After a nice rest day yesterday, and having played bulldozer a bit too much on our last ride, I did my best this time to plan a trip on roads I could actually see well on Google Earth, not paying any attention to what GE has marked as a trail. This proved to be a bit easier, but we still ran into overgrowth that had apparently sprung up significantly since the last GE picture was taken of the area. This time we circled the perimeter of the campground to the north, then crossed the road early and barely found the trailhead on the other side. There was a pretty big ditch on the side of the road that had been made by heavy equipment, but my big guy just stepped over it and hauled himself (and me) over it. Hubby and Clio followed, and we stayed on a two track trail for quite a ways. Even so, there was a lot of lumber that had fallen over the road, really amazed at how little maintenance goes on at this forest Fortunately this section was a lot more open, so getting around them was pretty easy. We turned north, still following a rather nice track, getting a bit concerned when a road that should have been on the left wasn't there, but as we continued on, the road eventually turned west, and I realized that when drawing the map, I had taken a shortcut because I couldn't actually see the road at that point. In any event, we stayed on the road, which stayed on track, and circled back east again, crossing the main road, missing a fork to the south, which, thanks to my GPS, we quickly realized, and got back on track. Then we came to a section that had a big berm, and several large trees blocking the way. We had to climb over trees to reach the top, then over a tree that laid across the berm and dropped directly downward. A bit tricky, but my guy managed it okay. Clio hesitated a bit, being the smaller of the two, but Hubby managed to move her to where the tree was slightly lower, and made it down okay. We followed that to a T, then turned left. That part of the trail, unfortunately, began to be overgrown again, not quite as bad as Monday, because there weren't any trees down that we couldn't get around, but lots of branches that were horse-head high, which meant lots of ducking and scraping for us, and a lot of bulldozing for Apollo. One time Hubby lost his hat and almost lost his glasses as the brush became too thick. Fortunately, that didn't last too long, and we soon came back out on a two track road, much to our relief. The rest of the way was pretty uneventful, thankfully, and we made it back to camp after completing our seven mile loop in relatively good condition. The weather was perfect, low 70's and sunny, with just a light breeze, just what we come to Florida for! Settled down to a drink and dinner and relaxed in this beautiful, live oak, mossy-covered park!
Speak Your Mind