Hopkins Prairie to Salt Springs, Ocala National Forest

Hopkins Prairie to Salt Springs, Ocala National Forest

Location: Hopkins Prairie to Salt Springs (approximately 2 miles not part of the Florida Trail)

Date: February 2 – 3, 2013
Time: Started noon on Saturday, finished noon of the next day
Weather Forecast: Days in the upper 60s and nights down to 39

Introduction:

Welcome Home!  After our last trip in the heat of the summer we had taken some time off for various reasons: no time and waiting for cooler weather being the two biggest.  This trip was a get re-acquainted trip so a quick overnighter was in store.  The best thing was that the weather looked to be ideal.  An interesting sidebar to this trip is that we have used this same starting point before, Hopkins Prairie.  This trip was to head north instead of south in the previous trip. 

Besides the weather, one new thing for me was that I was using my phone to take pictures with.  I have hopes that it will be able to geotag the pictures so they will show more accurately up on the map.  We will see how that goes later on.

The Trip:

 

Map 1 of 2

 

1.       We quickly headed off onto the trail and didn’t even get our traditional group shot.  I guess we were eager beavers and it was “just” the usual gang of 4 so off we went. 

Debi, Shawn, and James starting off

Why, yes, yes bears do poop in the woods!

2.       We quickly came to a large sign and an even larger bat house.  I had seen the small ones at other parks but this one was huge, at least 4’x4’.



One large bat house



3.       We knew a majority of the first days hike would be “handrailing” the prairie.  Handrailing is a term used during orienteering (map and compass) events that means to follow the edge.  I took quite a few pictures of the prairie, even in panoramic mode but after a while, it all looked the same.



Prairie panoramic



4.       As we continued heading north we came across a few people that seemed to be out of place.  They weren’t day hikers because they had no packs but I figured they were camping nearby at Hopkins Prairie campground.  Not too long after them, we met some day hikers eating lunch.  They mentioned there were a lot of people on the trail just to the north from some rainbow group and someone even had asked if they had any 15 year old girls!  Now that is strange.

I liked this tree for some reason

5.       As we passed some more people one proclaimed “Welcome home” instead of hello to Debi.  She made a comment to Shawn thinking it was odd.  Well we were quickly realizing that we weren’t in Kansas anymore.  Later on, we found out that we were somewhere over the rainbow.  Wherever we looked, on the trail we were on or across the pond, there tents.  There were even groups of multiple canopies (at least 6) in the woods off the trail.  Also, there were a lot of handmade signs declaring some kind of location in the middle of Ocala National Forest!  We also realized that by far most of them looked like modern day hippies.







Signs, signs, everywhere....









...there are signs

6.       While on the trail we were talking to ourselves and came around a corner with a woman breastfeeding her child.  No big deal to me since that is how my wife raised our kids.  But as she removed the child from her breast she was in no particular hurry to cover up.  Around another corner was a group of 8 or so smoking marijuana just off of the trail in the open.  We did get a strange look or two but no worries as we continued on.  Later on in our discussions at camp, Shawn had mentioned that it was like walking in a foreign land.  It really was our first encounters of the “hippie” life.  After some research when we got home, we found out that they have a website and we had stumbled upon a yearly meeting that lasted about a month long!

7.       We knew we didn’t want to spend the night in this area so we pressed on for another mile or so.  When we approached a forest road, there were several cars and an old Uhaul truck.  The truck was bringing in supplies and had a large water container about 4’x4’x’4’.  I am very thankful that we didn’t start from the north and head south because by the time we would have wanted to stop we would have been in middle of the Rainbow Coalition.  We crossed the forest road and, suddenly, the Rainbow Coalition people were nowhere to be seen!  We started to look for a campsite but also wanted to be away from any noise from the large gathering.

Map 2 of 2

8.       We came across an area where they had cut several acres of trees out for the scrub jays.  We left the trail and followed the man-made tree line looking for possibilities.  After one false hope (too much of a likelihood of ticks) we found a usable spot.  I took the easy way out and found two trees that I could stretch my hammock out above the “path”.  It was actually the edge of where they had cut the trees down and somewhat flat.  After setting up our hammocks we went and collected firewood.  That wasn’t a problem since there was plenty around.  James even cut down the remnants of a dead tree.  Shawn and I found another log to chop on as well.  In a short time we had plenty of wood and the fire was going.



