Okay well it seems like its been forever since we have done a hike. So when we decided to do a 3 night 4 day hike the day after Christmas I was excited. However it quickly became a bit stressful as time got closer. We had so much going on with our kids moving back home and Thanksgiving coming quickly and then it was time to start planning for Christmas and then Christmas was right around the corner. We got all Christmas shopping finished and Christmas dinner planned. Now we just needed to get to planning the hike and get threw Christmas and get on our way with the hike.
Shawn was having a hard time with planning where we were going to go on this hike as it is hunting season in Fl. Therefore you aren't allowed to just camp anywhere. So after going to Kens and talking to him about it they decided that Ken ( and James ) would find a place. Long story short Ken and James decided on a place and we were good to go.
Shawn and I still had a bit of shopping to do for this hike. I was planning to dehydrate the majority of our food but with everything going on in our home I didn't get a chance to get much of anything done on the dehydrating part. So we ended up buying the meals for this trip. Less work for me but MUCH MUCH more expensive. But its fine we do what we have to do.
Christmas came and was slipping by quickly and Shawn and I still had to get our bags packed. We didn't get a chance to get started till about 10:00pm Christmas night. We get the majority of our stuff packed and head to bed sometime around midnight ( i think ).
We get up the next morning and get the rest of our stuff packed, get it loaded into the truck. And head over to dad's where we are meeting up with Ken and James. We stop at the store and grab some coffee and something to eat for breakfast ( i know not very healthy lol ). We get to dad's around 9:30am and wait for Ken and James. They are running a little late but its no big deal. Last time it was Shawn and I that were running late. LOL Very rarely do we all make it to our meeting spot at the same time. But nobody complains as we all do this for fun... a time to relax and get away from the hustle and bustle or all of our stressful lives.
Okay now we are on the road. dad takes us to Chuliota National Forest to drop our 3rd and 4th days water off. There is no way we could carry that extra 9 gallons of water. The we head to our starting point.
We get there and Dad take our group picture. ( not before he took a few group pictures with his in in the way LOL he's so funny ). We say our thank you's to dad bringing us out there and we head out.
We start out at The Little Big Econ. There is always a lot of people in the area hiking and camping. mainly young adults ( gosh when did we become the " old " adults lol ) out there drinking and partying and being loud and obnoxious.
We are moving along and it started .... the pain .... in my feet.... oh no not again is all I can think. ( before the hike i opted to just get new insoles for my shoes instead of buying new shoes. That way we had that much more money to spend on out (almost) 2 year old Grandson. ) My feet feel strange in my shoes due to these insoles. Okay it just feels different and i'm just not used to it... I'll get used the more we walk... that's what I'm telling myself. I don't want to start complaining about my feet yet ... we just started walking. "Just give it some time Debi, give your feel time to adjust and get used to it, its gonna be fine..." is what I keep telling myself.
We keep walking. Ken and James take the lead and poor Shawn is lagging back with me. I knew this would change soon as James was having feet problems ( not his shoes , his feet ). So I knew in time Shawn and Ken would take the lead and James and I would be bringing up the rear LOL.
As Shawn and I are walking my feel start to bother me pretty bad. We get to the Flaggler Road Bridge and I have to put Mole Skin on the back of my feet. Because the insoles are so thick my shoes are rubbing places on my feet that aren't used it and blisters are going to start becoming an issue if i dont do something quickly. I get my feet " taken care of " and we are on the move again.
Once we cross over Flaggler Road Bridge all of the foot traffic pretty much stopped. You dont see many people out here. Shawn, James and I have done this hike before a long time ago so we knew this already.
As we are walking we came upon 4 bikes... hmmmmm but no bike riders. That was kinda strange. But honestly when walking the trail you tend to see some strange things ( and people ). Shawn and I are lagging behind at this point because my feel are not being kind and my hips are starting to hurt me some ( gosh I am so out of shape. (Note to self : prepare physically for the next hike LOL ). As we are walking along I can hear two female voices and for some reason I automatically think James found his Swedish Bikini Team ( or at least 2 of them ) and it makes me giggle. Then we see them. Its two young girls and two young guys ( oh well sorry James ). My guess is they belonged to the bikes we passed earlier.
We move along ... I love this part of this area. There are so many wild ferns all over the place. I am not a fern lover by any means but they are always so bright green and its always so pretty to look at.
At some point in time we have to stop again so I can tend to me stupid feet. By this time I know they are gonna be that constant thorn in my side again. Uggghhhhh there is nothing worse than feet issues out here ( or so I thought ... continue reading to find out what I'm talking about )
We move along and after a bit of time we start looking for our " home " for the night. We find a spot that looks pretty good with just a little bit of work that needed to be done to make it hammock worth lol.
Shawn starts clearing out the spots for our hammocks as do Ken and James. While I start the coffee. Well......... lol I made coffee alright. I made quadruple espresso. LOL I had never used this kind of instant coffee before so I just decided to wing lol. MISTAKE Shawn nor I either one could drink that stuff. LOL Lesson learned measure by the spoonfuls until it taste like you want it to. Shawn figured it out while I got my hammock hung.
