A hill at last!

                                             

Atop a landfill in Coral Springs

I owe my Floridian friends a big apology, as for the past few years I have been complaining bitterly that the hiking trails are boring, as the terrain is so flat.

Well, that’s not quite true at all as I hiked the most wonderful trail last week, with hills and valleys that were absolutely invigorating.

No I am not talking about the trails at that park in Coral Springs called “Three Mountain Park,” for those little hills which they call mountains are really landfills 😂.

Well, I shouldn’t be unkind as my Saturday walks up those inclines do prevent the muscles in the backs of my thighs from seizing up.

The only problem with this new trail that I am raving about is that it is six hours away and the only way will be able to hike it regularly is to move Jacksonville.

And that's just on my stars!

We got to visit those undulating trails on a recent camping trip to Camp Chowenwah in Clay County Florida.

Thanks to our local ‘guide’ Stephanie, we were taken to Jennings State Forest, about half hour away from our base.

The great thing about this Forest, is that it has around eight color-coded trails ready-made for your specific fitness level.

These range from easy to extremely difficult.

From our party, three hikers took the easy trail, two the moderate and three the difficult.

The two moderate hikers were Jennifer and I.

We took the Pioneer Trail which was said to be around six miles and there was supposed to a be a waterfall en route.

The trail started out as a normal Florida flat track with lots of shrubs, thatch palms and beautiful wild flowers but no trees. 

Luckily, we started out early and it was cloudy so we did not have to contend with the boiling sun.

Gradually, we started to ascend and as we did, the thickness of the forest increased.

Below us we had the presence of the North Fork Black Creek and its tributaries,  which you could see from every angle. As we hiked, some sections got so steep that the at the operators of the trails had installed wooden rungs and even easy bypasses.

As we enjoyed the trek, I kept listening for the roaring waters as a sign that we were approaching the waterfall. 

However, we continued walking for what seemed like forever without any sign of it.

This was when I started to suspect that it couldn’t be all that spectacular, for if it were, it would have been marked on our hiking map that we got at the Ranger station and there would be markers on the trail directing us to it.                                                                                                                                                                              When we almost reached the top, at Harris Overlook to be exact, there was a map and Jennifer noticed that we should have taken a trail on the left, to get to the waterfall.

At that point, to get there we would have had to descend quite a bit and after that difficult but invigorating trek to the top we decided that it was not worth the effort.

It certainly wasn’t, for those who took the easy trail had ended up at the waterfall and what they saw would have made me weep, if I had gone back down there to see it!                               

For when Sonia sent me the pictures of what they found, it was not something I would have called waterfall.

That's the waterfall!😏

Besides the waterfall not being worth the effort had we turned back to look at it, we would have been soaked. For shortly after we passed the marker, it started to rain.

Initially, as there were lots of trees, we did not get too wet and it did cool us off, as the climb had been strenuous. I was a bit worried though that there might have been some lightning, as Florida is famous for its lightening strikes, so it is not wise to be among trees at such times.

Luckily there was none.

After we descended for a mile or two with the rain still falling steadily, we came to a clearing and what did we find? It was the park where Rosie, Beth and Sonia who had taken the easy trail, had their vehicle and they were just about to drive off when we appeared.

So, we happily jumped into their truck. This saved us from a thorough drenching as we had now left the covering of the trees behind and had come into the open.

Rosie and Beth

It was a wonderful day of hiking but my one regret was I saw no animals!

Jennifer did spot an armadillo, but by the time she alerted me, it had gone into hiding. 

No, that's not quite true, as when we were at the Ranger’s station, there was a huge rooster looking quite at home as he voraciously picked insects from the grass. 

The next thing we saw was him hightailing it across the road, to where he had a girlfriend and babies, we were told.

And there had been numerous exotic and ordinary birds accompanying us with their various melodies and screams, and of course the ever-present woodpeckers were having a ball as usual.

This was by far the best hiking expedition we went on in the area and whereas those of us who did the easy and moderate trails had a whale of a time with no repercussions, around the fire later, we learnt that those who had opted for the difficult trail did have some bruises, aches and pains.

But that all part of the process isn’t it?

Links; Joan, my views: No more cruising! (joan-myviews.blogspot.com)

Joan, my views: Glamping (joan-myviews.blogspot.com)

               Joan, my views: Anti immigrant crap (joan-myviews.blogspot.com)

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