8 miles on the Florida Trail today

Today was a great adventure for me and the kids. It was a perfect day to hike the Florida Trail. The FT is hundreds of miles long and happens to pass only 3 miles from my house. Somehow I am just now exploring it! Because it runs through the largest Air Force Base in the world I just never got around to dropping the $10 for a pass. Duh! The beauty of this place is its virtually untouched landscape and mammoth size. While this section of trail is well maintained it is still not the beaten path that we see out in Blackwater State Forest at Bear or Krul Lakes. There are many more bumps, stumps, roots and palmetto to trip and slice than BWSF. Today we logged right at 8 or more miles. We started at around 12:15 and stopped to eat at 1:00. I boiled a box of whole wheat pasta and added precooked Italian seasoned ground beef and diced onions. Cleanup was quick and easy. I also field tested my water filter. We filled a water bladder and two water bottles in about 3 minutes. It was a piece of cake. I tested my boots in ankle deep water as well. Sterling, Caroline, Julia and my Dad all had to remove shoes and socks and walk through cold (I was going to say freezing but that would just be an exaggeration for Florida) water where a boggy spot was over the foot bridge. My boots stayed dry so I was pleased with that too. I was amazed at the children. Their resilience has truly shown through today. We logged 8 miles in roughly 4 hours of hiking. This was significant when you consider all 5 of us had packs on. Sterling is 5, Julia is 7 and Caroline is 9. None of them have done a hike like that ever. They had a truly enjoyable time or so it seemed. The food was good. There was plentiful water to purify and cook with. All in all they were quite pleased with themselves too. The all carried walking sticks and enjoyed plunking along. Very few complaints were heard!

My plans are starting to come together. I now just need to focus on getting my feet on the trail every week and lifting and running to strengthen my body and harden my feet for the punishment that is to come from the rocky AT. I am so blessed to have a physical body that holds up well under these conditions. I have done so little to manage or maintain it. I owe it to myself and my 2009 goals to dig in, stop all the recreational eating and get my body back into the shape that it needs to be in.

A few gear items became obvious necessities during this hike. Trekking poles for me, and for Caroline. When we were crossing the water the makeshift wooden tree branch hiking poles we were carrying became life savers. The bottom was slippery and the poles added required stability. They also will allow us to push ourselves forward with our arms and hands when our legs are not as excited about more steps of progress.

Here are another pic and a video which I didn't have time to flip the vid with MS Movie Maker. I love the picture below. These are beautiful new growth long leaf pines. They are quite different from what I grew up around up in the midwest.