Florida Trail: Tamiami Trail to I-75

This past weekend I joined a group of hikers for a 3-day backpacking adventure through the section of the Florida Trail that crosses Big Cypress between the Oasis Visitor Center on Tamiami Trail to Mile Marker 63 on I-75.  We were a group of 10 hikers with 2 others joining us just for one night who were then heading back to Oasis.  The weather had been pretty warm leading up to the trip but temperatures dropped quickly a few days before, which meant we wouldn't have to worry about bugs!  We met early on Saturday morning at the Oasis Visitor Center and finished some quick packing and making sure everyone was prepared with proper footwear and hiking poles.

We finally started hiking around 8:30 AM.  The trail was a lot easier than we thought it would be with water never being higher than ankle deep.  We stopped for lunch at 7-mile camp.  After eating, one member of our group who had hiked this section over 25 times took us into a cypress dome nearby to see the remnants of a Marine Bomber plane that had crashed there in the 1940s.  On the way there, we saw a Fish & Wildlife officer on a swamp buggy and invited him to join us in the dome.  It must have been a bad plane crash since pieces of the plane were all over the dome.

We headed on for the last 3 miles to 10 mile camp, some of which had some very sticky mud that wore us out.  10 mile camp was very large.  It was nice, flat pineland with many scrub palmettos with many tent sites available.  We pitched our tents then headed to the nearby cypress dome to filter water.  We were able to collect lots of firewood for that evening since we knew it would get down to around 40 degrees.  We had a relaxing evening around the campfire.  Because the site way fairly open we were able to view the stars and watch the moon rise.  We were all in bed by 9:30 though.

Relaxing at 10 Mile Camp

Our tent

Being fashionable at camp

Sunset at 10 Mile Camp

The next morning we got a bit of a late start at 9 AM.  According to our maps, we had 12.2 miles to get to Oak Hill Camp.  The plan was to stop at 13-mile camp for lunch.  13-mile camp is actually 7 miles north of 10-mile camp but is 13 miles from I-75.  The first bit of trail was very muddy and wet.  But the whole morning we were in and out of cypress/mud and pines/grass.  The neat thing about hiking in shallow mud is being able to see all the animal tracks.  We saw panther, coyote, deer, and raccoon tracks all along the FT.  At one point we were on dry land for quite a while which allowed us to pick up some speed.  We got to our lunch spot at around 1 PM.  13-mile camp is quite overgrown and not very large.  It is dry, though, with some palms and pines.

Heading out from 10 Mile Camp

Trail at start of Day 2

We were under the impression that it was only another 5.2 miles to get to Oak Hill Camp with a halfway point at what was marked as "Barbed Wire Fence" on the map.  Leaving at 1:45 PM we figured we would get to camp in plenty of time.  Unfortunately, we did not know what type of terrain lied ahead.  I ended up hiking mostly with my dad in the afternoon and the first section wasn't too bad but we kept wondering why it was taking so long to find the fence.  We finally got there around 3:30 PM.  That meant we still had 2.6 miles to go with sunset being at 6 PM.  After leaving the fence, you find yourself in complete cypress forest walking through knee deep, uneven sticky mud and water.  

Very wet trail

This slowed us down tremendously.  I had chosen to wear Keen sandals which was not smart since the mud was pulling them off my feet every 10 steps, slowing me down even more.  We were already tired from hiking so this section just sapped the rest of our energy.  What else was frustrating was that the sun was slowly getting closer to the horizon and there were no pine trees or dry land in sight.  Finally around 5:45 PM when we only had about 15-20 minutes left of day light, we saw some pine trees up ahead.  We figured we could at least stop there and retrieve our headlamps to navigate in the dark.  You can imagine our excitement when we realized that this was our campsite.  2 others from our group had already arrived and had the fire going.  However, there were still 6 other hikers way behind us.  We collected water and tried to have things ready to help the others when they arrived after dark.  The last group finally arrive at 6:15 PM.  Just as the last rays of sun disappeared.  According to our trip leader's GPS, we had hiked 14 miles that day, without ever leaving the trail.  This meant that the map numbers were not accurate for that section.  Exhausted and dehydrated, we ate dinner and sat around the campfire.

Relaxing at Oak Hill Camp

In the morning we were able to appreciate the beauty of Oak Hill Camp.  There are oaks, palms, and many other types of trees on this small area of raised land in a sea of cypress swamp.  There are a few tent areas with a main trail going through the "island".  The best place we found to collect water from was right on the trail.  There isn't a whole lot of privacy here and when nature calls you end up having to bushwhack through some brushy areas.  Luckily, the weather was chilly because had it not been, this would have been mosquito heaven.  Overall, I would recommend camping at Oak Hill Camp, but if coming from 10-mile camp, make sure to get an early start.  On our last day, we packed up camp and got a bit of an earlier start at 8:30 AM.  Our pickup time at I-75 was set for 3 PM and we didn't want to make anyone wait.  It was 7-8 miles back to the highway.  We agreed to meet at Ivy Camp for lunch.

