Hike, Rest, Hike
This section became two, 2-day runs divided by a 2-day layover in Jacksonville. I met Dust and Grizzley(his spelling) at the Florida Peace and Justice Center layover. With a big storm coming in followed by the Super Bowl the next day, Dust invited me to his place in Jacksonville for the weekend. We had two days of hiking ahead of us to get to the pickup point with his wife. A day of straight, unmaintained, rail trail with a bit of roadwalk thrown in took us the town of Lake Butler, where the city allows thru-hikers to camp in the park next to City Hall. We grabbed dinner in town, then retired to our tents as darkness fell.
The next day, we had 16 miles across commercial pine plantation and restored plantation lands to the pickup point. A few bands of rain swept in with brief but heavy downpours, and I was reminded once again how little cover tall skinny pine trees provide. Water poured out of the sky. Fortunately, the showers were short, and between my umbrella, pack cover, and rain jacket, stayed pretty dry. Except for the feet. There's never any hope for the feet. Completely and utterly soaked. But my shoes fit well, I had good wool socks on, and I was able to finish the day without any blisters.
Dust's wife picked us up at 4 and ferried us to Jacksonville, about 35 minutes away. Dust's house is a Sears Mail Order Catalog house from about 1920. Original price for the two story, 3 bedroom house: $939, not including land or construction costs. He's owned and slowly been restoring it for 30 years now. Cool old place with lots of history. I very much enjoyed staying there and getting to wander around the place. He and his wife hosted 7 hikers altogether for the weekend. It rained quite a bit on Saturday, and the hikers rested, resupplied, and then watched the Super Bowl on Sunday. Dust and his wife arranged shuttles for the hikers to three different trail heads Monday morning.
Dust, Grizzley, and I all started at the Olustee Battlefield State Park and crossed into the Osceola National Forest. There were lots of long, submerged stretches on trail, and my shoes stayed wet until after lunchtime on Tuesday. We walked through mostly sparse Longleaf Pine Forest, most often with dense palmetto undergrowth, and broken up with with an occasional area of Cypress swamp or Oak hammock. I set up camp in an Oak hammock after almost 19 miles on Monday, and was treated to a fabulous dark sky and bright stars. Tuesday, the trail joined the Suwanee River in the afternoon, and I met Dust and Grizzley again at a hiker friendly B&B in White Springs. Judith, the owner, lives and rents rooms in an old 2-story wooden house in town. Nothing is straight, everything creaks, but it is very homey, relaxing, and comfortable. Judith offers a way-too-generous discount to hikers, and makes sure everyone enjoys their stay. I'll be bummed to leave first thing tomorrow morning, but I just took two days off and I need to move on. More river awaits.
