Trail Mile: 463 to 541
88 Store to St. John's Campground:
During the wee hours of the morning some yelling broke out and woke us up. I didn’t sleep well after that and this 88 store seems a bit more sketchy somehow and we depart early.
It’s got a whet stone and Mark uses it to sharpen his pocket knife while we talk a while longer. It’s a nice conversation. More normal after that. Sonny can tell somehow that Mark and I were high school sweethearts and tells us about agape love. Love that is unconditional like God’s love. I often say the secret to our relationship is lowered expectations, but Sonny makes me realize that maybe it’s more like trying to love unconditionally.
St. John's Campground to Iron Bridge Shelter:
Today we finally make big miles again. Woohoo!
He says with a name like that he was born into the job as lock tender. He asks us if we want the three dollar or five dollar story of the history of the ill fated proposed canal across Florida, of which we just crossed. We, of course take the five dollar one! Long story short, we visit a long time with Joe who has traveled the country working for the Army Corp of Engineers. Joe even has a fish story that rivals Sonny’s from yesterday. A small party boat was at the lock and he sees this three foot striped bass flopping on top of the water. He asks the guys on the boat to pick it up and Joe discovers the bass has an orange cracker (sunfish) stuck in his throat. He keeps the bass for supper. Along comes his boss and he thinks Joe has been fishing, which is against the rules, and gives him a dressing down. Joe tells him you can’t turn down a gift from the Lord.
She is a trail maintainer and got her trail name from her physical therapy students who thought she was a tough teacher and because she’s pretty good with a hammer. Now she is retired and works on this section of the Florida Trail and in the summer continues her quest to section hike the AT. She’s halfway so far. She tells us to look for the wild azaleas today as they are blooming.
Wild azaleas are beautiful. This is the first I’ve seen and I’m in love!
There are egrets flying over head calling out and song birds tweet and geckos keep running along the handrail and then leap off to the palmettos when we get close. It even has a cool shelter called the Rice Creek Hilton no less. We highly recommend this section.
We have lunch here and dry out our gear. We stay an hour or more as it’s a magical place. We also wash our shoes in the pitcher pump, as we walked through a lot of water today and our shoes are filled with sand. We are feeling pretty invincible, so we decide to hike over 20 miles today and take off for the next shelter another 11 miles ahead.
The cypress are leafing out. They are feathery. They are lovely. Spring is coming. Another indicator is that the oak leaves are falling off the trees. It’s weird, but we've been told that in Florida the oak leaves fall off when the new leaves push them off.
Iron Bridge Shelter to Gold Head Branch Campground:
See that buggy in the background? That’s trail angel Ron. He gets a kick out of us calling him an angel because most of the time in life people aren’t as happy to see him as he is national park ranger most of the year. He winters down here and volunteers at this park.
He suggests we get a campsite as the skies were darkening. I didn’t need much encouragement as my feet were a bit sore and the promise of a hot shower sounded good. No twenty miler today, but perhaps we’d get invited to another camper’s barbecue. Guess what? We did!
88 Store to St. John's Campground:
During the wee hours of the morning some yelling broke out and woke us up. I didn’t sleep well after that and this 88 store seems a bit more sketchy somehow and we depart early.
The trail is the same as yesterday, more pines. I find myself kind of bored for the first time on this trail. It is feeling a bit monotonous. We do see a cute cottontail bunny.
We stop at Lake Delaney Campground to dry our gear and make some coffee. I need some coffee. We left the store without having any coffee. Mark sends me off to find the reported pitcher pump. I wander around and find two guys camping. The man talks with his mouth barely open and is hard to understand. I figure out he is saying they capped the well last year and there is no pitcher pump. He beckons me to follow him over to his trailer. He says he’ll give me some water. He’s an older man with a full head of grey hair and a grey beard. His friend, back at the trailer, is a bit younger with salt and pepper hair. They keep wanting to chat a bit, but I feel insecure alone, so I scurry off, telling them that my husband is waiting. I kind of think they thought it was a ruse and that I was really all alone.
After we have the coffee and pack up we take the empty water jug back to the campers. Mostly to prove that I do have a husband. Their names are Ben and Sonny. They seem like nice guys. We ask where they are from and Sonny says nearby Palatka and Ben says West Virginia. We ask how they met and Ben says, “ you aren’t going to believe it”.
Sonny says, “Well, a couple days ago a fish fell out of the sky and almost hit me. It would have kilt me if it had hit me. It was a big fish. Me and Ben had just met and we were chatting at a picnic table. I looked at that 3 lb. bass just laying there and I saw talon marks on it and we figured some big bird done and dropped it. I picked up that fish and threw it out on the dirt road. Ben and I sit there a spell talking and along walks this man and picks up that fish. He walks over and says his name is Michael Jackson”.