First part of trail on Day 3

The last morning was by far the worst part of the trail.  I didn't know there were that many types of mud. Throughout the trip we hiked through sticky mud, dry mud, shallow mud, cottage cheese mud, squishy mud...you get the picture.  The 4 miles between Oak Hill Camp and Ivy Camp were through knee deep water with squishy/sticky mud and uneven ground underneath it.  Not being the front, you can't see the bottom so you have no idea if the ground you are stepping on will be 4 inches under the water or 12.  The best way to described it is that you feel like a drunk, blind person trying to walk on sand with bricks tied to your feet.  Normally, I only use one hiking pole but I think I would have been better off with two since I kept my pole in my right hand and was grabbing onto any small cypress tree I could with my left.  To fix my shoe situation, I had wrapped the tightening elastic around my ankles, which caused the plastic piece to dig into my skin which hurt a lot but it was really the only choice I had.  We were exhausted after 1.5 hours of hiking and found we were only doing about a 45-minute mile.  It tooks us 3 hours of non-stop hiking to get the Ivy Camp.  Ivy Camp was very small with almost no privacy but it did have to beautiful cypress domes nearby.

Stopped for lunch at Ivy Camp

Seven of us had our lunch there while waiting for the last three hikers.  After 45 minutes, we called them on our hand held radios and they said they were stopping at a previous hammock we had seen for lunch since they were too tired but would get back on the trail soon.  We told them we were going to head out and that instead of taking the trail the whole way, we were going to take a service road to shave off 1/2 mile.  The service road was mostly underwater but at least the mud underneath was a bit firmer and easier to walk on.  We were able to blast through the last 3-4 miles in no time.  The FT eventually merges with this road and we arrived at I-75 around 2:45 PM.  The 3 hikers in the back had only reached Ivy Camp at 2 PM due to water filtering issues and assumed the afternoon was going to be as difficult and radioed to us that they probably wouldn't be out until 6 PM.  We told them to take the service road since it was much easier and it wouldn't take them that long.  Unfortunately, they missed the road turnoff and followed the trail back, but got there around 4 PM.

We made it!

The Florida Trail makes the Appalachian Trail seem luxurious with all its shelters and picnic tables.  On the Florida Trail, you're just happy to have dry land.  This was one of the most exhausting trips I have even been on.  I haven't yet decided if I would do it again.  For anyone interested in doing this section, here is some advice:

Footwear:  Do not wear Keens or any other type of sandal that allows in debris.  The first 2 days, I wore Keens with no socks and I was constantly stopping to pull twigs and rocks out of my shoes.  These types of shoes also build up a 1/2" layer of mud between the sole and your foot.  On day 3, I wore socks with them and this kept out most of the debris but they were still full of mud.  Keens are just not built to withstand this kind of abuse since mine were brand new when I started and by the time I finished, a lot of the glue and stitching had come undone.  The hikers in our group who had no problem at all were all wearing minimalist sneakers.  Even my dad just wore a basic pair of Reebok sneakers and didn't have any issues with the mud.  Also, I highly recommend socks because we found that those without socks were getting bitten by black water beetles.

Pants:  Wear long pants!  Yes they were get a bit heavier from being wet, but if you don't your legs will be completely cut up from the sawgrass.

Weather:  Most of the campsite would be insanely buggy if it were not cool out, especially Oak Hill and Ivy Camps.  Make sure to pack bugspray if it is not going to be cold out.

Pack weight:  Walking on that kind of terrain already throws your balance of tremendously, so having a light pack is key.  No one in our group had a pack over 30 lbs and no one had problems with their weight.

8th Annual Ten Thousand Islands Canoe Trip

This past week, the usual suspects geared up to head out to the Ten Thousand Islands again.  Luckily, my husband was able to get the time off work to join us this year for his second time.  We wanted to further explore some of the northern islands so we chose to again leave from Port of the Islands.  However, to avoid the boat ramp fee, we left from a park just on the north side of the road on the water.  

Phil, Alec, and I at the launch site

We brought 2 of our own kayaks and rented 2 canoes from Everglades Adventures through the Ivey House.  They were by far the best place we have rented from any year.  They were on time (even though we weren't), flexible, and had great pricing even for non-hotel guests.  We got started about an hour later than intended which made us nervous since we didn't want to end up fighting the tide.  We still had plenty of time to make it out of the long, boring channel though before the tide changed and even saw some wildlife.  

