Big Trip and Lots of Excitement

This trip involved a solar eclipse, an earthquake, computers down, flood, and a train wreck. We traveled by train, car, and plane and did lots of visiting. All in all, very exciting!

John and I started our trip taking a sleeper train to Philadelphia. The last time I traveled on a train, the meals were reheated and I ate alone. This time (post-pandemic), there was a chef and we were seated with others. We enjoyed our meal with our ‘neighbor’ on the train. We had a fascinating talk about Chinese customs, green card procedures, and working as a junior professor in Florida. Breakfast was with a nice lady from Michigan.

When we got to the lounge while waiting for our next train, everyone was talking about the earthquake. So, we were in Philadelphia during the New Jersey earthquake but we think it hit while we were on the train as it entered the city. With all the rocking of the train, we didn’t feel it. BTW, the Amtrak station is gorgeous.

From there we took a train to Pittsburgh. The trips is through Amish country, Allegheny Mountains, and around the “World Famous Horseshoe Curve”. People travel for miles to sit and watch trains there. The cool part is supposed to be that you can see the end of your own train as you take the curve but our train was fairly short so we could only see a few cars.

In Pittsburgh, we stayed a night in a hotel then walked to Enterprise car rental. They told us our car was ready but their whole company’s computer system was down so we couldn’t get the car since they couldn’t process our credit card! After some time at a nearby coffee shop and after we sweated working out alternative car rentals, they called us back and we were able to get our car.

The next few days were with John’s son, Johnny. We met his girlfriend Kathy and enjoyed catching up. John is very handy and did that guy-bonding thing by helping Johnny repair a couple of doors.

One evening was spent with my friends from my first job out of college. It was great to see each other in person after doing zooms for a couple years. We did a traveling dinner in two different houses. In the first, we saw all kinds of amazing furniture that Tom made. In the second, Mike was a BIG train fan and had a basement full of trains and tracks.

The big event was traveling to my brother’s house for the eclipse. Bob and Pam are great hosts! The sky was clear for the eclipse despite the early forecast of clouds. John took some great pictures. It was truly amazing!!

Then we drove to West Virginia to visit with John’s family. First, we stopped at Friendship Hill National Historic Site. That makes 157 national parks/sites/etc. for us.

We just love Sue and Frank!

The highlight here was a lunch that Sue planned with John’s aunt. Aunt Barb was only told the four of us were having lunch. However, when we got to the restaurant more relatives were there for a total of 10 people. She was shocked!

One evening and night was spent with John’s friend Bill and Barb. We enjoyed talking around the fire and the special breakfast.

Then we returned to Pittsburgh for 2 nights at the hotel. Interesting fact...the hotel used to be a Federal Reserve bank. They still have the vaults which now go to conference rooms.

The time gave us a chance to walk around downtown seeing the architecture. This building was built in 1884. 

It’s spring in Pennsylvania (it’s summer in Florida).

With recent rains, the fountain at Point State Park was flooded. The river was said to be at the highest level in two decades.

Had to go to the museum there too.

The excitement wasn’t over. We took the train from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia okay but then found out our train back home was canceled. There had been a train wreck in Georgia on the line so all trains were canceled that day. Amtrak would have put us up in a hotel with food vouchers for the night but they weren’t sure if the tracks would be open the next day. Instead we got the price refunded. While it was stressful to get an uber to the airport and find a flight, we ended up getting home earlier than we would have.

What a trip!

More backpacking - Etoniah and Rice Creek

 

It’s warming up quickly in Florida. So I planned a two-day backpacking trip before it’s too hot to hike anymore (though it was already in the high 80’s). The heat made it a tougher hike than the last trip even though I didn’t have to wade through water. Luckily, most of the hiking was under trees so I didn’t have the direct sun on me.

I again picked a portion of the Florida Trail. This time following the trail was easier since there were less options with few crossing trails and a clearly defined main trail. It was funny that I still registered “happiness” every time I saw an orange blaze (and was not lost) after my last hike.

The first day was through Etoniah Creek State Forest. It was quite “zen” in that I saw no one the entire time. There were sinkholes here, either wet or dry.

Fairy-tale look of reindeer moss.

I did an out-and-back trip that totaled 14 miles. I had 3 choices on campsites. If, after going out 7 miles I was tired I could stay at this shelter for hikers.

