm at last.  Was I really sweating yesterday night as it is now quite chilly.  Florida weather is always changing.  Bon jour and goodnight. 

Ange’ and Yves

Juniper Springs to Hopkins Prairie:

Guess who walked into our camp this morning?   Domatello, that we met back in the Seminole Forest.  He’s camping with his girlfriend and saw our Big Agnes tent and figured we were thru hikers.  Funnily enough none of us recognized each other at first. 

It was rainy and overcast all day.   The gentle sound of rain and the sweet smell of earth all wrapped  up in cheerful birdsong.  It is enjoyable and Mark hiked mostly pain free and at 2.5 miles per hour.  Woohoo.  Things are looking up. 

We saw a helicopter fly in a bear trap to what looked like the hidden pond area.  I guess they really are trying to catch a bear.  We talked to a day hiker who said a ranger talked to him yesterday and that the ranger seemed most concerned about the Rainbow Family having a gathering.  (If you don’t know who they are you can look them up online, but they are basically gypsies who travel around and free camp out in various spots and have big parties). So who knows?  Maybe they closed Juniper Wilderness for two reasons: The Rainbows and The Bears.  Sounds like a rock group.  

We have a huge fire here at Hopkins Prairie and a nice southern gentleman stopped by to see if I needed a towel.  Drowned rat describes my look pretty well.  It costs a nominal fee to camp here, but there is water, bathrooms, fire ring and picnic tables.  We like tables!  We try to hike from picnic table to picnic table.  Hahaha

Hoping tomorrow dawns a wee bit sunny.  It’s nicer to pack up when it’s not raining.


Hopkins Prairie to The 88 Store and Pub:

We are grateful the morning dawns clear as it makes packing up so much more enjoyable.  We camped under these glorious old oaks and I wonder about all they’ve seen.    

It’s a gorgeous morning and we savor it slowly.  Hiking along we see a pair of bald eagles.  We’ve been surprised to see a lot of bald eagles in Florida.  

We meet two section hikers and have a long chat.  They tell us about The 88 store, our hiking destination for the night. “Eat at Laura’s ”, they say, “she makes some good chicken fried steak”.  They also say that it’s a bit sketchy at the store/pub, but that everyone is nice.  I’m a bit nervous, but look forward to a new experience and some local color. 

Mark is hiking well today and leaving me in the dust.  He’s back!  

We hike along the prairie then enter pine forests and oak scrub.  It’s been very similar in all of Ocala National Forest. We see more bear sign and a bit of deer sign, but the only mammals  we see are squirrels.  There are many scrub jays taunting us along the way and we learn from a sign that they are Florida scrub jay and the only bird species to be confined entirely to the state of Florida.  You learn something new everyday! 

The 88 store does not disappoint and we sit down and have a beer and soon are visiting with the locals who tell some far fetched tales.  One guy with long grey hair, a black tank top and a big gold medallion on a gold chain, tells me about the bears.  “ They are 600 lbs. with heads this big”.  He holds his hand at least 18 inches apart. “See this coffee can,” he says, “ their legs are this big around”.  I tell him he’s pulling my leg and the cute, barefoot, female bartender wearing a onsie polar fleece pajama with deer on it,  agrees.   

A young man introduces himself.  He’s Will and he’s drunk and it’s only 2 pm.  We find out it’s his 30th birthday and his woman left him yesterday and took his three kids.  “I’m okay”, he says, but it’s obvious he’s not.  We talk a lot with Will, he’s telling some big stories too,  but mostly he just wants us to listen. He asks if we have a gun and we tell him that’s a personal question, then he offers  to give us a gun for protection. He says we can mail it back when we are done hiking.   He also says that his favorite place on the planet is right here in Florida ,sitting under some oaks draped with Spanish moss blowing in the wind and hearing that same wind blow through the long leafed pine.  

 Laura next door really does know how to cook some good country food.  It’s delicious and inexpensive and comes with a piece of cake.  We eat on an old picnic table in a screened in porch while a thunderstorm dumps buckets of water outside.  A lot of people stop by and get takeout.  Laura apparently feeds a lot of folks around here.  

Two guys drive up in a windowless van and they grab a beer and ask to use some duct tape.  One jokes and says it’s for the lady they have tied up in the back.  I don’t know why, but I tell them it’s not very funny and now I gotta inspect their van.  I’m only half joking.  Everybody is cracking up and I open the van and see wires and electrical stuff.  Dave says I would have been surprised if Dennis’s mannequin had been back there.  Well, Dennis proceeds to tell us about his mannequin.  

He says that he got her to mess with people.  He would drive around with her like she was his date and take her to restaurants and into the 88 Store and Pub.  Eventually he kind of tired of her listless personality, even if she was a cheap date, and Dave’s grandma was opening a thrift store and bought her to display clothes on.  As he left, Dave says, "that’s a real Florida Man there".  He tells us there is even a website called Florida Man that chronicles all the crazy things Florida Men do. 

All and all everyone  is very nice here and we don’t find it too sketchy, just full of characters, but then again it is a Wednesday night, perhaps it is wild on a Saturday night.   Dave who runs the place is really hiker friendly and we get showers (wear shower shoes!) and wash our clothes and charge our gadgets and we are now camping out behind the store. 

Miles hiked this section: 53 miles
Lesson Learned:  Don't give up.

( Dave at the 88 store also offers a shuttle service, currently $1 a mile.  They will also receive packages and it is a good option as they had a very minimal resupply available.  Both of the Spring concession stores had better food choices for resupply on the year we hiked through though.)