Apalachicola National Forest

During my latest road trip, I had planned to spend the second night camping in the Apalachicola National Forest. After a busy day trekking from Tampa up to the panhandle and back towards the peninsula, I made it to Apalachicola National Forest as the sky had turned to pretty reds and purples as the sun began to sink ever faster towards the horizon. My buddy and I had no plans as to where to stay in the forest, so I had taken to the internet to help me out. I had found a great site called FreeCampsites.net that I was able to locate the closest campsite to our location – Pope Still Hunt Camp.

We made our way to the camp and parked the car. It was completely empty and I quickly changed into longer pants and a jacket to protect against the blood-sucking pests flying around. Another car came in a few minutes after us and parked in the other campsite just through the trees from us. We took off up the road the check out what there was. I had some cheap fireworks that I had been holding for a while and wanted to set them off in the remoteness of the wild. The Red Sox had won the ALCS the night before and I was looking to celebrate. Down the road we came upon a group of people riding ATVs around right in the spot I wanted to light the fireworks – on a bridge away from anything that could catch fire.

We abandoned our trek for the night and returned to camp. It was now twilight and I quickly went to setting up my tent in the near-dark. I got the rest of the stuff I needed out of the car and into my tent before heading off to bed at eight P.M. My friend decided to sleep in the car, but I had been looking forward to the full camping experience, something I don’t get to do as often as I like.

I had slept pretty well, but had been awoken a few times through the night by vehicles driving on the nearby road and one time from a short burst of rain that made me close the flap on my tent only to have the rain stop and I had to open it back up again for some ventilation. Finally around one A.M. I was having a hard time sleeping because my makeshift pillow of all my clothes was not offering enough support and my neck was killing me. My buddy had also gotten up and we decided to take a hike to the bridge one more time. I grabbed my firecracker and we headed off. We got about halfway to the bridge and the road was wide enough and there was no brush, so I decided to light it off there.

The fuse lit and then it fired off one colored rocket and that was it. It was a dud. Dejected, we headed back to the campground and decided to head off to make it to our next stop, but I still had one more firecracker. We drove to the bridge and I got out and lit the firework. This time it wasn’t a dud – it fired off rocket after rocket of colored light. After all the shots had been expelled, I picked up the remains of the firecracker for proper disposal – leave no trace. We hopped back in the car and drove back through the forest and left it behind.

It was a nice forest, though I much prefer to hike on trails instead of driving and hiking on roads. Though, this time it was nice because we had so little time before sundown.

Seminole State Forest

I’ve been through the Seminole State Forest on several occasions as it’s only fifteen minutes from my house. My first trip through the forest was in May of 2010. My buddy and I decided to hike the Florida Trail from just outside my house for a few days North before turning around and returning home. The first day we made it along the bike paths, stopping for lunch at Papa Joe’s, a local pizza place, and down a two-lane road before crossing over 46 and heading into the forest. Soon after that, we were back out of the forest and walking along 46 and over a bridge in a pouring thunderstorm with cars whizzing by. Shortly after the bridge was the turn off for Seminole State Forest.

We entered the park and I paid our fees before we ventured off into the woods. The first campsite is less than a mile into the park and has a shelter there. We got there around three in the afternoon and decided to stop there for the night. There was a bicycle in the shelter, but no one to be found. Eventually the owner of the bike returned and explained that he had been out geocaching. He stuck around for a short while and then left. When the sun was ready to sink, we tried to hang our food in a bear bag, but got our anchor bag stuck in the tree and had to abort that plan.

The bugs were coming out and we had no dry wood to start a fire. We set up a tent inside the shelter and camped in there for the night, as no one else had come to the campsite. The next morning, being low on water, we headed out early without breakfast to try and make it to the next water source. My buddy had to stop frequently, slowing us down and eventually we ran out of water. We eventually came across the second campsite right next to the river, but it was covered in bugs and we had no filter so we moved on.

We eventually passed the third campsite, which is right on the trail, but has nothing special about it. My buddy stopped at a horse trough to drink the water there while I tried to get him to push forward. Once we reached the Northern terminus of the park, we called a ride and headed home.

