2011Dec28 Myakka Camping & 11.3mi Hike

I'll have to blog in pieces. I've had a great winter break and there's just too much to put in one post.

Husband and I took some time to go see some family of mine that were down in Florida. It was awesome. More on that in another post.

After leaving them (all too soon,) we set up camp in the Myakka State Park. We'd reserved two nights, though it's so busy during winter that we couldn't camp at the same spot twice. We got in, set up camp, and found the Nature Trail. We did the 1.3 miles really quickly since it was a short trail. It actually seemed too short, so we doubled back at a sign that said "Canopy Trail" thinking we'd missed part or that there was another leg. The Canopy Trail led to a 70 ft tall Canopy Walk. Winding stairs took us about halfway to the top (over the canopy) and had a soft bridge you needed to walk over. It was sooo neat. On the other side was the rest of the  stairway up to the top. Shane read that scientists use the view to keep an eye on growth and health of the trees in the surrounding forest. We snapped a few photos and scooted down. It was more crowded than anything else we saw all weekend.

From the Nature Trail we popped over to the Bird Walk. A boardwalk went out over a marsh and there were lots of birds (heh)! I saw Sandhill Cranes for the first time (and learned they sound like our cat. "rRRRRrrrrrr!" The only boar we saw all trip, we saw at the marsh. We also saw a deer (the only one all trip as well.) We saw a flock of Purple Martins swooping around (we assumed they were demolishing all the bugs that were everywhere) and picked out a pair of Palm warblers really close to the bird walk. Very successful!

My legs were shaking from the weight of my boots when we got back to camp. It's been over a year since I wore them and my legs were tired. We settled into a GREAT dinner of beef shish, roast sweet potatoes, and the best hot cocoa ever. It wasn't COLD but it was chilly. We thought we wouldn't need the winter bags so we didn't bring them. We survived though.

The next morning we packed up the whole camp (since we planned to be gone past check out time and had to be in another camp site later in the day.) Camp breakfast is always great for some reason, even when it's just oatmeal and coffee. We'd packed everything we needed the night before and after making final adjustments headed out to the trail head. Myakka has 38 miles of trails and several primitive campsites for backpackers. The road outside the trail had a couple trucks with passes stating which primitive site they were registered for on what nights. We almost missed the trail head! The dirt road from the main road continues on (for bikers) and we had to start there. We found a sign for the trail head but the 'entrance' looked too small to be a trailhead so we skipped it assuming that we'd come to the first "structure" with maps (which the entrance sign said we would). However, about a half mile up we were still on the dirt road, though seemingly still in the right place according to the map. We peeled our eyes and after another quarter mile or so we saw a parallel trail in the woods next to us that had the orange markers for the actual trail! Chagrined but happy to have found it, we hopped on the trail. Good thing too; the hiking trail split off from the biking trail shortly after that and we didn't see it again until miles later.

A lot of the Myakka hiking trail is a prairie of waist high saw palmetto, with a "one foot after the other"-wide trail. Our pinky toes were screaming by the end of the hike. We ate at the camp stops, and generally complained and cheered along the way. It was great. The woods were great. Even the prairie was great. The spiders were great. No four-legged monsters though. Saw some backpackers that were out there for the night, too. After weaving in and out and in and out of the 'Prairie' and checking ourselves at every road junction, we did a 10.9 mile hike (plus the 0.2 there and back to get there from the road proper). 11.3. Definitely a PR for me! Shane's over 12 (he cheats: military rucking!) We're talking about going back, now that we know more about the trail and the primitive sites, and actually backpacking. Need to finish breaking in our boots though!

Back at the car we changed into sandals, which we stayed in the rest of the camping trip. We 'left' the park, re-checked in, and found that our new campsite was a hop skip from the old one in the same ring. This was was more rocky, but more entertaining too. The site was butted up against woods instead of the road, and the woods were full of hawks. They'd hear something and the whole flock would up and fill the sky. We heard them all night. It was great.

Our reward for hiking so far was a dinner of bbq babyback ribs, baked beans, coleslaw, hot cocoa, raspberry wine and beer. We pigged out and then watched our fire die away. The wood we got from the on-site place was wet and didn't burn well. We were lucky to be given a bundle of wood by a gent who was leaving as we arrived the night before. We padded the bags extra well and crashed.

Breakfast was scrambled eggs with sharp cheddar, maple sausage, and hash browned potatoes. Fantastic. Camp was broken down in a jiffy and we wet our firepit. Neither of us were ready to leave, but we didn't have much of a choice. We were already planning the trip back!

It only took us an hour or so to get back to his mom's house. We checked on the animals, showered, washed clothes, and took Irma out to eat. She's the reason Shane loves camping so much. Half of our time out there is him telling stories about her. She's awesome. He's awesome. Camping, is sooo awesome.

Picasa doesn't let me insert images the way I like, so bear with, or just click out to see the whole album. Not all the pictures will fit here. :)