He had heard about me through other campground hosts. Very cool! Mom pulled up to the picnic table I was sitting at, at 3:30. She had taken the long way around, and done a lot of sightseeing over on the other side of the forest. We drove down to Shanty Pond to camp with the Escapees. |
March 1st Did laundry and hung out with the Escapees. |
February 28th Drove from Disney to a campsite up in the Ocala National Forest last night, got there at 11:30 at night. We hung out with the Escapees boondocker group and enjoyed deep fat fried turkey, tons of different potluck dishes, as well as wild boar and venison. Mmmmmmm.... Had a lot of fun talking to people around the campfire. |
February 19th 2003 Miles: 16 Dead Animals Seen: 12 (Sung to the tune of "The Song That Never Ends") This is the road that never ends It goes on and on my friends I foolishly started hiking it, not knowing where it would end It's 9pm and I'm still hiking it because This is the road that never ends... (Sing in a loop until you reach the end of the road...) |
Hiking out this morning was cool, with overcast skies and thick mist. I would catch glimpses of fuzzy brown cows off in the distance, as I stepped higher to avoid the bountiful cow patties. Traveling through the cow pastures, I felt like a ping pong ball, bouncing off fence lines, veering in totally different directions at each painted blaze. The mist soon broke up, letting in the hot Florida sun. The mist burned off, leaving a completely blue, clear sky. |
The mercury steadily rose through the day, the sun unrelenting. My brain started to feel quite fried, like an egg over easy with burnt, crispy edges. |
It didn't help that more than half of today's walk was on paved roads. Black, shimmering asphalt does not a cool day make! Even the Amtrak trains sounded like they were panting as they whizzed past me, clickity clacking on their tracks. |
Dark storm clouds would glide overhead, tempting me with the promise of a cooling rain. The temperature would drop slightly as they covered the sun. Then they would slide to the east, leaving me pounding the pavement under the scorching hot sun. |
The scenery was quite boring, comprised of hundreds of acres of lumpy cow pasture, sparsly populated by free range cattle. Everytime I would go by a clump of cows, I'd say hello, and moo out to them. Range cattle are quite jumpy, and would usually immediately flee in the opposite direction. I spent a lot of time staring at my shoes. My last pair of Nike Airs delaminated at the soles. I took them back to Snyderman's, who then gave me a new, flashier pair. |
February 20th Miles: 16ish Dead Animals: 15 Peed by the side of the road: 10 times Today was more of the same, cow pasture and pavement. Schlep schlep schlep, lots of heat, lots of time to space out. The most exciting thing that happened was when I tried to follow the Florida Trail through stick-tight and thorn bushes that were at least 12 feet tall. |
The Florida Trail veers off a paved roadway, over a rickety wooden fence, and into a power line right of way. The trail goes for 1 mile, before rejoining the same paved road. I dutifully hopped over the fence, following the blazes ... and ran smack into what you see in the picture to your right. I tried to fight my way through, whacking the sharp thorns and stickers away with my hiking poles, trying to stomp down the plants at the base. I lost all of the blazes, and couldn't see a thing through the thick, sharp vegetation. I was practically in the backyards of several households, some of which had very mean looking, barking dogs. I decided to forget it, and started to fight my way back out to the road. |
Exasperated with the brambles, I looked up just in time to see the top of our van, turning around and going back up the road. "Wait, MOM! I'm right here! Stop!" I stumbled forward, trying to untie the #$^#&&*!@#$ vines from around my ankles. I half ran, half stumbled back out to the road as fast as I could. Mom wasn't there, so I rang her up on the cell phone and asked her to turn around. I stood by the roadside and picked off stick-tights while waiting. I pulled off several hundred. I looked down at my legs and noticed they were totally scratched up and bleeding. When mom swung by to pick me up, she had me wipe off my face ... I was scratched and bleeding a little there, too. Mom fed me some lunch leftovers she had, and dumped me back where she had picked me up. I continued, but this time on the road. The rest of the hike was fairly uneventful, except when the trail veered off the road and onto cow pasture. I tried to follow the blazes, but decided to heck with it when I couldn't find them any more. It was a newly blazed route, and I had no idea how long it was or where it would end up. |
The Florida Trail had tacked up a sign to let hikers know about the route change. The sign, as you can see, was extremely helpful. The rest of the day was blistering hot, as usual. |
