A Burning Forest and a Cave (ECT Day 31)

• Hiked Today: 27.4 miles
  • The Florida Trail (389.9 – 394.4 & 395.8-416)
  • Croom Loop C Alt. (0.6 miles)
  • Stevie Mess-up Alt. (0.6 miles)
  • Holder Mine Alt. (1.5 miles)
• Total Hiked: 596.5 miles
• Total Paddled: 99.5 miles

A Loop Camping Area to Holder Mine Area

Weather: 55-80°F, foggy overcast in morning, sunny, and clear skies.

Another foggy morning…

The morning walk was a mix of nice trail and some low traffic roads. Lots of twists and turns and junctions. It required keeping a close eye on the FarOut map, which I’m not always so great at. Turns out, I’m not the only one.

Around 8:30 am I got a text from Trip saying he’d gotten way off trail by missing a blaze. That got me thinking I should check and sure enough, I found I had missed a turn too, although not the same spot as him. Thankfully, my detour ended up being a shortcut… I cut across a busy road and rejoined the FT not long after.

I really liked this area around May Prairie, which I thought at the time was Lake Lindsey. This prairie looked a lot like a wetland or even a lake to me, so not sure what’s going on with this naming.

I thought this wildlife “blind”/lookout was a great idea. There was a sign telling visitors to approach quietly.

Moving on from all that, there was a short bit of road to get me to the world famous Lake Lindsey Mall and Deli! At least, I’m saying it’s world famous.

Trip had mentioned trying to get biscuits and gravy earlier on trail, so of course I was craving. It had to be done!

Trip came after a bit and a biker too who was on a three day tour. It was good fun there and sad to move on to 7-8 miles of roadside walking. On with the tunes and audiobook!

Crushed it. I got to Stage Pond around 1:00 pm and did a sit down lunch break. Eventually I filtered some pond water.

The rest of the day would be beautiful trail. As I started up again I spotted Trip right at the junction/transition from road to single track. I caw caw’ed like a bird to get his attention and crossed the road to chat. He was slightly disheveled seeming as a truck had just intentionally swerved at him forcing him into some brushy stuff along the roadside. He was picking sharp things out of his socks when I got over to him. Thankfully, he was alright, but it sounded pretty scary.

We walked and talked for an hour maybe, then distanced and went our solo ways.

One of the afternoon interesting experiences was this still smoldering burn area (just to be clear, this is a good planned kind if burn)…

And this “CDT’esque” water trough. No cows about though, so not quite the same.

And this cave! What!? Yeah that’s right… a real, live, karst-formed limestone cave! And you better believe I crawled inside.

I was happy this was so cool because there was an easy shortcut option that would have bypassed it. The FT kind of loops out of the way towards it before going to where I planned to camp for the night.

All was going good at the end of the day. Having arrived, Trip had texted me that the spot for FT hikers at the Holder Campground was nice. There were showers and an outlet and bathrooms.

Well, I’m an idiot. I was all confused about where to go when I got there and asked the camp host. He pretty quickly told me if I don’t have a reservation, it ain’t there and he felt compelled to let me know there are spots on the trail for FT hikers to stay. In my defense, the comment on FarOut that said we could stay there was signed – current camp host. Guess there’s a new sheriff in town!

It didn’t take me long to make up my mind just to move on. I did a sketchy maneuver down a steep bank to get more pond water (I hoped this wasn’t some old contaminated mine water) and found a spot that I felt was stealthy. This should all be state forest land anyways, but just didn’t feel like I should parade my position about. 

I was frustrated and hangry once I got my tent finally set up, and I spent too much time this evening bushwacking through plants, so I’m really hoping no rash develops. Writing in my tent now, having scarfed down copious amounts of food, I’m feelings better. Although, there is something sounding big moving around out there. Eek! 

I was going to leave my post like that with a little cliffhanger, but felt that’d be mean. It was a deer folks. I know because shortly after I heard it, it did one of those alarming snorts they do. I’ve heard that noise plenty of times when hunting and deer have smelled me or spotted me being not so still nor camouflaged!

Album of the Day: “Queen of Time” by Lindsay Lou