12-Mile Fisheating Creek Hike

Yesterday I met a group of 9 other awesome hikers at the Fisheating Creek Outpost in Palmdale, FL.  Our group leader is somewhat known for just finding or creating his own trails.  He had used Google Earth previously to find his own way of hiking from Ingrams Crossing back to the Outpost.  We had the shuttle driver drop us off at the canoe put-in, forded the now shallow creek (due to it being dry season) and began our hike back to the outpost.

 We basically followed the fence-line along the Lykes Bros. property.  Sometimes we would walk along the fence and sometimes in the dry cypress floodplain.

The morning started off slowly since we kept running into wildlife we wanted to look at.  We saw many wild hogs since that area is overrun with them, we saw a couple of deer, lots of birds, a pygmy rattlesnake, and some baby gators!

On our lunch break we realized that we had only walked 4 of the 12 miles and were making not such great time.  So in the afternoon we had to pick up our pace with fewer breaks and photography opportunities.  After around 6 miles, we had to turn back into the forest and cross the creek again to follow another fence-line.  At this crossing we could see an old hunt camp.

After 9 miles we came across some wild orange and grapefruit trees and just had to stop for a snack.

At this point we were all more tired than on a normal hike since we weren't exactly hiking on a trail.  We were having to pick our way through waist-high grass (while avoiding snakes) and stepping over cypress knees which wears you out pretty quickly!  We continued hiking for another 3 miles or so until we finally got back to the outpost right at sunset.  We finished the evening off with some drinks and food at the Clewiston Tiki Bar then headed home.