Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park, White Springs, Florida
Overnight, trees and other foliage popped up in our backyard! ; )
It was pretty cool this morning, so we spent all morning researching and making reservations for our summer tour around Lake Superior. We’ve made it around to the east side of Michigan, so it’s almost October and time for our return trip to Ohio. 😊 By the way, those October reservations are already made – September 29-October 29, if I remember correctly.
But first, we’ll be in Mogadore from May 7th to June 6th. Can’t wait to see everyone!
After lunch, we took on a 7 mile hike – with hills even!
We started out down a closed road right at our campsite, that goes toward the primitive camping area. I was sure glad I’d worn shorts! I started with shorts, a long-sleeved T-shirt and a jacket. The jacket was off and tied around my waist in less than 5 minutes. Blaine had jeans, a T and a long-sleeved T. I don’t know how he made it. About half way, he lost his LST. He claimed he wasn’t too warm, but I don’t know . . . . Still, it was only in the low 60’s today. Perfect for hiking!
There are signs put up that say they’ve been logging.
I think the area looks more storm-swept than logged.
Checking Google Maps to find us.
The Park doesn’t want us to be here, so their map isn’t very helpful. : )
Eventually, we wound around and caught the river trail. Some of it looked familiar, but much did not.
No alligators, which is fine.
We’ve seen enough to last us a while!
Is that what Blaine’s smiling about?
Hills!
Up top is the alligator sign.
No poles.
No fish.
Too bad. Catfish is good!
Of course, there’s also the fact that neither of us fish . . . .
Things seem more green than what we remember from before.
We remembered this spot from before.
This is January . . . .
This is March.
It IS a little more green!
I was planning on taking a picture of another ‘lizard’. But we got so fascinated in watching it turn, we didn’t take any. You can see it as a dark rectangle spot on the dead tree. It was palm-frond green when it first skittered away from us and stopped there. Within seconds (less than a minute), it was the color of the tree. It started at its head, then down the right side, then the left. Totally fascinating!! Creator God is awesome!
Once we arrived at the River Overlook, a decision had to be made about our return trip. We decided on the River, at least to Catfish Hole where we re-evaluated our options. We stuck with the River all the way back.
We loved the Spring-Green look to everything!
Don’t you wonder how a tree like that stays standing?
Especially since it’s rooted in sand?
If you look, you can see where our trail goes.
Lonicera japonica aka Dart’s World Honeysuckle
It didn’t really smell until you got close, which I did.
And I guessed right!
It’s honeysuckle!
Just not like any we’ve ever seen before.
It was hard to take pictures of the shrub.
This was the best I could manage.
Dogwoods don’t seem to capture well, either. : (
Near the end of the hike
Here’s a weird, inexplicable thing . . . remember when I told you yesterday that we only had 3 antenna channels? Well, this morning we had 16! So we’re excited, thinking we can watch “Survivor” (Blaine’s favorite show and just above “This Is Us”) tonight! By dinner time, we were back to the same 3 again. Isn’t that strange? We’ll catch “Survivor” along with “This Is Us” through their network’s viewing on-line. So all is not lost. 😊 It just carves a huge slice out of our data plan.
TOTAL HIKING MILES: 7
Year To Date: 182.5
Daily Average: 2.76