Scenes of the Suwannee (ECT Day 43)

• Hiked Today: 23.3 miles
  • The Florida Trail (631.4 – 654.7)
• Total Hiked: 870.7 miles
• Total Paddled: 99.5 miles

Weather: 60-80°F, no fog!, overcast quickly turning to sun, and then clouds and wind gusts increasing throughout the day 

Sweet Suwannee Spot to Holton Creek River Camp

The Suwannee River section is a special part of the Florida Trail. Yesterday, I’d gotten a glimpse of its distinctiveness and today it only continued to impress me. The dark waters meandered slowly bend after bend sometimes with giant white sand deposits on the inside point bars. Other stretches were channelized by small irregular limestone cliffs. There were large oaks with mossy branches overhanging and cypress trees complete with their wide trunks, nonuniform roots and knobbly knees.

The trail wound about at times right alongside the waters edge and at times up on high bluffs overlooking the river below. Elsewhere, it mostly stayed back in the forest only to peak out for an occasionally view. The whole day the trail stayed relatively close by the river though. There were deer, some frogs and toads, and even a Bald Eagle.

Along with this awesomeness, came the most strenuous trail since Big Cypress in my opinion. One factor causing this level of difficulty was the small tributaries coming in that created pretty deep ravines. Generally, the topography was surprisingly up and down today and every now and then included a steep part that got me winded. Another factor was that as the day went on, the trail became more overgrown. There had been some evidence of stellar trail work done, sawing large trees out, but it still needed some help after the hurricane. Lastly, I’m sure that having a lot of heavy food slowed me down. This is about a 5-6 day carry. I’m choosing to do it that way rather than get stuff solely from gas stations or have to hitch into a town.

Really I’m just making excuses why I didn’t make my initial goal for the day. I had planned to do just over 30 miles. After lunch, I was seeing I wasn’t on pace for that and saw a spot around 28 miles. A bit further on, I saw the Holton Creek River Camp (HCRC) and thought that sounded pretty nice at 23 miles. I was spent. I’m trying to make better choices as far as listening to my body and to the trail and felt this “early” stop was needed.

The HCRC is one of several river camps along the Suwannee River paddling route. It is currently listed as closed due to damage from the hurricane, which was quite noticable. On the other hand, a few of the structures were fine and actually had a screened in space where I could tent. After seeing that, even though it was only 5:00 pm, it was an easy decision to set up and stay for the night!

Thankfully the tooth pain seemed to keep at bay today. There was some sensitivity to the heat of my oatmeal, which got me looking at options for dentist in the area. Since the closest to trail options were ahead anyways, I figured I’d see how it goes for a bit. I had a very similar situation when hiking the CDT and after a few days of pain had to get a filling put in. That was in the town of Anaconda, Montana. None of this should be a surprise to y’all based on what you’ve seen of my sugar and acidic coffee diet.

Here’s today’s photos and videos…

Waking up to a view of the Suwannee

See… steep

Lift your face to the sun… And shadows fall behind you.

Nice little platform somebody built for me to have second breakfast on. Very kind of them.

I like this. As hikers walking these roads, we mostly worry about aggressive dogs. Not Baxter though. I was sad I didn’t get to meet him.

Lunch was on top of this abandoned old bridge structure.

Thanks to all the trail workers out there!

Can you spot the lizard?

It looked like when up and running, the river camp would have had water and power and bathrooms, but quite a bit of damage from the hurricane(s).

Getting water at camp. Fancy stuff with a dock and all.

Home for the night.

Despite the screen, I still set up my tent. Why? I’m scared of spiders!

Album of the Day: “Head Above Water” (2019) by Avril Lavigne