View from our camp at the tree line




James chopping wood

As we sat around the fire, I waited for my dinner to “hydrate”.  While that was going on, I decided to test out my method of charging my cellphone (see Gadget Corner).  I started with a 40% charge and the phone indicated that it was charging.  I then made some kind of adjustment then suddenly my phone was at 5% charge!  How did that happen?  I kept rotating the handle and it said 5% and charging but now I wasn’t too happy about this.  At the same time I am working on mine, Shawn is charging his phone with a small solar panel and with a built in battery. Strangely, the same thing happened to him where it drained is battery instead of charging it.

Now people often ask, “why do you go backpacking”.  Simply put, it is just really awesome to be able to hang out with family and friends under the stars out in the middle of nowhere.  You get a unique perspective of this world that we live in where the forest is as big as the sky above you.  

The sound of the campfire compliments and accentuates the sound of our conversations.  There is generally an overall peace in the woods that comforts you like a warm blanket on a cold night.  It is a great way to get away from the world’s and your troubles.  Yes, we could still hear the Rainbow Coalition and occasionally someone from our group would get a whiff of their marijuana but it is always a good night in the woods.

Doesn't it just look so nice?  And warm?

 

As we sat around the fire the temperature was dropping quite dramatically.  James pulled out an extra space blanket for Debi.  They ended up connecting the blanket to a couple of vertical sticks and the heat from the fire warmed her up pretty good.  James and I stayed up a little later than Shawn and Debi.  As the fire started to die down we went off to our hammocks.

My hammock setup was a little different this time around due to the cold.  I was only anticipating it to drop to 39 degrees that night so I figured I’d leave my canopy off so I could look at the stars.  Yes, my face could get cold but I was going to cover it with my jacket.  I also hung a space blanket below my hammock.  Between my hammock and my sleeping bag I had a Thermarest air mattress.  Everything looked in order and I got into my 20 degree mummy bag.  Not sure if you ever have slept in a mummy bag but they create several challenges.  They are made in a way to fit close to your body.  This minimizes the space that your body has to keep warm.  Of course the close fit pattern also reduces weight and there is the draw string hood to keep heat from escaping your head.  I purchased mine at least 15 years ago (can’t remember if it was for the 1^st [1988] or 2^nd [1998] trip to Boundary Water Canoe Area in Minnesota).  It has been a faithful companion on multiple cold weather trips (Smokey Mountains and here in Florida).  I knew the bag was old but it is rated at +20 degrees and the low was forecast at 39.  No sweat. 

Well, there really was some sweat.  Getting into a mummy bag can be difficult while lying on the ground.  While in a hammock…well that is an entirely different story.  Before leaving for this trip, I tested out my bag at home and pleasantly found out that it wasn’t as tight as before.  I was able to get into it while lying on the bed.  I even hopped around the house to make the family laugh.  Back to the hammock…well, the fight was on.  I was able to eventually get it to the middle of my back but no further.  I ended up getting out of the hammock and zipping it up while I was standing on the ground.  I felt like one of those sausages in the races at the Milwaukee Brewer’s Baseball games but I digress.  After being pleased that this entire process only took 15 minutes or so I leaned into my hammock and noticed that I had knocked off the reflective blanket below my hammock!  This could have actually been before getting into the bag but I have no idea what came first at this point.  I ended up putting the blanket between the bug screen and the hammock since I was actually sleeping on the hammock upside down.

I was now quite warm inside the bag because of all of the sudden exercise.  I adjusted my pillow, my jacket (had it above my head to cover my face when I was ready to sleep), and turned on my MP3 player.  I lowered the volume while staring up at the amazing stars.  I eventually drifted off to sleep but was awakened because my feet were cold.  Well, actually they felt frozen but I knew that wasn’t possible because the low was to be in the upper 30s.  I eventually got out of the bag, used the restroom, got back into the bag (same trick as before) and tried to warm my feet.  I must have been real cold because it didn’t dawn on me to add another pair of socks to my feet.  I was already wearing socks that would typically make my feet sweat at home!  Well, I must have been really, really cold because I started to shiver.  I eventually did drift to sleep for some rest.

In the morning, I woke early to the sound of the Rainbow Coalition.  I was still cold but stayed in the hammock because it was still dark but dawn was on the horizon (pun intended of course).  Suddenly, another sound got my attention, FIRE!  Thankfully, James was up and had made a fire.  The warm glow, and the familiar crackling had a very inviting call to me.  I made it over somehow, and tried to warm my feet.  First with my shoes on, the I took my shoes off.  I can’t remember my feet being that COLD.  Later on, while getting some water for breakfast I found out how cold it really got.  My water bladder not only had some ice in it, but it had a considerable amount of large pieces of ice (4”x1”x2”) in it.  The top opening even had a thick sheet of 4” diameter x ½” thick!  While I was discovering how cold it got, James was pouring water into his metal cup.  It instantly turned into a slushy minus the flavoring.  James kept on joking that the temperature must have dropped to 12 degrees.