February 21st - 23rd Miles: Lots! They just weren't on the trail :-) I woke up on the 21st, all set to hike off into the wilderness for a few days. Mom took a detour before dropping me off at the trailhead to go buy gas. It looked to be another scorcher of a day. While catching up on my pocketmail, I learned it was to be 85 degrees. ICK! I then decided to skip ahead a hundred miles or so and come back down when it had cooled off :-) So, we started driving upstate. Mom and Zeke were both glad ... the further north we got, the cooler it got. We headed towards Orlando, and stayed at a local KOA campground. For 3 days we hung out, caught up on our mail, and took breaks to sneak into some Disney resorts and use their pools. |
We tooled around the Wilderness Lodge, where I made good use of their water slide. The water felt soooo good after the past 3 days of broiling heat! We visited the Polynesian, where I snuggled up to some of the statuary. We were set to go swimming when a huge thunder and lightning storm rolled in, making the lifeguards close down the pool. |
Why, you may ask, where we killing time in Orlando? Well, a really nice woman had invited us up there to park in her driveway. She said we could come visit, and she'd let us into Disney World for free! Needless to say, we took her up on her offer :-) She was away for the weekend, so we were killing time while waiting for her to get back. |
February 24th I called up Jackie, the nice lady who invited us to Disney for free. She gave us directions on where to meet her, and we all zipped over to the Animal Kingdom. Bringing us in through the main gate, she got mom a wheelchair and told us to have fun. She then gave us a map on how to get back to her house, and let us loose in the park. Mom and I were in awe. We had never been to the Animal Kingdom before. It is so darned cool! |
The first thing we did was get on the Kali River raft ride. I got totally drenched! Mom a little less so. |
Towards the end of the ride, the rafts go under a pedestrian bridge. On the bridge is a green button that people can press. Pressing the button makes two elephants that the raft goes between squirt large amounts of water out of their trunks. Sneaky! |
Next, we went on an African safari. We saw lions and tigers, but no bear. We also saw Giraffe, Zebra, Elephants, Crocodiles, Hippo, and a lot of exotic African animals I've forgotten the names of. The striped horsey looking animal in the picture below is related to the Giraffe, and only the Giraffe - not a horse. |
Afterwards, we walked through the jungle on a nice paved pathway. The animals were behind fences, walls, or glass, unlike the safari where they run loose. Good thing too, because we got to see a tiger up close and very personal! |
I wheeled mom all around the Animal Kingdom in a wheelchair. She hates my driving, though. For about 5 minutes, she made me sit in the wheelchair and experience what it's like to be pushed around. I can see why she doesn't like being driven... |
Right before the Animal Kingdom closes for the day, they have a parade. It's full of puppet animals and music - sort of a cross between Disney and Bread And Puppet. |
Even our dog Zeke got into the Disney mood |
Though the tiger couldn't care less... |
February 25th Spent the day at Jackie's and talked up a storm. Pawed over each other's backpacking gear. Also worked on updating the web pages. Didn't take any pictures .... |
February 26th Zeke stayed at Jackie's house and played with her two dogs all day. Zeke has a crush on Bonnie, the Jack Russell Terrier. Mom has aways wanted a Jack Russell, too. Mom and I tooled around MGM during the day. MGM is full of movie themed rides and attractions. When you hold onto the umbrella in this picture, the lamplight turns on, and it starts to sprinkle above you... just like "Singing In The Rain" That night mom and I watched fireworks over at Epcot. The show is amazing! They must spend several hundred dollars on fireworks for each show. My favorites are the ones that boom, then shimmer and fizzle like sparklers. |
February 27th Went to the Magic Kingdom. It was crowded! My arms are really starting to feel tired after pushing mom around the parks in a wheelchair. Especially with all of the rude people who cut in front of us, or try to push us out of the way. After the millionth encounter with rude people, I told the two teenage boys who cut in front of us that cutting in front of a handicapped person was a great way to find themselves in a wheelchair. |
February 28th Drove from Disney to a campsite up in the Ocala National Forest last night, got there at 11:30 at night. We hung out with the Escapees boondocker group and enjoyed deep fat fried turkey, tons of different potluck dishes, as well as wild boar and venison. Mmmmmmm.... Had a lot of fun talking to people around the campfire. |
March 1st Did laundry and hung out with the Escapees. |