Sonny says, “Well, a couple days ago a fish fell out of the sky and almost hit me. It would have kilt me if it had hit me. It was a big fish. Me and Ben had just met and we were chatting at a picnic table. I looked at that 3 lb. bass just laying there and I saw talon marks on it and we figured some big bird done and dropped it. I picked up that fish and threw it out on the dirt road. Ben and I sit there a spell talking and along walks this man and picks up that fish. He walks over and says his name is Michael Jackson”.
Mark and I start laughing.
“I’m not shitting you, it’s true,” says Sonny. “ The man says his sister is Andy Jackson, you know like the president. Anyway, that Michael Jackson pulls out a knife and filets that fish and gives it to me to cook. I cook it, but then don’t eat it, seeing how it laid out in that road a while. And that Michael Jackson showed us a whole bunch of credentials of him being retired military, although he said that the military wants him back to do a job for Trump. Michael says he doesn’t really want to do it, as it’s unsavory. Before he left though, Michael gave me a knife”. Sonny gets up and goes into the tent.
I ask Ben if this is really true. He says, “it is, although I can hardly believe it myself.”
Sonny walks back with this knife to show us.
Sonny walks back with this knife to show us.
It’s got a whet stone and Mark uses it to sharpen his pocket knife while we talk a while longer. It’s a nice conversation. More normal after that. Sonny can tell somehow that Mark and I were high school sweethearts and tells us about agape love. Love that is unconditional like God’s love. I often say the secret to our relationship is lowered expectations, but Sonny makes me realize that maybe it’s more like trying to love unconditionally.
We hike about 20 miles today and meet more people along the way. A cyclist trying to ride from Key West to Alabama and back again in 30 days and another cyclist name Cycle. He gives us hiking advice ‘cause he hiked the AT. We also meet a man section hiking, who has a small cow calf operation like us. He is very normal. Sometimes we forget that there are less colorful Florida Men.
We hike by a dam and along a river and see another coral snake. We see fisher folk and a cool old 1954 Chevy. We don’t see any gators, but signs warn us they are there.
Now we are at a campground and a couple RV'ers give us trail magic. Water, cookies and the like. We almost camped in the woods too, but the five bucks this campground cost turned out to be quite worth it. All along this hike we have gotten showered with goodies whenever we camp in a car campground.
St. John's Campground to Iron Bridge Shelter:
Today we finally make big miles again. Woohoo!
Meet Joe Locke.
He says with a name like that he was born into the job as lock tender. He asks us if we want the three dollar or five dollar story of the history of the ill fated proposed canal across Florida, of which we just crossed. We, of course take the five dollar one! Long story short, we visit a long time with Joe who has traveled the country working for the Army Corp of Engineers. Joe even has a fish story that rivals Sonny’s from yesterday. A small party boat was at the lock and he sees this three foot striped bass flopping on top of the water. He asks the guys on the boat to pick it up and Joe discovers the bass has an orange cracker (sunfish) stuck in his throat. He keeps the bass for supper. Along comes his boss and he thinks Joe has been fishing, which is against the rules, and gives him a dressing down. Joe tells him you can’t turn down a gift from the Lord.
Meet Hammer.
She is a trail maintainer and got her trail name from her physical therapy students who thought she was a tough teacher and because she’s pretty good with a hammer. Now she is retired and works on this section of the Florida Trail and in the summer continues her quest to section hike the AT. She’s halfway so far. She tells us to look for the wild azaleas today as they are blooming.
Wild azaleas are beautiful. This is the first I’ve seen and I’m in love!
I also love the Rice Creek section of trail. It’s an amazingly green and you get to walk this wild, rolling two planked boardwalk.
There are egrets flying over head calling out and song birds tweet and geckos keep running along the handrail and then leap off to the palmettos when we get close. It even has a cool shelter called the Rice Creek Hilton no less. We highly recommend this section.
We have lunch here and dry out our gear. We stay an hour or more as it’s a magical place. We also wash our shoes in the pitcher pump, as we walked through a lot of water today and our shoes are filled with sand. We are feeling pretty invincible, so we decide to hike over 20 miles today and take off for the next shelter another 11 miles ahead.
The cypress are leafing out. They are feathery. They are lovely. Spring is coming. Another indicator is that the oak leaves are falling off the trees. It’s weird, but we've been told that in Florida the oak leaves fall off when the new leaves push them off.
Coming out of the jungle we get our first trailside note. It is from Cycle who we met yesterday. Sweet!
We then enter onto a paved bike path and lightening flashes and thunder roars and leaves blow into our face and we get very wet, very fast. It’s crazy fun! We throw on our pack covers and I sing, “Singing in the Rain” and dance around. It is so invigorating being ‘in’ nature. It is such an intimate experience. The bike trail is long and straight and eventually the rain dies out and I do some banking business on my phone and we miss our turn. Oops! Our long day just got a few miles longer.
