February 11
End: JR's Aucilla River Store
Miles: 40.9
Total: 932.2
I was in sorry shape in the morning. It rained at night, and my poorly set up tarp didn’t shelter me enough. Later on in the early morning it came out of the ground completely. I got up and got my wet gear together and got a move on.
It wasn’t long before I passed a sheltered hunting stand big enough to lie down in. If only I had slept there. I walked on along the sparsely-blazed dirt roads belonging to a hunting club. This was a continuation of the day before and I was not enjoying it.
I was trying to get to the Aucilla River so that I could walk a real trail. I had even hoped to make it to J.R.’s Aucilla River Store, but after a time-consuming wrong turn I realized the chances of that were slim.
Finally I made it to the Aucilla River, which I found to be the same black water as the other rivers in Northern Florida. It was nice to walk along the river, which had fast moving water and an interesting shape. There were some small rapids and in general the river was narrower and faster than the Suwannee or Withlacoochee.
Darkness approached and I was still walking alongside the river. I talked to J.R. on the phone, and he said he would leave a small garage unlocked for me because it would help me stay warm on a bitterly cold night. I decided to go for it since it would be worth it to be warm in that garage while it was well below freezing outside.
I continued along the river, but the trail was difficult to follow at times. As it went through several concatenated clearings I found myself looking around for blazes. Instead I found a dirt road which led out to the county road that I would soon be walking anyway.
Though I missed a mile or two of the Aucilla I was happy to be on the easily navigable road. The Florida Trail had been miserable for the fifty miles prior to the Aucilla, and I was not in the mood to trifle with it anymore.
Walking on into the night, I finally reached US 98, and then J.R.’s store. I hunkered down in the garage and stayed warm all night, out of the cold and the wind.