Ultra-light backpacking

For the longest time I have been wanting to do a backpacking trip. I have been a fan of camping all of my life, but I have never hiked a trail for days on end. Throughout 2008 Andrew and I have hiked around the trails in the St. Marks Wildlife Refuge. We had thrown around the idea of an extended hiking trip for some time.

After watching The Into the Wild on Sunday night with Kim, I decided I had to finally do it. I talked to Andrew and we have decided to take a week off and hike a section of the Florida Trail. We are going to do this with a technique known as Ultra-Light Backpacking, which is exactly as it sounds. We will carry only the bare minimum supplies. Most ULBs I've read about try to keep their luggage at below ten pounds.

I've been preparing for my trip by spending my lunch break walking. I'm getting about two miles in each day, which is good because backpackers usually travel around two miles per hour. Walking also makes me feel pretty good about life in general. Southwood has a very nice nature walk. To build the neighborhood they practically leveled the whole plantation, but left a mile long stretch in tacts for a paved trail. You can view a rough outline of what my walk looks like on Google Maps.

We don't have a week set in stone. We are shooting for April, but that's not very convenient for Kim. She says Spring Break or after school is out is best for her, but Spring Break is too soon and I am concerned it may be much warmer by the time school ends. We'll have to see.

I will be looking for tips on what to bring on the trip. I've already got a very light sleeping bag. We will carry lots of grit and oatmeal packets and cereal bars. I have a feeling that all that walking will make me quite hungry, and that may be the real problem when it comes to keeping things light.

I'll post back when more has been sorted out.

Another trip out to Saint Marks.

Andrew and I had planned on camping in one of the primitive camping spots in Saint Marks, but when we called the for a permit we where informed that they where only for people hiking the whole forty-mile trail. Not to be deterred from a great weekend, we just hiked out for an afternoon stroll.
What made this walk better than the first was that there where no mosquitoes. We started around 5:30pm, so it was also much cooler.
The whole trail has waters on both sides, and we saw a lot of alligators.
We turned around at one of the primitive spots. It was a very cool camp site. It was a circle off of the trail that had a little pond in the middle. We walked from here to here.
Unfortunately, I could not locate my camera, but Andrew got plenty of good shots, and I took a few too.
The moment we reached the camp ground the sun ducked under the horizon. We ran about half of the way back, and spent about the last third in darkness. Andrew had his bicycle light, and the night was pretty bright, but it was not what we would have preferred with snakes and gators that like to come out at night. But, we made it back healthy, and we had an excellent time. Photos start here.

Hiking in St. Marks

Last Sunday Andrew and I went hiking out near the St. Marks light house. You can view our walk here and pictures starting here and here.
We started around 1:30 or 2:00. We brought plenty of sun screen and deep woods off. The mosquitoes are really bad because of all the rain brought in by the tropical storms. Andrew wore long pants, which would have been a good idea for me to have done as well. I brought a water-bottle filled with water and ice. Andrew brought his man-purse thingy with his water bottle.
The mosquitoes surrounded us, but the off did a pretty good job of keeping them away. It is still annoying when the buzz around your head and in your ear, even if they aren't landing on you to bite. Next time I'm going to wear my safari hat.
At the start of the trail we saw a deer and a place where hogs had been digging in the ground looking for food.
Along the way we saw a few more dear, a large vulture flying low (if he was waiting on us to kick the bucket, he left disappointed) and panther prints. About 3/4 of the way down there was a primitive camping spot as well.
Just after the camping spot the trail continues as an unmaintained trail. This part was actually much more pleasant. Because nobody had knocked down any trees to make way for the trail, there was lots of shade no grass. The problem with a maintained trail is that if it is not maintained enough it gets grown in.
In the unmaintained part we found a banana spider. These are very common, but right as we looked at it a bug landed in its web. It ran over and began eating it immediately. Andrew got plenty of pictures of the event.
The trail ended at the St. Marks River. It was absolutely beautiful. We where pretty tired by this time. We would have been happy to end there, but walking back our only option.
As soon as we left the unmaintained part, and got back to the maintained trail Kim called. I was gone a lot longer than she expected. Right after my call Andrew got a text message. We both thought it was ironic that we where out in the middle of the woods in nowhere land and getting calls and texts on our cell phones.
The walk back was pretty rough. On major problems with trails that go East-West is that the shade of the trees doesn't really hit the trail that well at any time of the day.
The very last stretch we ran back as much as we could. The mosquitoes where getting worse, and the bug spray wasn't keeping them completely away. We where too tired to run too much, but we mustered all the running we could. Our water has also run out and we where both really thirsty.

The trip was a real success. I enjoyed every minute of it, even when I was tired, thirsty, and being eaten alive. As much as I enjoy being out in the woods, a seven-mile track through the woods can really make you appreciate all we have. I was very happy to take a nice-long shower and lay down in a soft bed with my AC blasting.
The worst part was finding two ticks on my feet. I really can't stand those things.