We may regret this later, but the sun sets and we hike on. We could have stopped and camped, but today we seem to just fly along and we don’t want the day to end. Mark starts imagining people at the Iron Bridge Shelter and a huge roaring fire.
When we get to the shelter we do see this huge, roaring fire and discover Mowgli and Carolina Kringle. Yay. Trail friends. We lament that we are going to run out of time to hike the whole trail and Carolina points out that if we hike 20 miles a day for the next 30 days we can finish before our deadline. Both young men encourage us to believe we can do it. I believe we might be able to do it as I lay in my sleeping bag listening to the duet of snoring and I intend to give it a good honest try.
Iron Bridge Shelter to Gold Head Branch Campground:
Left late from camp because it is so much fun visiting around the morning fire with our tramily. One of the items we talk about is trail names. It’s a long trail tradition to get renamed and protocol says you get them on trail, but sometimes people just name themselves. I personally like trail nicknames because they are easier to remember.
James (peace sign)was named Mowgli by a seven year old relative hiking on the AT. He said that the Mowgli in the jungle book never wants to leave the woods just like James. James Mowgli got back into hiking after his lungs got badly damaged working on a navy vessel while he was in the military. He was on oxygen for two years and his old scout leader suggested he get back out in the woods as a way to help heal. It worked!
Carolina Kringle got named hiking on the AT as well, as he was bringing some goodies to other hikers at a shelter. They said he was like Kris Kringle. He’s from Carolina, so he added it to the front to differentiate from all the other bearded Santa’s out there. He is really into all the plants along the trail and helped us differentiate between some of the trees.
I’m Pearl because on the PCT someone said to me “you’re keeping it classy on the trail with those pearls”, as I almost always wear my deceased mom’s earrings. I kept using the name because my great grandma was named Pearl too and she was an amazing pioneer woman who crossed the country by wagon, train, automobile and plane! I also like the symbolism of how a pearl is made from a bit of sand that gets into the oyster. That irritation causes the oyster to turn something irritating into an object of beauty. On the trail, as in life, there is a bit of suffering and I like to remind myself that good can come of it.
Mark has had quite a few trail nicknames. None of them have really stuck as you kind of have to own it a bit too. First he was Not Uncle Bob, from a case of mistaken identity when a fellow hiker thought he was his real Uncle Bob. I liked the name Uncle Bob because Mark is like everybody’s nice Uncle who helps out. Lately, he went by Merl because it rhymes with Pearl and he thought it funny. But on this hike, Sunset (a double triple crowner) said he was not a Merl, as he didn’t sing, but that he was a Hawkeye, because he spots so many things along the trail. Mark feels like the name might be a little too grand for him, and overused, so time will tell whether he keeps it or not.
We hiked a bit of trail today through oaks and pines and then a bit of road and then we stop to take this photo. Tortoise is our mascot.
See that buggy in the background? That’s trail angel Ron. He gets a kick out of us calling him an angel because most of the time in life people aren’t as happy to see him as he is national park ranger most of the year. He winters down here and volunteers at this park.
He suggests we get a campsite as the skies were darkening. I didn’t need much encouragement as my feet were a bit sore and the promise of a hot shower sounded good. No twenty miler today, but perhaps we’d get invited to another camper’s barbecue. Guess what? We did!
Charlie is a retired Special Forces officer and fourth generation Floridian. He wants to get into backpacking. He sees us and we chat all afternoon while the rain pours down outside the bathroom pavilion. He invites us back to his family’s camp for a sausage and chili dinner! It’s so miraculous how wishes keep coming true out here.
(Easiest to call the main entrance and get a camp site as you enter from the back gate. We paid over the phone. 352-473-4701)
(Easiest to call the main entrance and get a camp site as you enter from the back gate. We paid over the phone. 352-473-4701)
Gold Head Branch Campground to Lake Hampton B & B:
We try to depart early as we want to do twenty plus miles. The trail through the two thousand acre park is surprisingly hilly through more pine and oak forests. It’s also foggy, which makes for nice walking.
We get to the main gate of the park, four miles from our camp, and providentially see Charlie and his family leaving in their car. We are thankful because we had forgotten to thank him for his years of military service. He served in the 80’s and 90’s in mostly Latin America. He sees that area as a place that people don’t look to government at all, but look to ‘the man on the horse’. Meaning the strong man who is in charge in their local area. That could be cartel, a cop, biggest business man in the area, etc. In his experience humans under stress act like wolves as we pack up and follow the alpha. He likes President Trump because he considers him an alpha. As to Trump’s immorality, he felt that it was the language of strong men all over the world. It was interesting hearing Charlie’s perspective.