The next time I headed into the park was earlier this year to camp out for the night. I went with a different friend this time and we were undecided on where to camp. We stopped at the shelter for a few minutes before pushing on to the second campsite. Upon reaching the second campsite, we were spotted by the local insects and so I used my water purifier to refill my water bottle – I do learn from my mistakes. We headed back to the shelter and decided to camp out there. I quickly stored away some dry wood before the rain came and got a fire going – again I do learn from previous experiences.

The bugs weren’t too bad, so we laid out on the two raised platforms that are in the shelter.  The next morning we left early and headed to the local IHOP for breakfast.

The third time I went to Seminole State Forest was after being unable to obtain a campsite at Hillsborough River State Park. We stopped by the forest late in the night and I quickly squirrelled away some burnable items and got a fire going. This time we set up a tent in the shelter because of the bugs. The next morning, again we left early and made our way to IHOP for breakfast.

One day before work, I decided to stop by the forest and go for a run from the entrance to the shelter and back. On the run, I saw a deer as I ran past and startled it into running into the forest, which in turn startled me. That was the only other time I’ve been to the Seminole State Forest. It’s a great place to hike and camp, though it does have quite a few spider webs and ticks.

Hillsborough River State Park

On one of my trips to Tampa, I stopped by Hillsborough River State Park hoping to camp there for the night. I was informed by the ranger that the primitive campsites were flooded and that I couldn’t camp there. I went into the park and followed the pathway around, taking in the sights of the river and forest. I went out on the hiking path to the primitive campsites to check them out and found that half of the campsites were high and dry.

I finished hiking the trail and stopped by the restaurant to grab something to eat. The pool was nearby, filled with kids playing as they do at a pool. I wasn’t interested in dealing with screaming children, so I avoided the pool. I walked back to my car which was parked at the first parking area and moved it closer to the store and pool area. I continued exploring the park for a bit before deciding to head to the ranger station and see if I’d be able to camp at one of the dry campsites.

I went in and talked to the ranger, but he blew me off, so I decided to leave the park and hop on the Interstate back to Seminole County and camp at the Seminole State Forest instead. I wasn’t overly impressed with Hillsborough River State Park in any respect and I don’t see myself going back unless someone else wants to go there.

King’s Landing – Rock Springs Run

King’s Landing rents canoes and kayaks for an eight mile ride down Rock Springs Run. Back in February and March, my buddy and I went there four times to rent a canoe and paddle down the river. The first time we went was a lot of trial-and-error. All four times, I sat at the front of the boat while my friend sat in the back. It took us most of the first trip to get our steering down to a science.

A couple weeks later we gave it another try and had much better results. We even decided to stop at a campsite to scope it out for future reference. There are three campsites along the run – Big Buck Campsite which is a nice larger camp area with a water spigot, Indian Mound Campsite which is up a steep incline and a nice smaller camping area, and finally Otter Campground which is as big as Indian Mound. We stopped at Big Buck and thought it was a nice campground, then stopped at Indian Mound and found it more to our liking as it was more out of the way. We did not stop at Otter Campground on this trip since there were already campers there.

On our third trip we stopped again at Indian Mound and made our first stop to Otter Campground, which we didn’t like as much. We had decided our fourth trip would include camping and would try and obtain Indian Mound. Indian Mound was not available however, so we ended up getting Otter Campground for our fourth trip.

We left work early on a Friday and made it to King’s Landing around four. We had about three hours of solid sunlight and we predicted it would take about two and a half hours to make it to camp, so we hauled ass down the river. We made it in time and I set up the tents quickly before getting a fire going in the damp evening air. There wasn’t much dry wood other than what we brought with us, but there was a large piece of wood, damp but useable. I used some tinder to get the dry wood burning and used that to dry out and burn the larger piece.

During the night the critters came out and decided to munch on our food, pulling it from its bags and spreading it around camp. In the morning, awakened with a hangover, I got up and tried to keep the fire going with pine needles in the cold late-winter air, but efforts became pointless as it wouldn’t sustain enough to burn any of the wood dampened during the stormy night.

We hiked a bit of the trails in the area before hopping in the canoe and heading back down the river. Unlike the previous couple times, we did not park one of our cars at the end of the run, so we had a lot of time to kill. We took the canoe all the way into the Wekiva Springs and floated around for a bit before heading the other way past the end of the run. As a storm brewed on the horizon, we headed back and ended our trip. We had to wait to get a ride back to King’s Landing, but eventually we did and ended our adventure.