We decided to follow Kens lead and not put on our rain flies as it doesnt appear that we are gonna get any rain tonight.
Now its time for dinner. I get water boiling for all of out dinners. Shawn and Ken are eating Chili Mac with a spicy sauce ( we didnt know when we got them that they were spicy ) I had chicken and rice ( prepackaged ) and James had chicken and rice that he made at home and hot dogs that he cooked on a palm fron stick over the fire.
We sat around and talked for a while. Great conversation like always with the guys.
Shawn and I decide that before we go to bed that we are in fact going to put our rain flies up just in case. Its supposed to rain on our whole hike and i really didnt want to wake up in the middle of the night getting rained on. and if I didnt rain I was thinking the dew might be an issue and honestly I didnt want to wake up wet from either.
We get the rain flies put up and Shawn and I head off to bed. Im exhausted from having to be up so late on Christmas night packing and then not sleeping that night then the walk itself and my back and hips sore and my feet are throbbing. I just want to completely get off of my feet and try to relax my hips and my back.
Sadly again this ended up being yet another sleepless night for me. But I chalked it up to just being so over tired ( although I can never seem to sleep when we are on these hikes ). I hear Shawn rustling around and decide to get up. We get the fire started in hopes that it would make the tiny blood suckers to leave me alone. And I get the stove out and water boiling for coffee and breakfast.
We all linger for a while as we are really in no huge hurry to get going. We only had 5 - 6 miles to go to get to our next stop.
We finish breakfast and start getting camp broke down and cleaned up and I do my best to comfort my feet with a ton of band aids on them and hope that will work till we get to our next camp site.
And we are off ... as I said earlier Shawn and Ken took the lead and James and I brought up the rear. We had as good of a time as we could seeing as how we are both hurting with feet issues. We walk and talk and laugh and carried on. No matter whats going on one can always count on a good laugh and a good time with James on these hikes. There we several time that James and I lost sight of Shawn and Ken and then there were a few times that we couldnt even hear them. But when the realized that they were that far ahead of us the took a break and waited for us. LOL
We get to an area that had 2 picnic tables under a huge oak tree and thats where we decided to eat lunch. The break was much needed for James and I and our feet.
At some point in time Shawn went to get me a wild orange and while he was doing that he tripped and caught himself on a tree that was full of huge carpenter type thorns and a thorn jammed into the palm of his hand :-( . I always worry when one of us end up with open sores out there... thank God for alcohol wipes and antibiotic cream and band aids.
We move on because the sky is starting to look like rain and we still have a ways to go before we hit our water drop area and we had to have that.
We had to walk a part of the FT that we typically skip because none of us wanted to walk it... the paved sections. We had to walk a road that seemed to be never ending.
At first my feet seem to fare better on the road. I guess because it was an even surface, I dunno. LOL I didnt care why I was just happy that werent bothering me so bad. But that was short lived they seriously started hurting me ...
Shawn had fallen back with James and I and Ken pushed forward to Chuliota Wilderness Area where our water was. After walking a little bit more I couldnt take it anymore. I had to stop and put my flip flops on.
I get my flops on and we push forward. Finally making it to the water spot. Now we have to decide where we are gonna camp because the sign clearly said NO OVERNIGHT CAMPING ... good thing we all became illiterate all of a sudden because we found a good spot to make it home for the night ;-).
We opted for the fire break again as there is always a place in the sand to build a small fire and there is always plenty of fire wood. Shawn, James and I find spots for our hammocks and Ken ended up way out on the " south 40 " as there wasn't a safe place for him to hang his hammock due to all the widow makers. Being the " mother hen " of the group I dont like for anyone to be so far away. That bothered me a bit. But he seemed okay with it so I didnt say anything.
We all got our hammocks hung and this time we all put up our rain flies because it was already starting to sprinkle a little here and there.
We get a small fire going and then I get the coffee and stove and pot and cups out so i can start the coffee. The coffee was much needed right now .
We all get settled around the fire and I get water boiling for everyone's dinner again. James gets his palm fron for his hot dogs. Shawn and I are eating spaghetti and Ken has decided on chicken and rice and James is eating his chicken and rice.
Okay everyone is fed and we sit around the fire for a while talking and I have to go lay down. I am now more than exhausted and aching and throbbing. Its just time to call it a night.
I climb in my hammock and get comfortable and low and behold im wide awake. Nope im not getting up maybe I just need to give my brain time to quiet down. Surely Im gonna fall to sleep soon... Im exhausted !!!!!
Well I doze off and on for a while. Its raining now but not too bad. I feel a few cold areas and think I have just twisted my sleeping mat and the wind is what Im feeling. UGGGHHHHHH its raining and I have to pee now. SHEESH I get up and fix my hammock because it has settled and is hitting the ground. I get it tighten up pretty quick and I run over and pee and get back into my sleeping bag. Im cold now because I got wet. I lay down and brrrrrrrrr im getting a lot of cold spots. I really must have shifted my sleeping mat a lot when I got out of the hammock and then back in. Oh well Im just gonna have to deal with it. Im cold and wet and tired I just want to go to sleep.