After we all were awake we found out that most in our group hadn’t gotten that much sleep.  They were having trouble but, thankfully, it wasn’t because they were cold.  To make it even more interesting for everyone, the Rainbow Coalition was up really, really late and then again really early.  I was happy that my MP3 player was able to drown them out while in bed.

9.       As we started to pack up the wind picked up a little but that didn’t seem to be much of a problem.  The rest of the hike out was pretty uneventful.  Just before we left camp, a group of at least 6 backpackers were heading south.  We also passed a man that was, by our estimates, hiking 25 miles that day!  To put it another way, he was hiking what we did this weekend, what we did last time we were here, and most of what we will do on our next hike, a two nighter!  We did have a possible predator scare but it didn’t end up to be a bear, but the combination of a stump in the shadows and lack of sleep.

10.   The last 2 miles of the trip were actually not on the Florida Trail but on a spur trail that headed to Salt Springs.  Unfortunately, it ended at the marina and not the park where we left one of the cars.  Thankfully, Shawn and James volunteered to go get the car while I “protected” Debi.  Or was Debi protecting me? J

My Lists (Thoughts and Ideas that may help me for future trips):

Food (I tend to keep it light on the trail but spoil myself at camp.  Notice how this is at the top?):

      ·         Lunch wasn’t eaten, just trail mix, water, and some Poweraide.  Diet grape of course.
      ·         Dinner – Beef Stew.  Didn’t eat it all.  Probably because Shawn and Debi brought Fig Newtons again and those are a really nice treat in the woods.
      ·         Dessert – again, didn’t touch the Raspberry Crumble.  Blame it on the Newtons!

·         Breakfast – trail mix and a cold Diet Pepsi.  Also, I believe I “helped” Shawn & Debi by saving them weight in the backpacks by finishing off the Newtons.  Again, didn’t eat the scrambled eggs but I am sure I will on a two nighter.

      ·         Misc – my custom trail mix (plain M&Ms with some Peanut M&Ms, craisins, raisins, and honey roasted peanuts.  James thinks I should patent these), Mio (ice tea flavor), Poweraide, and soda.  Had other stuff (gum, Cliff bars, rootbeer barrels) but didn’t use them.

De Ja Vu (If I was to hike this area again):

     ·         I doubt we’d ever run into the Rainbow people again but it would be nice to talk to a couple for a little bit.  Even though I learned a considerable amount about them via their website, nothing beats directly talking with them.  Of course, I wouldn’t stay the night because that would be too much of a shock to my system!

What I learned:

     ·         Those space blankets work really good while around the fire.  I am going to make that part of my normal winter stuff.
     ·         Rainbow Coalition.  Yes, there are still hippies out there.
     ·         MP3 player is a must for relaxing right before bed.
     ·         That reviewing my old blogs before going on a trip helps me to better prepare for the next trip!  As an example, the above listed item.

What I learned, again (I know I knew this before but forgot via aging or just plain stubbornness):

     ·         Don’t store your sleeping bag in a stuff sack compressed.  This keeps the bag from lofting quickly which helps with the insulation.  Keeping compressed too long may permanently damage the fill.  Unfortunately, I believe this bag is done for and needs to be replaced.

Critter Count:

     ·         Birds only!
            o   Blue jay
            o   Robins (lots)
            o   Small hawk
            o   Possible Scrub jays

People Count [total for all trips]:

     ·         Backpackers: 7 [7]
     ·         Day Hikers: 5 [12]
     ·         Other: at least 50 but there were a lot hidden in their “homes”.

Miles:

     ·         Day 1: 6
     ·         Day 2: 4
     ·         Total Miles Traveled: 34

Cravings (as silly as it sounds, when you get away from “it all” you miss certain things like…):

     ·         Nothing food related, maybe a warm sleeping bag!

