February 14
End: Bradwell Bay
Miles: 33.0
Total: 1007.6
As I started my hike in the morning I saw the Marsh Point campsite. It was nice, but not as nice as stopping earlier the previous night. Continuing on, I enjoyed the rest of the wildlife refuge, then crossed over into the Apalachicola National Forest.
My third and final national forest in Florida, the Apalachicola offered the same dense palmetto brush and pine tree setting as the previous two. I tried to stay on the trail as I occasionally drifted off in thought, lulled into a false sense of trail security by the quiet atmosphere.
A few times it was difficult to find blazes, but I managed to trudge on and was lucky not to be rained on, though a small chance of precipitation had been forecast. I was shooting for Bradwell Bay all day and I would not be denied.
Bushwhacker had told me that the Bradwell Bay Swamp Tromp was totally dry, but that was back in White Springs. I was confident that it would still be pretty dry, but I definitely wanted to do it immediately before any rain could fall.
I reached the east end barely in time to go for it, and did. It was difficult to tell where the tromp started because of the lack of rain, but there were only a few muddy spots and very little standing water in the whole thing. I loved walking through the super dim and spooky bog sections.
The trees were so thick in these sections little light could get in. Roots looped out of the ground where standing swamp water used to be. I could tell that it would be a formidable place if substantial water were to build up.
Finally I finished up the now dry swamp tromp and got out to a forest road. I set up camp right there, ready to rest. In the night I had to get up and relieve myself… while doing so I could feel fire ants biting my grounded hand, but I couldn’t move it. By the time I was finally able to brush them off, they had devoured my hand. Do not camp near fire ants. If you do, don’t leave crumbs on the ground. If you do both of those, don’t touch the ground. Lesson learned.