We don’t seem very wanted today though, walking alongside roads. We remember in the Lake Mary area how people looked away from us. Here they glare at us when we say, 'hi'. It’s at times, almost hostile. We are walking alongside the road on the grass at one point and a big un-muffled pick-up truck slows down a bit and then takes off right beside us smoking the tires. Reminds us of a dog trying to make you jump. We had LOTS of dogs barking at us too. Luckily only one was loose and it came at Mark. It bumped his legs and Mark stood still. The dog saw me across the road and it charged me. I stood my ground on shaking legs and clacked my hiking poles at the dog. It worked. The dog stopped running at me and his owner ran out and grabbed him. No apologies or anything. Oh well. All the lack of love was made up by Ethan.
Ethan was out visiting his friend and his face lights up when he sees us. “Is this a trail?” He asks. We explain we are on the Florida National Scenic Trail. He has hiked on the trail in other spots, but did not know he was on it now. He plies us with questions. He thinks he wants to hike the trail too. He also gives us some really yummy bananas he grew himself. Thank you very much Ethan for restoring our joy into meeting new people.
(Call Paula ahead of time 352-468-2703, and if she is available she will pick you up. It is more convenient for her to pick you up at highway 301, as this is only 2 miles from her home. This is also an easy walk alongside 301.)
We try to depart early as we want to do twenty plus miles. The trail through the two thousand acre park is surprisingly hilly through more pine and oak forests. It’s also foggy, which makes for nice walking.
We get to the main gate of the park, four miles from our camp, and providentially see Charlie and his family leaving in their car. We are thankful because we had forgotten to thank him for his years of military service. He served in the 80’s and 90’s in mostly Latin America. He sees that area as a place that people don’t look to government at all, but look to ‘the man on the horse’. Meaning the strong man who is in charge in their local area. That could be cartel, a cop, biggest business man in the area, etc. In his experience humans under stress act like wolves as we pack up and follow the alpha. He likes President Trump because he considers him an alpha. As to Trump’s immorality, he felt that it was the language of strong men all over the world. It was interesting hearing Charlie’s perspective.
We eventually come to a trail choice. We can hike into Camp Blanding or hike the blue trail and get a hot breakfast at the circle K store. We choose the store and enjoy walking along the bike path.
We don’t seem very wanted today though, walking alongside roads. We remember in the Lake Mary area how people looked away from us. Here they glare at us when we say, 'hi'. It’s at times, almost hostile. We are walking alongside the road on the grass at one point and a big un-muffled pick-up truck slows down a bit and then takes off right beside us smoking the tires. Reminds us of a dog trying to make you jump. We had LOTS of dogs barking at us too. Luckily only one was loose and it came at Mark. It bumped his legs and Mark stood still. The dog saw me across the road and it charged me. I stood my ground on shaking legs and clacked my hiking poles at the dog. It worked. The dog stopped running at me and his owner ran out and grabbed him. No apologies or anything. Oh well. All the lack of love was made up by Ethan.
Ethan was out visiting his friend and his face lights up when he sees us. “Is this a trail?” He asks. We explain we are on the Florida National Scenic Trail. He has hiked on the trail in other spots, but did not know he was on it now. He plies us with questions. He thinks he wants to hike the trail too. He also gives us some really yummy bananas he grew himself. Thank you very much Ethan for restoring our joy into meeting new people.
We hike a long way on an old rail bed, the Palatka to Lake Butler Rail to Trail, and it’s really pleasant walking. Very pastoral with cattle and fields and also walking through a bit of cypress stands in swamp. We enjoy it.
When we get to the city of Hampton we walk to a nearby convenience store and it's pretty rough. It has what looks like meth users coming in and out and smokers who talk real gravely. Interestingly enough, they are quite friendly.
When we get to the city of Hampton we walk to a nearby convenience store and it's pretty rough. It has what looks like meth users coming in and out and smokers who talk real gravely. Interestingly enough, they are quite friendly.
We then get whisked away in a car to the Lake Hampton B & B and it is absolutely wonderful. It’s a very nice lakeside home. Paula, the owner, is feeding her granddaughter’s softball team from Georgia Southern. There is a lot of food leftover so she feeds us too and calls around and feeds some neighbors as well. We watch an awesome sunset and now are getting ready to hit the sack.
(Call Paula ahead of time 352-468-2703, and if she is available she will pick you up. It is more convenient for her to pick you up at highway 301, as this is only 2 miles from her home. This is also an easy walk alongside 301.)
Miles hiked this section: 78
Lesson Learned: Don't stop believing.
A short slideshow of our hike from Lake Mary to Lake Hampton.https://youtu.be/y4QRCLffW90 We've passed the 500 mile mark!
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