Gadget Corner (discuss a new item, or a trusted, regularly used item):

     ·         Phone charging methods – one of the dilemmas to today’s electronic world is that when you are “getting away from it all” what do you do with your gadgets?  No, I am not talking about laptop computers, tablets, and other not really needed electronic items.  I am talking about items that make trips more enjoyable.  Two items that come to mind are phones and MP3 players.  I am going to concentrate on the former since the latter will hold a charge for a long time.  I had decided that using my phone to take pictures was a better idea weight wise than bringing both.  True, I really didn’t need the phone at all but I like the idea of being able to geotag.  The problem with some PDAs, like mine, is that the batteries are not replaceable.  Since these require so much energy, they will need to be charged if being used for GPS (very heavy battery use) or picture taking.  Finding ways to charge these items in the wilderness becomes a challenge that many manufacturer’s have tried to tackle.  Some of the solutions to the electronic world problem are generating electricity, using an external battery, solar panels, or a combination of these items.  For this trip, we actually had all three of these.
            o   External battery to recharge batteries of device – just plug it into the phone and overtime it will recharge your phone.  Actually, a very economical solution.  I need to look into these and see how many charges it will give my phone.
            o   Solar panels – they can be big, expensive, and bulky.  May also be easily broken.
            o   A combination of the above items – Shawn was using something like this combination solar panel with an internal battery when it drained his phone as well.  Now, he said that it was only charged about 50% but, still, it didn’t do it’s job.
            o   Generating electricity – Eton Microlink FR160.  This is the device that drained my battery from 40% to 5% in under a minute.  Cool trick really.  The instructions are clear to not start and stop and start again without waiting 10 seconds or so.  Thought I did that but now I am concerned about even using this thing.  Besides, who wants to crank this by hand when you have already been out on the trail all day? What I really want to get is this BioLite Camp Stove.  This not only cooks your dinner with just small twigs from the ground but it also charges your phone as well!  Way cool.

·         Addendum - Shawn found this Power Pot V at TravelCountry. It is more than the stove that I like but we already have one of those and I needed a pot so 2 + 2 may actually equal more than 4 in this situation. After reading about these, though, the problem is that in order to generate electricity, you need water. If you boil off all your water, you will destroy the energy producing mechanisim and will then have a $150 pot! Finding a water source has been a consistant problem for us on most of the other trips. I am probably going to end up going with the solar panel/battery option like Shawn has used with success.

Medical (general physical condition of this blogger during and after trip):
      ·         Blisters, again, on the pinkie toes.  One developed between the toes.  Need to use double socks to see if this will eliminate this nuisance.  May also use custom double walled socks that Shawn introduced me to.  This could be real sore spot (pun intended) for multi-night hikes.
      ·         Surprisingly not sore the day after.

Next time… (things I’d like to do differently):
      ·         Still need to get hammock setup worked out.  Mosquito problem will be solved by using the Thermarest between bag and hammock.  Add an adjustable ridgeline to support the addition of a rainfly as well as dry clothing.  Probably need to sleep outside a couple of nights to get this worked out.
      ·         Speaking of Thermarest, need to get this chair.  Shawn and Debi purchased chairs similar to these from REI.  They were really nice around the camp fire.  Since I am already planning on using my Thermarest pad for all seasons, the little bit of additional weight of the chair seems like a no brainer.
      ·         On really cold nights, a tarp will keep in the heat.  Of course, it was “supposed” to be that cold!
      ·         Speaking of which, get a better understanding of the temperature.  When looking at the weather, I now realize that I was looking at the city temperature and didn’t account for being out in the wilderness.
      ·         Need a couple of small bags with draw strings to organize like items.  Used some stuff sacks this time and worked nicely.
      ·         Need a reliable way to recharge my cell phone.
      ·         I would like to get a watch that also shows the temperature (preferably it will record the low and high temperatures as well).
      ·         Need some anti-slip mats for the hammock/sleep pad/sleeping pad.  I actually had thought of those before I left but forgot to pack them.
      ·         Need a combination cooking pot/cup for dinner. 
      ·         Found a camera that I need to investigate further.  Waterproof to 33 ft, built in GPS, and video!  Nice camera.

Links:

·         Shawn’s Blog

      ·         Debi’s Blog
      ·         Florida Trails

Conclusion:

What a nice trip.  The cooler days made the hiking nice and we were not sweating the entire trip.  Of course, with the cold nights, the campfire was a necessity!  Next trip is supposed to be a two night trip from Juniper Springs to Alexander Springs which will be around 20 miles or so.  I am looking forward to that one.  Also, it will complete the eastern corridor of the Florida Trail for Shawn and Debi so that is pretty exciting as well.

 

Edit: 02.17.13 to add more info in the Gadget Corner area.