Ocala NF post Hurrinaces TR

“So last weekend I took seven Scouts and two adults (including me) backpacking in Ocala National Forest for Hopkins Prairie Campground to Juniper springs rec area. Some 11 miles or so. This would be the first backpacking experience for four of the boys.

Friday night we met at the church, loaded up in the Blue Bomber and scooted on down to Hopkins. We arrived at Hopkins around 9pm loaded up and night hiked south. The trail was clear and there were some obvious reroutes around fallen trees. It being dark we couldn’t tell the full extent of the hurricane damage but we definitely noticed that the tree canopy was thinner. The water level in Hopkins Prairie was much much higher than I’d ever seen it.

We hiked about 2 miles into the Juniper Prairie Wilderness Area and made camp beside the trail. The bugs weren’t that bad but would have liked a breeze to push off those that were there as we all just cowboy camped that night on tarps.

We got up the next morning and looked around and it was painfully obvious that Ocala NF got hammered by the string of hurricanes in September. The tree cover was much thinner and trees were blown down everywhere. In some spots multiple trees were cracked off halfway up the trunk and were leaning against each other in a big tangled mess that creaked against each other in the breeze. Make damn sure that you check for widow makers when you pitch a tent in Ocala.

We got underway and only had about 3ish miles till hidden pond. Juniper Prairie Wilderness area is maintained to a lesser degree than the rest of the trail (hand tools only). As such I expect there to be some blowdowns and minor obstructions on the trail. A certain degree of them add a minor level of challenge to novice hikers and is a good thing. But this was nuts.

I’ve hiked this section enough that I generally know exactly where I am at all points. There are now parts that I do not recognize. There were areas that were once thickly forested and are now an interwoven mat of mature trees with a few lonely survivors still standing. Of course when the trees fell, they had to fall on the trail. (lol) We spent most of our time climbing over, crawling under and bushwhacking around the blowdowns. It took us three hours to cover two miles. Normally that requires half an hour at a leisurely pace. Added to the challenge was the fact that the four new guys were not very tall and some of them were…well, how can I say this nicely…a little on the round side. At several points the four largest of us had to pick up some of the little guys and boost them over the logs. We were glad to help each other out but wow, I certainly wouldn’t have subjected these guys to this had I known the trail was this rough. All in all I got a pretty balanced lower and upper body workout on this hike.

At several points the trail used to skirt the various ponds and low wet areas of the prairie. All of those ponds are much bigger and the low wet spots are now ponds. As such the trail was now routed up in the palmetto thickets. Someone(s) had definitely come through this section before us as there were some spots marked with orange survey tape and some spots had new roughly cut trail.

We finally made it to hidden pond and the pond had risen at least 5 feet. The path back to the campsites was under water and a new path was trampled up through the palmettos. The main “wind tunnel” campsite was in fine shape but the large one around the corner off to the left had several very large blowdowns in it. Still lots of room there and still useable though. So with all the damage there are some plusses. Hidden Pond is an even better swimming hole and there is a ton of firewood at the campsite.

We arrived before noon so we ate lunch relaxed, played around and went swimming. After a bit of R&R I asked if everyone was having fun. Sure enough they all said they were. I asked if they had fun on the hike, well, they all liked that too so I guess it wasn’t too much. The afternoon turned out to be wonderful. Partly cloudy and cool with a nice breeze. I took a short nap. Later that night around the fire some rain blew in and we retreated to our various shelters at 8pm and called it a very early night.

It didn’t rain too hard that night. The next morning we were up and gone by 8am. The rest of the hike was more of the same. The old burned out areas from the ’98 firestorm were the easiest going as the trees were big enough to blow down. Sure enough we were back into the grind again however we had a lot longer walkable stretches of trail. We finally hit the shortcut trail (old firebrake) to Juniper Springs and we decided to take it rather than deal with two more rough patches. The shortcut was rough for the first bit and then cleared out nicely.

We wandered into Juniper Springs and walked up to pay the day use fee ($4 per head). First off the lady at the gate was surprised we actually paid and second she was surprised that we were able to get through from Hopkins. According to her no one has made it through from Hopkins since the hurricanes. We don’t think that’s true due to the bushwhacked paths we saw out there. Apparently most folks hit the trail an come back an hour or so later saying the trail is impassable.

Anywho, the boys went for a swim while I got shuttled back up to get the Blue Bomber. When I got to the van there was a note on the wiper from none other than our good buddy Nowslimmer. So I rolled on by his campsite and said howdy and had a short chat. We parted ways and I got the kids home to Jacksonville.

I didn’t take too many photos (too busy climbing or crawling) but I’ll get them up tonight.”

“so much for spell check

Post Hurricanes that is”

“Nice TR. FWIW, it's all part of the forest lifecycle down there. There is some lifeform that benefits from the destruction.”

“Oh, I understand that Bit.
I guess it looks like I'm moaning about it. Actually I'm amazed at the power of nature and the amount of damage than can happen in such a short amount of time Vs. how long to get back to where it once was.

In the cities in a manner of weeks everything was put to rights, trees were trimmed, homes repaired, debris hauled away. After a month goes by it is relegated to a topic of conversation as most evidence is removed.

Now you go out to a natural area that you know very well and it is just blasted. The storms seem so fresh again.

So now Ocala is an obvious record of the power of nature. There are ares still recovering from the fires in '98 and now the whole joint was worked by multiple hurricanes. It's pretty amazing to see.
last edited: 11/15/04 2:59:30 PM”

“Thanks for the detailed TR - I was following along in my mind. I'll have to check it out soon.”

“You actually did hike this weekend! Seriously, it is interesting to walk through these areas. There is a trail up at Cheaha that goes through an old forest fire. Pretty neat to see.”

“Don't ya just LOVE taking newbies?????”

“Nice trip report. Sonds like a good time and a pain in the arse at the same time.”

“I know what you mean, this weekend I actually hiked the Split Oak trail, it's not as bad as that but one can tell the power of nature.

Let me know about the tm.”

“Actually I do love taking kids for their first backpacking trip. Teach them right and let 'em go.”

“Rhanks for the report HPM.
Nice read!”

“SS - Rhanks? Is Scooby in the house?”

“Hey! The R is right beside the T on my keyboard! ;-)”

“Scooby - Dooby - Dooooooo”

“Roiks!!”

“Rut roh. Raggy!”

“Humanpackmule has resorted to using Thread Degradation to increase the number of responses to his trip report. How much lower can he sink?

LOL.

"Sorry, Roiks was not found in the database."”

“Well it was either that or start posting photos of chicks in bikinis.
last edited: 11/16/04 8:43:33 AM”

“Yike-arooni!!!”

“Yep, nine miles of that.”

“Holy #&%!$!

I haven't seen blow downs like that in awhile.”

“Notice how many of the trees still standing are at an angle?”

“So????
What's the current plan for the hike?”

“No change, same plan.

What little of the trail I saw outside of Juniper Prairie was clear and I've been told that the rest of the trail has been serviced. Plus when I raised the flag no one seemed overly concerned. So my assumption is that JP will just be a tough section and just do it as planned.

I was kicking around doing some trail work but haven't been able to get myself together plus the FTA has had several work days. I'll most likely visit the area again before the hike.”

“Kewl Beans.”

“I'm going down there this weekend for a FT thing. My understanding is they are bringing in some outside help and equipment to knock out this section. Maybe I can find out more this weekend.”

“That would be awesome if you could.”