Enough time had passed since we moved to Florida and we
really needed to do a good camping and hiking excursion down here. It’s quite different here, in that summer is
not the ideal time for these activities.
It’s really, really hot, and the insects are relentless – a perfect
combination for misery! Winter, on the
other hand, is a lovely time to be outdoors for the most part. Temperatures are moderate and the bugs are
greatly reduced.
So at the end of
January we grabbed our backpacking gear and headed up to Juniper Prairie
Wilderness Area, in Ocala National Forest.
The trailhead is next to the Juniper Springs Recreation Area Campground where
we paid to park our car. We wanted to
avoid any vandalism that might occur at the trailhead, which we read reports of
online. We hiked to Hidden Pond, stayed
overnight, and hiked back. During the
daytime it was about 80 degrees, and we were in the sun most of the time. We wore pants as usual, and worked up a
pretty good sweat.
So many of the trees had been burned in a forest fire and
were charred, but there was plentiful new growth as well. The new growth was young, though, and we
found ourselves longing for some shaded trail.
Another thing which was very different for us was hiking on sand, some
of which was hard packed and some was not.
It made the hike just as tiring as any other, in spite of the relatively
flat terrain.
While en route, we kept hearing very strange and fairly loud sounds. Ken said it sounded like aircraft doing bombing practice. When we looked at the posted map on the way back, there was indeed a bombing range not too far away!
We passed a giant pile of bear scat, and a minute later
another giant one, both much bigger than Ken’s boot. We didn’t see much wildlife, and only
encountered one group of people on our way to the pond.
Once we got to the pond it was a different story. There were a few separate groups in the
vicinity, one of which was a Boy Scout group with about 50 kids and several
adults. Everyone was pretty quiet and
low-key, even the kids, who were probably in their early teens. I thought they might turn out to be a little
disruptive as kids can be, but they were not at all. They were really very respectful and
polite. Hats off to the Scout Leaders,
too – they had quite a responsibility.
There was one unusual occurrence that happened after dark -
a guy passed through who got a late start, and was trying to meet up with a buddy he was
supposed to join. We could see his
flashlight bouncing around on the trail on his way to our spot. After chatting for a few minutes, he went on
his way. I wouldn’t want to be hiking
trying to find my way in the darkness.
I’m sure he had a long night ahead of him.
In the morning when we woke up it was really cold. One of the Scout Leaders said a couple of
their tents that weren’t set up under the trees actually had frost on
them! We ate a nice hot breakfast,
packed up, and headed back. It didn’t
take long for us to start peeling layers of clothing off, and pretty soon we
were down to just t-shirts. There was
about a 50 degree temperature difference between day and night, and the sun
heats things up fast down here, even in the winter.
We arrived back at the car, finding it intact. As usual, we had pretty sore feet and legs. Ken’s new backpack worked well for him, with
just a little difficulty adjusting some of the straps and keeping them that way. So we’ve gotten our first Florida hike and
backpacking trip under our belts, and as usual, it was an interesting
experience. Check out the pictures! JuniperPrairie Wilderness, Ocala National Forest Backpacking 1/28/12 - 1/29/12
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