February 2

Start: Lake Butler
End: Olustee Battlefield Museum
Miles: 19.3
Total: 759.2

I was in no hurry to leave Lake Butler, getting up late and moseying over to Subway for a nice hot meatball sub, then going to the laundry to use more precious time on the computer.

After finding that the tarp that I had hoped would have arrived was not at the post office, I made some phone calls and was able to arrange for it to be sent from Christmas, where it was being held for ransom by an unhelpful postmaster, to White Springs, where the friendly postmaster would hand it over.

I got one last hot meal at Skip’s Deli, a good place to eat with many unique sandwiches. Leaving town in the early afternoon, my goal was to get in position to make it to White Springs by the next day. This would prove to be a difficult task.

After walking roads out of Lake Butler, I came upon a desolate area recently plowed into rows of dirt, the trees bearing orange blazes being the only standing figures left. Walking on such terrain was not good, but thankfully it gave way to dirt roads before too long.

Occasionally the trail would return to the woods, and sometimes to the clear-cut areas, but mostly I walked dirt roads all afternoon. At one point I came across one of the terraforming machines causing the havoc. It passed right in front of me, and I got to see the spinning blades and large roller in action, creating another row of broken up dirt and tree roots.

This area sounded a lot like an area that one of the section hikers I had met earlier had described, and sure enough I found an alternate route around the destruction in one area, also as described. I took it as I watched the sun get lower in the sky.

My goal of reaching the Olustee Battlefield Museum would have been even more difficult had I not reached a prescribed alternate route on dirt roads out to the highway. I walked these as darkness set in, and reached the museum to find that I could not continue until the next day for lack of light. I settled in as trains careened past noisily, and got a decent sleep later into the night.