March 2nd Map Miles: 10 Pedometer Miles: 11.11 Last night I woke up and turned over to Mom. "Have you seen my hammock lately?" I asked. This morning I did a car search and came up empty. I realized that my hammock is still in Jackie's backyard, more than a couple of hours away. Whoops! Mom drove me to the trailhead, planning to pick me up later that night. The plan was to hike by day, and have her pick me up at road crossings by night. That way I could hike Ocala National Forest without needing my camping hammock. |
While cooking breakfast in the parking lot, a bunch of cars filled with college kids drove up. They quickly got out their packs and started suiting up to hike down the trail. They invited me to hike along with them if I wanted to. Woohoo! People! They were the first people I've seen backpacking the trail since I started in Key West. I pulled down some backpacking food from the roof, and started to pack for 5 days. I began hiking about an hour after they left, and caught up with them about an hour down the trail. |
At about 4:30 PM and 10 miles down the road, we ran into a spur trail for Alexander Springs. The springs were absolutely wonderful! We swam around, filled up water bottles, and headed back to set up camp. On the way out, a lady on a golf cart pulled |
up next to us. "Do you have money?" she asked. We all looked at each other ... "Ummm, no, why?" "It's $4.00 a person to swim in the springs" She looked exasperated. We all immediately started apologizing, telling her we hadn't known. She gave us a lecture about the springs being private property and that unless we paid, she could have us arrested for tresspassing. She then let us leave without paying. Phew! When we got to the gate, Matt and Tyler were there. They had shuttled a car up to the ending point, then caught up to us. When they tried to find us in the springs, they too, were told they had to pay. When they told the guards they were looking for us, the guards came to find us. Nobody had said anything to us earlier about paying, when we walked by the guard station... |
Supper was macaroni and cheese with mashed potatoes for the group, and polenta cheese soup for me. Bear bagging later that night was hilarious! Their food weighs a ton. We had to have two teams of people ... one team to pull on the rope, and another to push up on the food bags tied to the other end of the rope. While talking around the campfire, we found two scorpions underneath John. Eek! He put them in one of the cookpots, and got them to fight each other. After finding the scorpions, the group let me crash in their tent. I had been planning to sleep under a tarp. |
March 3rd Map Miles: 17 Pedometer Miles: 20 Matt (the leader) told the group that if they hiked 17 miles that day, he would pay for a night at a developed campground with hot showers. Everybody was really excited about the idea, because It rained ALL DAY LONG! I suppose the sign warned us, though... |
The trail was nicely graded and pretty flat. There were only a few rough spots, like crossing a creek. After one person crossed, they would throw their pole or poles to the person behind them to use. |
A bunch of people who crossed over to the other side were standing on the bank with their cameras ready, in case anybody fell in. The last person to cross was Jake. We asked him to pretty please fall in, to make a good picture. Alas, he didn't ... he only teased us by crossing without poles. Look Ma, no hands! |
When we got to Juniper Springs campground, the college group set up camp near a picnic pavillion. We all took nice long, hot showers. I left my things with mom, who was camping nearby, and brought a bag of tootsie rolls over to the group. They were cooking all of their meals over an open fire, and hadn't gotten supper on the road yet. I hung out for a while, then went back to mom's campsite to go to bed. |
March 4th Map Miles: 10 Pedometer Miles: It had a nervous breakdown The rain didn't stop last night, and was still going strong this morning. Mom and I ate Huevos Rancheros for breakfast, along with some fresh strawberries and canned cream. I brought a bag of fresh oranges over to the college group, who were getting ready to have two packets of instant oatmeal apiece. |
Whoever planned their food menu should be shot. The poor college kids are subsisting on fumes. Ahhh well, live and learn. I had a lot of fun talking to everybody, but was really antsy to get on the road. Mom had already left the campground by the time we all got on the road at noon. It rained off and on all day. The highpoint of the day was when we stopped for lunch. They had one english muffin with PB&J apiece, while I had tabooli. One of the kids had never eaten a PB&J sandwich before! |
Sunculp (I know I'm probably butchering how you spell your name ...) was fun to watch. You never realize how wierd or complicated a PB&J sandwich is until someone makes and eats one for the first time. |