Roseate Spoonbills

White Pelican

We weren't 100% sure of where we wanted to camp yet but knew it was between the north side of Panther Key, Hog Key, or Whitehorse Key.  We stopped for a quick lunch on the south side of Panther Key then headed around the gulf side, passing some feeding Bull Sharks,to head to Hog Key. While Hog Key looked beautiful from far away, it was definitely lacking in camping options.  Over the years we have become somewhat of campsite snobs and now only the prettiest will do.  We jumped back in the canoes and decided to head back to Panther Key.  We chose the spot right near the lagoon entrance.  

Our campsite at sunset

The next morning we decided that we would keep our campsite for the next 2 nights and just do day trips to explore the other keys in the area.  We first headed back over the Hog Key to check out a beautiful cove Eric told us about.

Path to cove on Hog Key

Cove on Hog Key at low tide

Next we headed over to Whitehorse Key since we had seen many beaches on it on Google Earth.  Whitehorse Key ended up being gorgeous with many beautiful beaches to camp on.  We ran into a couple of guys from Tennessee who said the rest of the group was on the other side of the island but we didn't hike all the way around.  

Exploring Whitehorse Key

Next, I wanted to go check out Dismal Key, where a hermit used to live.  We still haven't learned our lesson and yet again did not have a GPS, but it looked easy enough to find on the map.  Unfortunately, somewhere we took a wrong turn and ended up in some lagoon.  We were able to backtrack and get back to our campsite but I was super disappointed.

That evening while we were cooking dinner, my husband set up a fishing line baited to catch Bull Sharks.  Sure enough, within 30 minutes we heard the whirl of the reel and we hooked a bull shark.  Everyone took turns reeling it in so we could get pictures before releasing it.

The next day we decided again to attempt to find Dismal Key.  This time, Eric gave us good directions since he is expert navigator, and we found it without any problems.  I had read the autobiography written by Al Seely (one of the former hermits of Dismal Key) and had been wanting to visit it for awhile.  I had studied on Google Earth where the house and other buildings had been located and by following the tree line was able to find it!  Other than the cistern, there's not much left in terms of buildings.  We found the ruins on an old dock, the cornerstones of where the 1935 cabin used to be, and possibly the remains of an outhouse.  We did find tons of old bottles, cans, and other home furnishings such as pieces of rugs, the old icebox, and a bed frame.  I'm not sure which hermit it was since there were 2 in the later years but someone really liked Busch Beer since we found hundreds of beer cans out there.  It's a great lesson in recycling.

Dock remains

Cistern

Pile of old trash where center of house was

Cornerstone of house?

What's this? (We believe it was an ice cube tray from fridge)

Outhouse ruins?

Playing archaeologist on Dismal Key 

Different plant life than on other keys

We were also interested in the very different plant life on Dismal as opposed to other keys.  Dismal Key is almost entirely made up of an old Native American shell mound which makes it much taller than other keys.  It also contains a huge variety of plants such as Gumbo Limbo trees, wild poinsettia, and many types of cactus. After exploring Dismal Key, we ate some lunch on the oyster shell beach.  On our paddle back to Panther Key, we had to fight some strong winds, which made us feel as if we earned our beer when we got back to camp.

Relaxing in the water after returning to camp

That evening we caught another Bull Shark while prepping dinner.  Eric also caught some Redfish so we grilled those up for the omnivores.  For some reason, we were surrounded by bees while cooking dinner.  They weren't threatening in anyway but just annoying.  So we created a bee feeder out of a lid filled with Mountain Dew and that kept them focused on that and not us.

The next morning we had planned on paddling all the way back to Everglades City but Eric's weather radio was warning us of headwinds up to 19 knots.  We decided our best bet was to wake up incredibly early since the wind usually picks up in the afternoon.  We woke up at 6AM and launched by 8AM, but when we rounded the point of Panther Key we were smacked with strong winds.  We quickly came up with a plan B of going back to Port of the Islands and calling Everglades Adventures and having them pick us up there.  Unfortunately, with this decision we were fighting the tide the whole way back.  However, it was still the better option since those winds would have slowed us down tremendously and tired us out.  

It was, again, a great trip with good people and good food.  That's all you need!

Heading home

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.

Loxahatchee River Day Paddling Trip

Yesterday, my dad and I joined a group of friends for a day trip down the Loxahatchee River.  We met up in Riverbend Park in Jupiter, FL and rented our canoes from the Canoe Outfitters in the park.  We stopped under the first bridge to look for bats and found a few.