Then I head Shawn moving around. I asked him if he was okay and he said yea he had to pee and then realized that his rain fly wasnt keeping the rain off of him and he was wet. I said oh no !!!! Then I thought hmmmmmm maybe my sleeping mat isnt the problem. Maybe my rain fly is the problem. I reach back and feel my sleeping bag and yep its soaked. UGHHHH Great now what ???
James had to get up and adjust his rain fly as he was getting dripped on and he came over to see if he could help Shawn and I. He done some readjusting on my rain fly and tried to help Shawn but my that time we were both soaked already.
After a short while I knew I wasnt going to get any sleep but I was hoping that Shawn would be able to so I laid in my hammock as quiet as I could hoping he was falling back to sleep. Then he started talking to me and I got up and sat with him for the remainder of the night. He dropped his hammock to the ground about 2:30 - 3:00 am and we sat there on my sleeping mat talking and drinking coffee and trying to decide what we needed to do seeing as all of our sleeping stuff was soaked and if the rain continued they wouldnt dry out for the next days camp site.
Shawn and I decided that we were going to call it and have someone come get us. I was beyond miserable and was over this trip. LOL
About 5:00ish Shawn and I laid down on my mat and his hammock and I instantly fall right to sleep. Even with the tiny blood sucker trying to attack me. It was a short nap tho. As soon as Shawn got up and moved away from me I was awake again.
James and Ken woke up shortly afterwards and we broke the news to them that we were calling it. I felt awful but I just couldnt deal with my feet and the lack of the sleep and the fact that we couldnt even manage to stay dry while trying to sleep. I just couldnt handle it. I needed to go home. Shawn told them that they could stay and that we would come and pick them up on Sunday. We didnt want to ruin their hike.
James said he would go or stay. It didnt matter to him. It was up to Ken. I could see the ...what I interpret as disappointment ... on Kens face. That made me feel even worse. But this time I needed to think about me and do what was right for me. And I felt that I made the right choice. I was defeated and exhaustion completely took over that night. I knew I couldnt endure any more...
Ken and James decided that they too would head home. :-(
I called dad. But got his voice mail. Not wanting to wake him I decided that Id wait a bit longer and call again. But he called me back within a few minutes. Our conversation went like this
ME : HELLO
DAD : HEY, WHATS UP ?
ME : CAN YOU COME GET US PLEASE ???
DAD: YEA, WHERE ARE YOU ?
ME : AT THE WATER DROP SPOT.
DAD : I'LL BE THERE ABOUT 9:30.
ME : TY I LOVE YOU !!!
DAD : I LOVE YOU TOO ILL SEE YALL SOON.
WE HUNG UP....
We all had breakfast and broke camp down and cleaned up the area. And headed back to the spot where we would meet up with Dad. After a short walk we were there waiting. About 10 minutes Dad showed up. We get all of our stuff put in the truck and load up and head home.... End of our hike....
Now all that said ... All the hikes that we have done we have never had a hike with any significant amount of rain. So I was looking forward to something new and I wanted to see how well the rain flies worked. To my surprise they didnt work well at all. But its fine. We had to go threw this to see. Just like the cold times it took us going threw those cold nights to figure out how to stay warm , we had to go threw this to see that our rain flies just wont work. Also I think we figured out why I dont sleep while out there. I know that Shawn sleeps heavy and doesnt hear things so in my mind I have to be able to hear those things to " protect " us. And we figured out that out there just like at home I cant sleep without Shawn. Because as soon as I laid down next to him that wet rainy night on the dry ground I went right to sleep... so it looks like we are going to try a two man tent with thin air mattresses and see if I can sleep that way. And to see if Shawn can get better sleep because he will be able to sleep on his stomach. It was a learning trip that we had to go threw. Im just glad that we were able to call dad and that dad was able to come and get us. Had we done anywhere else we would have had to suffer the rest of the hike. And had we not had an easy way out I would have sucked it up and pushed forward. But Im sure glad dad loves me. LOL
It wasnt a bad hike at all. I had a good time. I just learned a few things ( im always learning the hard way on these hikes LOL. #1 I HAVE to get new shoes. Thats a must.
#2. we need to try the tent idea. and if that doesnt work we need bigger and better rain flies.
Thanks dad for taking us out there and rescuing me ( us ) early.
Thanks Shawn for helping me get threw that long wet night.
Thanks James for getting up in the middle of the night in the rain to try to help make things better.
Thanks Ken for understanding why I needed to leave early.
And most of all Thanks Guys again for a great fun hike and helping me learn to build a fire. Thanks for the laughs, the conversations, and the patients you all seem to have with me.
SHAWN'S : http://wewanttoseeflorida.blogspot.com/
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