When we got to the campground/road crossing at 5:30pm, mom pulled up. She had already paid for a nice big site, and told the campground host about us. He was really excited to meet everybody, and even waived some pesky rules to allow the entire group to stay in one site. He had even hand selected it himself. All of the kids were really excited to stay there. It would be dark in an hour, and here was a nice site touching the Florida Trail. Even better, my mom had bought lots of fresh fruit for the whole group. The leader, Matt, wasn't so happy. He wanted the group to hike a few more miles that day. Everybody was arguing about if they should stay, or if they should keep going. |
Mom told them the weather forecast (Rain imminent tonight, continuing till morning, then 80 degrees and sunny), then we stayed out of the argument. Matt said "Ok then, let's take a vote. Who wants to keep going, raise your hand" One person raised their hand. "Ok then, we're all in agreement. Let's get going" You could tell that the group wasn't very happy...but they put on their packs. Anne and John took pictures of our van and of me, then went with the rest of the group. Mom and I returned to our nice campsite. We waved goodbye to everyone as they walked by our campsite a few minutes later ... we were practically right on the trail. A lot of forlorn looks went by... |
March 5th Map Miles: 20 Pedometer Miles: 24.40 |
This morning I got up and started hiking at 7 AM, which is my usual time. I found the college group 25 minutes and 1.1 mile up the road. I felt like being cheeky and congratulating Matt on making an excellent leadership decision last night. I mean gosh, that extra 25 minutes hiking got them an excellent head start on the trail! They only had to set up camp in the dark, try to get a fire going in |
the rain to cook their supper, and fight off the hoards of mosquitoes in the marsh that they were camped right next to. I gave the group a bag of red and golden delicious apples. The kids were extremely appreciative, but Matt clearly wan't pleased. I skedaddled before saying anything I shouldn't have. |
The rain cleared up and gave way to a mostly sunny day. The lush longleaf pine forest would occasionally give way to burned or clearcut areas. I got to a side trail leading to Store 88 at noon. I left mom a message that I was there, and enjoyed a Klondike bar, a bottle of orange soda, and some Roadkill Jerky for lunch. Mmmmm.... Hiking in Florida is a real treat. Because it's so flat, an elevation change of a foot or two drastically changes the landscape. Pine scrub would give way to hardwood hammocks, home to huge oak trees draped with Spanish moss. |
Every mile, the landscape would be totally different. I arrived at Lake Delancy campground at 3:10. Mom, who's usually right on time or a little early to pick me up, was nowhere to be found. I wandered around the campground for a while, then knocked on the campground host's door. He hadn't seen her all day. As I was getting ready to leave, he asked, "Hey, are you that girl who's hiking a really long ways, whose mother meets her along the way?" |
He had heard about me through other campground hosts. Very cool! Mom pulled up to the picnic table I was sitting at, at 3:30. She had taken the long way around, and done a lot of sightseeing over on the other side of the forest. We drove down to Shanty Pond to camp with the Escapees. |
March 6th Mom and I get mail from home sent to us via General Delivery evey so often. Today we learned that Peter had accidentally sent our mail to Crystal Springs, instead of Salt Springs. We had to drive 4 hours down south to get it! It was the equivalant of driving from our house in Vermont, down to Boston, Massachussetts to pick up our mail. Oops :-) |
March 7th Since we were in the area again, Jackie let Mom, our uncle Alby, and I into Disney for free again. Thanks, Jackie! Alby lives near Syracuse, NY. He often flies to where we are adventuring for a quick visit ;-) We spent the day at Epcot and MGM. Mom and I went on the Tower of Terror for the first time .... right after eating lunch. The Tower of Terror is so cool! You're seated in an elevator, with a metal bar across your lap. When the elevator suddenly drops, you're tight against the bar. The seat and your butt no longer have contact. |
The next time you find yourself being impatient with a slower paced handicap person, remember - you're not the one who's handicapped. You should be thankful you aren't. And if you cut in front of my mom's wheelchair while I'm pushing it, I will run you over. :-) Although, my mom might get hurt in the process. Perhaps I'll rent a steam roller instead and go on a rampage ... |
You get dropped multiple times. When shooting back up several levels before being dropped back down, you whiz by open windows and can see just how high you really are. EEK! Alby didn't go on the Tower Of Terror, but did have lots of fun with the 3-D glasses from the nearby Muppet movie. |
