Caulk the Wagon and Float? (ECT Day 48)

• Hiked Today: 20.4 miles
  • The Florida Trail (766.5 – 780.7 & 785 – 789.3)
  • Logging Detour Alt. (1.9 miles)
• Total Hiked: 999.4 miles
• Total Paddled: 99.5 miles

Weather: 40-60°F, sunny, calm, and clear

Ring Dike Campsite to Wakulla Field Campsite 

The fish jumped throughout the night, but the no-see-ums had disappeared, thank goodness! A cold front had moved in, so maybe that’s why. It certainly made me not want to get out of my sleeping quilt. The pre-sunrise was spewing brilliant colors across the horizon as I packed up.

The colors lingered during the morning walk even causing a colorful sheen on the water surface.

Birds were showing off; little ones sweeping from bush to bush and singing their songs and the bigger wading birds were out in the shallows stalking.

Back into the Woods

Then, I was surprised to head back into forest. I thought my walk through the St. Mark’s area was going to stay with the coastal salt march views. Instead, I got on a two track road and spotted some deer, one which had a fet antlers, and a bobcat!

Port Leon and the Crossing 

At the junction to Port Leon, I met fellow FT hikers Crypto, Vortex, and Clicks. They were in camp, getting ready for the day. Probably should have asked, but I just went right in their camp to chat. After chit-chatting a bit, I told them my plan to go for the short Port Leon alternate route and that maybe I’d see them at the St. Marks river crossing ahead.

In 1838, Port Leon was the southern terminus of Florida’s first railroad, the Tallahassee Railroad. It was apparently important for cotton, but short-lived, because in 1843 a hurricane obliterated the whole town. This is all coming from the FarOut app. And nothing is really left nowadays except some bricks and I guess outlines of where streets were in the salt marshes. I didn’t see any of it though. Mainly, I hoped it had a feel of being close to the Gulf of Mexico. And it sort of did, but truthfully the views were better at my campsite last night and during the morning walk.

On the way back to the official trail there was a stream crossing I was slightly nervous about. The comments in the app were kind of vague, but essentially said if you’re crossing at low tide, you might be able to rock hop across. Others commented about it being a 3-feet deep wade across. What to do, eh? Turned out the decision was made for me. It was very shallow…

A few miles ahead though was the St. Mark’s River… a little more of a challenge to cross. On every day of the week except Monday, hikers can call the marina and get a free boat ride from one side to the other. You guessed it, it’s Monday, the day they’re closed. Because my slow down two days back, getting sick and camping around Nimblewill, I hadn’t made my original Sunday crossing itinerary.

Back in the days of the original Oregon Trail computer game, when coming to a river crossing, you had a few options. Ford it, maybe go around it (?), or my personal fav… caulk the wagon and float across. I always imagined that image in my head.

As I approached, my thinking was to try my best to essentially hitchhike a boat, flag them down, start waving money in the air whatever it took. I’d actually called a cafe located on the other side yesterday too (acting on some intel from the Farout app) and the bartender said if I’m stuck to call and she’d see if any customers had boats and might be willing to fetch me.

So that’s the lead up. When I got to the dead end, there were Vortex, Crypto, and Clicks. Do we ford/swim the river? Hike upstream four miles to cross a bridge? Or caulk the packs and float? I guess one of the hikers I’d met did a variation of that by blowing up an air mattress and swimming across with it. Don’t think that’d fly for my foam Z-Lite pad though. Well… I got lucky folks! These guys had someone on the other side working magic. I waited for all of 3 minutes before a boat cruised into sight 🙂 It was amazing. The trail provides!

The story is that Caboose had hiked the road in ahead of these guys and using skillful prowess gained as an experienced thru-hiker, got to chatting with some fisherman. After explaining the trail and that this section is divided by the river, they were on board to go and pick up his buddies. I offered cash, we offered to buy them food and beer at the cafe, but they seemed content to get an odd story out of it! 

The Town of St. Marks and Beyond

Once on the north shore, we all walked right  over to the Riverside Cafe, a tiki bar seafood place. At 11:00 am, it was just opening. How all this lined up is still wild to me. I ordered just my second beer of this journey (I think) and asking for whatever was most local, got an Oyster City Mill Pond Blonde out of Apalachicola, FL. I also got the “world famous” blackened fish sandwich.

Hanging out there was great. I stayed for almost two hours and it seemed like the others might be shooting for the all day hang.

I’d hoped to visit the local grocery store, but it too was closed today. Needing to resupply, the backup plan was a Dollar General about 2.5 miles ahead. So, I got to stepping.

After my shopping, I sat outside, back resting against the concrete block, organizing and letting my power bank charge as much as possible. While removing some cardboard packaging, I look up and see a hiker get out of car… Trip! He’s a day or so behind me and getting the chance to stay was with friends of his from the Appalachian Trail. One of them must live close by. 

A bike path was my way forward after this nice encounter. Where I might have hopped back in the woods, there was a reroute due to some logging in the area.

When I did get back to forest trail again, it was some soggy bottomed palm forest. The highlight would be something coined “The Cathedral of Palms, an area containing a high volume of beautiful palm trees and little else. It was worth it to see. Some had bypassed this entire section and kept to the road. There was also a spring, which was nice, but I think would’ve stood out more had the sun still been shining. By the time I came through it was pretty shadowy.

For the second night in a row, I found a stellar designated campsite. This one was in a pine forest and a whole big area had been cleared for tents. The stars came out, I had hotdogs with actual buns and condiments I’d snagged from the gas station. A great day!