Or, there was supposed to be a small campsite near where I parked the car. I hadn’t seen it when I started my hike in the morning but just figured I hadn’t looked hard enough. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find that campsite so I ended up hiking another 1.5 miles at Rice Creek Conservation Area. This 2^nd back-up campsite (also a shelter) was full with a family (with 4 young boys and a dog) staying there. I wanted something quieter! They suggested a spot that is marked for no camping but they said rangers didn’t kick people out for camping. Not an ideal situation, but I could at least get to sleep without the kids yelling in the background and it was great camping.

Rice Creek had more interesting trails. Hoffman’s Crossing is a 1,886’ long thin boardwalk that crosses a swamp. The hike itself on the boardwalk was quite fun and a bit challenging.

The views of the swamp was also very cool. BTW, given that it was a swamp and nights weren’t cold, the mosquitoes were out. Bug spray didn’t prevent all the bites.

Another section was the Rice Creek loop along the creek. It had 20 different bridges / boardwalks so that you mostly stayed dry (a bit muddy in places though).

A highlight was seeing an alligator family. There was a mom plus babies that were about 1.5’ long. I counted 5 babies but another hiker said they counted 9.

And lots of flowers.

Challenging Florida Trail

 

After camping on my own at Cumberland Island and Simmons State Forest, I decided to take the next step by hiking a 45 mile portion of the Florida Trail.

The Florida Trail is ~1500 miles through many different state and national lands but also includes walking some roads, even under a train track. Orange blazes line the path on trees and even this street sign pole.

Because I was new to backpacking I had some firsts. I filtered water for the first time. Blackwater is drinkable but still looks like tea after being filtered, but that’s fine. I also dug and used my first cathole. Google it, if you don’t know. Nothing like doing new things in your 60s!

After the trip, I decided the word “challenge” was the perfect word to describe it. The hiking itself was doable. Since the most I’ve hiked with a 25-pound pack was just 3 miles, I figured 10-12 miles would be a good daily number so I planned for 4 days. But I found that I averaged 15 miles a day. I completed the 45 miles in 3 days so John picked me up early. Which was good, because the nights were my biggest challenge. Temperatures dropped to near freezing every night. I thought my sleeping bag was rated to 0 F but either I remember wrong or it was just the survivable number, not the “I’m comfortable” number. The second night I used everything I had by wearing all my clothes and even putting the bottom half of my sleeping bag in a large garbage bag. It was better but certainly not comfortable.

During the day, however, temperatures were great by being in the 50s and low 60s. That meant I rarely sweated while hiking. The first section I hiked was a bit challenging because it was up and down with lots of roots and across small bridges.

I had pictured time to think about the meaning of life while hiking. Instead, it was a time to either focus on exactly the right place to place my next step or in watching for the next blaze on the trail. Also, I saw only 13 hikers going the other way the first two days and none the last day. I did talk to about 4 people that weren’t hikers but was mostly alone with my thoughts. This trip was kind of a meditation really.

By the way, I got lost a few times by either losing focus on those blazes or a few areas that were poorly marked like at sections on the road. In fact, one guy stopped his car to tell me to head one direction when it turned out the completely wrong way. I found happiness every time I saw a blaze on this trail.

The trail through Stephen Foster Folk Culture State Park and Little and Big Shoals Area was great. I passed along some swamps.

The hike is off and on along the Suwannee River. It’s a blackwater river (dark with tannins) with several little waterfalls (shoals) in this section.

This was my view as I sat and ate breakfast.

Some sections were a bit wet but not bad. I thought this was a fun creek crossing.

Camping the first night was on a bluff above the river all by myself.

The trail through Osceola National Forest was much more challenging. It wasn’t just a bit wet. It was constantly alternating ankle deep water, mud, spongy sphagnum moss, and some, wildly celebrated by me, dry portions of the trail. In fact, there was two spots where the water was up to my butt. Some of these sections were quite long (150’+?). I also slipped to my knees once given the base is a combination of sand, leaves, moss, and broken branches. Challenging! These are pictures of the trail.

Luckily, a thru-hiker I talked to advised me to move my sleeping bag from hanging below my back pack to above my pack to keep it out of the water. I also changed out of jeans to my yoga pants which could be pulled up to be sort-of shorts or at least it dries quicker than jeans. Being short meant this water was much higher on me than the typical hiker. Wading through the water in shorts also meant I was scratched up by those under water branches.

The last challenge was the finish of my hike. I started hiking the last few miles but noticed smoke above the trees. I figured it was a controlled burn but I didn’t know its area. I called the Florida Forest Service. It was controlled but recommended I didn’t walk through that section. So I called John to change the pick up point then had to backtrack to the road.

I haven’t decided if I want to do more backpacking. I certainly don’t want to do the parts of the Florida Trail with miles of walking through the water. But maybe more places like Cumberland Island.