Because it's still the rainy season the water levels were very high.  The first section of the river was by far the prettiest.  It was open but not too wide.  It was lined with tall cypress trees and beautiful undergrowth.

Eventually it became narrower and curvier as it wound through the cypress and palm trees.  Luckily my dad is an expert paddler and navigated us without any real problems.

We stopped at a large downed tree, parked our canoes and most of us ended up swimming for awhile.  It was fun to try and swim against the strong current.  Shortly after this stop we arrived at the first dam on the river.  Because the water was so high it was barely noticeable as we paddled over it.  A short distance later we arrived at the second dam (also known as Masten dam).  When the river is lower, it can sometimes create a problem for paddlers.  There is a ramp to get your boat over it if you do not want to paddle over it. Again, due to high water, it wasn't a problem.  Soon, the noise from the Turnpike and I-95 bridges became louder and we eventually paddled underneath them.  Most paddlers choose this point to turn again and head back to the outfitters.  The outfitters are responsible for maintaining the river up this point and the state park service and responsible for everything further downstream.  Unfortunately, they prefer to let the river in this area between I-95 and Trapper Nelson's place remain in its natural state so it can be very challenging to paddle through.

This section of the river took the longest since we encounter many obstacles such as large fallen trees blocking the river, low hanging branches, spider webs, and confusing river forks.  We attempted to look for the Governer's Dock but never did see it.  We assumed the water might have been too high.  Finally, we reached Trapper Nelson's place in Jonathan Dickinson State Park.  

Here we sat at the picnic tables to eat our lunch while listening to stories from the park rangers.  They were certainly a wealth of knowledge about Trapper Nelson and his life in this area.  My favorite part was hearing the stories about Trapper's family members that had visited the park since his death in 1968 and had provided them with even more stories and artifacts.  After we ate, we walked around the compound to look at his cabins, "zoo", smoke house, and even a modern bathroom.  While Trapper Nelson lived here, he not only hunted and sold furs to live off the land, he also created a zoo and tourist attraction.  

Finally it was time to head back and meet our shuttles.  Downstream from Trapper Nelson's place the river becomes much wider.  We even ran into some motor boats and jetskis.  We also saw 4 manatees!

We stopped for a quick swim at the "beach" at Jonathan Dickinson before paddling the 1/3-1/2 mile back to the boat ramp.  The trip in total was somewhere around 10 miles and took us around 6 hours with all of our stops.  Definitely a fun but challenging trip!

Florida Trail: Jonathan Dickinson State Park East Loop

This past Saturday my dad and I headed up to Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Hobe Sound, FL to hike the East Loop trail.  According to my guidebook it was listed at 9.8 miles.  We knew the weather was going to be hot so we arrived right when the park opened at 8 AM.  We started our hike by 8:15.  The first couple of miles are a bit challenging since you are walking on sugar sand.  Within the first 3 miles we started questioning the accuracy of my book's hike description.  According to the amount of time we had hiked, we should have gone farther than the books' description.  We assumed we were just making poor time due to the sand and kept going.  Eventually we reached a trail marker that proved we had gone a mile further than we had according to the book.  We headed towards the Scrub Jay campsite.  Because the entire park had undergone a prescribed burn about 7 months prior, most of the undergrowth was gone and there was almost no tree cover or shade.  This coupled with the sun's reflection off the sand made for a very hot hike.  We reached the Scrub Jay campsite, which consists of two large backpacking sites each with a picnic table and fire ring.  Here we stopped for lunch and discussed potentially camping here in the cooler months.  On our way out we passed a working water pump and a very fancy and clean solar powered privy.  Definitely a luxurious backpacking site!  At this point the trail split and you could continue on towards the Kitching campsite or head back to the parking lot.  We headed back to the front of the park.  While we had to cross over a lot of water obstacles, almost all of them had semi-hidden bridges off to the side.  Finally, we reached an ankle deep creek with no bridge.  We stopped to remove our shoes before crossing since the thought of hiking another 4+ miles in wet boots was unappealing.  The later part of our hike was much more challenging due to the 90 degree weather and lack of shade.  At one point, the trail joined up with a biking path and we didn't see any blazes for awhile.  Just when we were considering the idea that we had missed the turnoff, we saw a blaze ahead.  Just towards the end, the trail makes a sharp turn and detours you to walk along a really pretty lake.  We were definitely happy to reach the car!  Overall, this was a challenging hike due to the never ending sugar sand and high temperatures.  We will consider doing it again in the winter as an overnight trip.  Also, if you read a description about this trail and it is listed at 9.8 miles, this is incorrect!  It is actually 10.8 miles.  While the 1 mile difference is not that big of a deal, it created confusion during the first part of the trip.