Florida Trail - 40 Miles - The Comeback To
The Florida Trail (Tosohatchee WMA to Big
Tree Park - Cross Seminole Trailhead)
Hello hikers!
Told you I'd be back sooner than ever.
Last month was a great time of kayaking and adventure but this month of April
was all about putting our boots and getting back to the Florida Trail!
Couple of weeks ago Hector and I talked about the possibility of coming back
to the Florida Trail and how we would adapt to the idea of our weekend hike again.
For some time now I'd personally wanted to retire or call it off our Florida Trail adventure,
this has been on my mind before the Covid-19 pandemic, lockdowns ever happened,
somewhere around early 2020 when we came back to hike two weekends back to back.
Main reason why is our lack of consistency and not trying to finish it on a proper timeline,
however, the Florida Trail means so much to me that I couldn't think twice
about coming back even after a long break of 2 years without hiking it.
Honestly, things have gotten so difficult for use to get a ride or for someone to pick us up
from one section to another that we decided to take upon ourselves this time around.
We were back to do another 40-miles section and since our last stop was at Tosohatchee
Wildlife Management Area and we would have to park at Christmas RV Park
and complete this section at Big Tree Park - Cross Seminole Trailhead.
Our friend Alexis hopped on this trip with us just because he wanted another adventure
of the Florida Trail and even though he has not completed the rest of the miles
he is always welcome to hike with us any section of the Florida Trail.
We arrived to Christmas RV Park almost at midnight and slept on the car
as we didn't want to spend time setting our tent and get more hours to sleep.
Wake up time was at 4:00AM as usual,
we had everything packed and set to start hiking right away!
The first couple of miles inside Seminole Ranch Conservation Area were
completely filled with water, muddy making it really difficult to hike this area.
However, it felt great seeing the signs of the Florida Trail and congested muddy trails,
it could only mean one thing that we were back in the Florida Trail baby!
After a few miles of swamp sections the trail started showing us better views,
we noticed several creeks and short walkways were we would take breaks to enjoy the creek.
We also passed some primitive campsites that were on 7-miles
Fern Campsite and on 10-miles Joshua Creek Campsite.
Right after reaching the 13-miles mark we were off to the streets!
Chuluota Wilderness Area and Curryville Road is where the next Florida Trail sign would take us.
We had to hike about another extra mile before we would get back in the woods.
Here's where things started getting interesting for us and when I say interesting I mean really bad.
Prior this trip we had checked the forecast and it said it would rain on Saturday afternoon,
however, it wasn't raining until we were hiking Curryville Road and the
updated forecast was a storm passing through the area of Chuluota.
Next thing we knew it started pouring all the heavy rain upon us,
as we walked back in the woods the rain wouldn't stop for the next 4-5 miles.
Reaching the 20-miles we were stopping here for the night at a Florida
Trail Crossing just before stepping out in Snow Hill Road.
As always, the Florida Trail doesn't offer any designated campsites
and this section we were stopping didn't have one either.
Therefore, we had to improvise and make our own campsite.
We cut a couple of branches here and there to make room for our tents,
and while doing this more rain would come at us.
Pretty annoying and troublesome to set our tents under the heavy
rain but we had no other choice than to do this way.
We prep our meals and started cooking on our tent
as Hector's tent was too small and he didn't have space,
by this point we thought it would stop raining but it didn't
our tents kept on getting soaked and soaked by the night.
For the night the forecast said it would stop raining until 4-5AM
and still I could hear the rain increasing rapidly.
Luckily for us, we were able to sleep after a few hours when the rain stopped
around midnight and the bad weather cleared through the night.
The next morning our previous clothes and tents were completely soaked,
it was a bit chilly in the morning but the sun finally came out.
What a moment of alleviation!
We slept in for a few more hours as we were really tired from yesterdays' hike,
but we poured some morning coffee to boost our energy and we were ready to get back on the trail.
Sunday hike was so much better and an improvement compared to the day before,
we definitely enjoyed this section of the trail.
We started crossing many walkways and bridges that had a beautiful sight at the Florida Trail.
Later on the Florida Trail crossed path with the Flagler Trail and gave us some green views.
Few miles after we had to round up the Econlockhatchee River trail and
this was one of the most beautiful sights we've gotten in the entire trip.
If you guys can spot one of the photos I took we passed the Wiley Walkway
which had the longest walkway we have walked on compared to the other walkways.
This went on until we reached the entrance of the trail and off to the streets!
This was a good relief to us as we knew we only needed
to walk on the paved road for the rest of the entire section.
If that wasn't enough in less than a mile of us there was Mobil Exxon gas station
which I had purposely marked on our map to stop here and enjoy a long rest,
which we ended doing while we each drank a Colt45 Beer and ate some snacks.
We crossed a local park called Round Lake Park which was pretty neat and beautiful,
there some great views and sights on this local park.
The big thing was next when we stopped at Cucinella's Brick Over Pizzeria,
this was local pizzeria in the middle of the town of Oviedo.
Of course we had to stop here and try their pizza,
a huge shoutout to Cucinella's Pizzeria for the slices and the photos,
make sure to check them out if you are ever in the area.
The next several miles were part of the Cross Seminole Trail,
which combines the Florida Trail with it and it is a straight forward paved road.
You can find may people riding bicycles, exercising, walking, and of course,
then there was us the hikers with big backpacks and dirty clothes ha!
But it doesn't stop here the best part was yet to come.
While we walking through Cross Seminole Trail,
we spotted several teenagers jumping from a bridge and funny enough
this is the famous Howell Creek Bridge Trestle which I had previously
seen on the map but never thought we would get here on time.
We immediately starting chatting with these group of teenagers
and went right the action we wanted to jump from the bridge!
We did so several times and it was the most fun we have ever had in the entire trip,
jumping to the creek and these group of kids were the highlight of the trip!
Also, it was really refreshing for us to jump into the water and kind of bathe on it.
The last 4-miles were probably the hardest and longest,
we were really pushing and trying our best to get there before sunset,
but we had to make a few short stops before we reached the end.
Unfortunately, the night got the best but we were almost there and had only 1-mile
left and had to go through Spring Hammock and Big Tree Park trails.
At the end we finally arrived around 8:30PM exactly and what a feeling it was!
We had made it and we couldn't believe it after of 2 years of missing the Florida Trail!
This is another 40-miles that we have completed and another great challenge.
What an amazing weekend it was and we couldn't have done with the desire
of getting back to the Florida Trail and hiking these difficult trails.
This is the end of the road for this blog guys.
I couldn't have been more happier for us and really tried to tell each story
like the same events that happened to us on this section of the Florida Trail.
We enjoyed the great challenge of hiking in the swamp, muddy trails,
and the magnificent moments during the rest of the trail.
I'll leave you with all the content I shot which it was
a lot and hope you guys can enjoy it!
We'll most likely be back to the Florida Trail for another
40+ miles section by the end of the month of April.
For now enjoy and catch you guys soon!
FB: Hector Grass
Twitter: hectorgrass_
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