Torreya State Park, Bristol, Florida
HAPPY 7TH BIRTHDAY, MAX!! Max is, and has always been, an almost perfect clone of his Uncle Kyle. It’s kinda scary sometimes! Probably is for him too, because he knows I’m on to him and his little tricks, since I had lots of experience with his uncle. 😊 Our grandson is very smart – smarter than he sometimes wants people to realize – and has a tender heart. Max, we love your smile and fun spirit!
Today we tackled the Torreya Challenge Trail. Another 9 miles. You’d think our ‘daily average’ would’ve gone up with that, and it did. But only by a tenth of a mile. ☹
It was a good trail, with quite a bit of diversity, but much of it was the same as we’ve already seen, so there aren’t as many pictures. The only life we saw was: 2 joggers (they actually hold a race on this trail!), 4 hikers who were headed to primitive camp (Yuk!!), a couple of pileated woodpeckers and a couple of tiny birds. That’s it. For nine miles. We did however, see several scat droppings. Where were those critters?
It was also pretty cool today! We started in the upper 30’s at 10:30am (hence the 3 layers and gloves you’ll see) and ended in the upper 50’s 4 ½ hours later. It sounds really cold, but it was a great temperature for hiking! What in the world will we do when it’s in the 70’s?
Here we go!
We hiked 1 1/2 miles to get to the start of the trail
This was interesting . . .
Apparently, private property owners allowed the Park to run the trail through part of their property.
That big dark circle to the right is a huge roll of barbed wire that didn’t show up in the picture.
The silent stream. That’s how clear the water is. You can’t even see it!
We’ve noticed that when the streams have sandy bottoms, they don’t make any noise!
Not nearly as nice without the babbling brook sound!
This was about 2 1/2 miles from the start.
I think that’s a long way to carry all your camping gear!
No thanks! : )
That’s me down there.
Don’t know if you can tell, but I’ve got my heavy flannel buttoned up and I’m wearing gloves and my fleece headband.
A Rock!
Not much of one, but a rock just the same.
All these hills, and it’s all sand.
Unfortunately, you can’t tell from the picture how beautiful this magnolia tree is
Obstacle for the runners . . .
There were quite a few obstacles on this trail!
This stream was babbling.
Sounds much nicer!
I had to make my stick longer to cross the stream.
This was probably the most challenging part of the day. : )
Crossing. Not lengthening. . . .
Beautiful sky today!
The shadows are getting longer by the time we got close to the end.
The highlight of our day!
We went off trail to check out this eagle’s nest!
It’s active – probably the one we saw the other day at the river.
So, since I don’t have much to talk about from our hike, maybe I could tell you when Blaine & I first noticed our adventurous nature. . .
Nah. Not today. I’m tired.
TOTAL MILES: 9
Year to Date: 63.5
Daily Average: 3.3