BACKPACKING IN OCALA NATIONAL FOREST - DEC. '08

Bill's brother Jon and Jeanette are backpacking enthusiasts and invited us to join them on an overnight trip to Ocala National forest. Since I (Barb) have never been backpacking, this sounded like a great adventure and we had "guides" and equipment provided. What else could you want?? Then I got to thinking about the snakes and bears and who knows what else is out there. But hey, Jon and Jeanette do it so why can't Bill and I? So the date was set for Dec. 6 and 7.

Jon picked us up (niece Katie decided to join us) on Saturday morning and we were off to Ocala. Sure enough, as we got close to the trailhead I started seeing bear crossing signs.......Too late now to turn back! Our trail head was in the Juniper Prarie Wilderness area of the Ocala National Forest.

We parked Jon's truck on a pulloff beside the road and filled our hydration bags with water before we started out on the trail.

Here's Jeanette and John ready for the hike and loving it!
The weather is perfect for hiking, slightly overcast and about 65 degrees.

Here we are, eagerly anticipating a great adventure. The packs were loaded with our tent, sleeping bags, air mattress, change of clothes, water bag and food. I had the important job of carrying the "stove" to heat the water for the dehydrated food! I also had my camera, of course, and a new hiking stick that Bill had made for me out of wormy chestnut! I was ready.

After hiking about 2 hours and 3-4 miles we found a serene spot by a small pond where we set up camp for the night. It was about 100 yards off of the trail and quite secluded. By now the sun had come out-it was a beautiful afternoon.

We purified water from a nearby pond to use for cooking.

Time for a rest after all that walking and setting up camp.
That's a view of our pond.

Guess we got bored so what did we do, we went for a walk!

That's Katie, wading in a beautiful lake. I asked if the water was cold and she said her feet were numb. Not my kind of wading water! If we had hiked another 20 minutes we would have come to this area but are happy with our spot. This must be a popular spot as there were already other campers here.

Jon and Bill built a fire even though we have nothing to cook over it. Everything we eat will be dehydrated or instant. The food was surprisingly good: lasagna, beef and rice, chicken and noodles, and chili. We even had dehydrated ice cream for a snack this evening along with hot chocolate. I did carry in a box of Emma's Girl Scout Cookies!!




That's Bill checking out the pond that supplied us with our cooking water. It was along the trail not far from our campsite.

A picture of the pond at sunset.

This is a view of the trail near our campsite. It was so quiet, so far from anything. Just miles and miles of national forest land.

Sunday Morning

Katie, Jeanette, and Barb. It was little chilly in the morning and we were huddled around the fire. Actually it was in the high 50's but the wind was blowing across the pond making it seem much colder.

A picture of our pond with the morning sun rising over it.

I found this cactus along the trail. This area had been burned out a few years ago and there weren't many trees, just a lot of scrub plants and grass.






Most of our hike was through terrain like this. You can see the skeletons of the burned trees and the undergrowth returning to the area.

Here we are, back at the trailhead, none the worse for wear!

And, I didn't see a bear (just bear poop) or any snakes, or any wildlife for that matter. Just heard the birds.