Friday, March 8th, 2019
It was yet another wet morning. We were getting used to this by now.
When I approached a forest road, I saw a hiker heading southbound like us! Frisbee was stoked! He saw the footprint earlier and was thrilled to chat with another SOBO. His trail name was Double Check and he was doing a section hike. We said hello and kept hiking to Olustee Battlefield Historical State Park. Double Check would be joining us later.
Olustee Battlefield Historical State Park is Florida’s oldest state park and is a Civil War memorial for those lives lost during the bloodiest battle on Florida soil, the Battle of Olustee which was won by the Confederates.
We dried out our gear in the sun and ate lunch at one of the picnic tables. We’d soon be greeted by Park Ranger, Jim Ellis who was a Herpetology specialist. He knew a lot of information about reptiles and even has a number of venomous snakes at home. He helped me identify a lot of the snakes I photographed throughout the hike. He also informed us that we were hiking during one of the wettest years in Florida.
We’d leave and walk a while on forest roads before the orange blazes started to fail us. They were running us through a lot of unmaintained areas and were pointing us in all sorts of directions. We relied heavily on our Guthook app to guide us to Olustee Creek campsite.
Double Check would join us and it was kind of nice to share a site with another hiker for a change.
We talked a lot about the Appalachian Trail in front of a fire. A NOBO named Zoom passed through briefly, staying true to his trail name. He seemed stressed out. We’d find out why the next day.
18.1 miles (29.1 km)
Jump Ahead to The Florida Trail: Chapter 31
Jump Back to The Florida Trail: Chapter 29
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Start from The Beginning
Stubbs Rambles On 