Highlands Hammock State Park, Sebring, Florida
View this morning.
The sun was beating on the window yesterday, so Blaine pulled the awning down.
I’ll make sure it’s up from now on. : )
It’s time to start checking out the trails that are connected to the road/bike loop.
The first one we come to is called the Big Oak Trail. It included something we both found incredibly interesting – saving an ancient live oak with cement and rebar! They say the oaks hollow out over time, causing them to loose their support strength and eventually topple. There are 3 in this Park that are roughly 1,000 years old!
We saw one today! I’ll show it to you later. 😊
The first thing we saw of note was a wild orange tree!
So odd to see these along a trail!
Nope. Not it.
Just an example of a hollow live oak.
Still pretty cool though!
I think he’s getting desperate to climb something!
It’s really flat down here. : )
These things are amazingly incredible!
How in the world they change colors is beyond me!
This one went from the light brown of the bark to the black that matched the hollow in a matter of seconds!
That’s when I was taking the picture of the anole/gecko, whatever it is.
Whatever it ‘officially’ is, it’s waaaay cool!
How the mighty have fallen!
Now you can see some perspective!
Look at the symmetrical circle this tree left!
Here it is!
And there he is – climbing again . . .
Of course, I’m the one who wanted a perspective picture. : )
It’s still a spectacular thing to see!
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like their ‘fix’ worked so good on this one. Very sad. : (
This is a chunk of concrete that was once inside.
You can see some detail of the concrete in this picture.
To finish up our outing this morning . . . .
At first, I had no idea why I took this picture, but then I noticed – – it’s an orange tree!
We arrived back home in time to move to site #109. Remember it’s cattycornered from where we currently reside at #116 and 36 of my steps from front door to front door.
It was such a short and easy move, we didn’t even put things away, just pulled in the slides, pulled out, drove a couple hundred feet and backed in. While Blaine re-hooked everything (the hardest part), I went back for the Jeep and bikes.
There we are!
We went back out just before dinner and checked another trail – The Wild Orange Grove Trail. There were fewer orange trees here, than the last one!
Remnants of a prescribed burn.
I’ve never seen pines burned this badly before.
Hard to believe they need this!
Dinner tonight was grilled pork teriyaki. I included the recipe at the end because every time I’ve ever made it for guests, they’ve loved it. 😊
A walk after dinner to check out the Park store (just for fun). We discovered a couple of other really interesting things!
This is at a kiosk in the middle of the campground.
Apparently it works.
Why???
We found this information on the 1,000 year old trees I mentioned.
Too bad they use shiny laminate. They were pretty hard to read.
Someone should take the time to update them.
A prescribed burn behind the store, still smoldering.
Blaine returning after he took the above picture.
This was inside the store!
You can’t really tell how huge this thing is! Three feet x 4 feet x 5 feet!
But imagine, when alive, this weighed a ton!
This was really interesting to read!
I hope you’re able!
All together, we rode about 6 miles today and walked about 2.5.
PORK TENDERLOIN TERIYAKI
1 pork tenderloin (I usually slice this in half long-ways so it’s thinner)
4 T. soy sauce
2 clove garlic, minced
½ t. pepper
2 t. brown sugar
2 T. olive oil
1 t. ground ginger (scant amount)
Combine all ingredients except pork in a re-sealable plastic bag. Mix well. Add pork and marinate 8 hours or overnight. Remove pork from marinade and place on a broiler pan rack. Place 4” beneath the broiler element and broil for about 30 minutes on low, turning once or twice.
TOTAL HIKING MILES: 2.5
Year To Date: 142.5
Daily Average: 2.96