Seminole State Forest

“We went on a quick overnight hike on the Florida Trail through the Seminole State Forest. It was a shakedown hike for our Smokies trip in a few weeks. We wanted to test all the new fancy gear we've gotten since the Spring. Alex's son Josh joined us on the trip and was a real trooper through the water, heat and bugs.”

“Very cool pics, Big Coop! Did you get any chiggers? If you want a really wet hike, do the FL. trail through the Ocala Nat. forest right now. It'll be thigh deep on you in a few places.”

“Nice photos! Looked like a rather wet day. I love th colors on that spider too! Thanks for sharing...”

“Yes - I got about 40 chigger bites, which is relativley few. Since I have had a few bad infestations I use permethrin on my shoes and socks (and long pants in cooler weather) and I apply deet frequently throughout the day. Alex got a lot more bites than I did on this trip. The mosquitos were pretty heavy as well.

Where is the water that deep in Ocala? I may have to go up and see that. I've never really seen a lot of water on the trail through there.

Sometime in the future I'd like to do Big Cypress. I hear the water is waist deep there - big fun.”

“I can't remember specifically where. I only know I was lucky it was a dry season on that particular trip, as we had some very small scouts along. HPM told me the previous year, it was up to the little guys' chests. They loved it.”

“Nope, not quite.

I was talking about the Osceola National Forest not Ocala.

Cool trip Coop.”

“Looks like a VERY Wet trip. Don't ya just love fording through muck?”

“It's not muck, just black water. Gotta watch for gators and poisonous snakes every once in a while, though! Or floating debris covered with fire ants. That's worse.”

“Around the creeks and rivers it can get mucky - but most of the water we had to walk through on the trail is sitting on top of sand and can't percolate into the aquifer because of a layer of clay underneath so the mud's not so bad. Some of the water can be warm, black, and smell pretty nasty from rotting vegetation though.”

“A couple of those pictures remind me of my trip to Myakka this winter, during the dry(haha) season. At one point we walked about 5 miles across the praire without stopping cause there was no where dry to sit down and rest.

Nice pictures there Big Coop.”