Sharing the best of Florida hiking

So did anybody else hike in the rain last Saturday?

Just a followup post on our troop outing this past weekend. We had 9 boys ages 11-16 and 5 adults on the trail all day in the rain on Saturday. Fortunately it cleared around 3 when we stopped to set up camp and we even had a few rays of sunshine before night fall which brightened everyone's spirits. Temps dropped to freezing that night but the boys did a good job of keeping themselves and their gear dry so they all stayed warm that night. We had a short hike out the next day to Alexander under clear skies.

The only disappointment was 70% of the trail wound thru control burn that happened sometime after we prehiked that section on New Years day. Weird how the trail was still green and it was burnt on both sides of it? Kind of a letdown from what I was expecting though.

All in all a great weekend with the boys gaining some valuable experience in dealing with inclement weather and another 11 miles of backpacking to their credit.

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Permalink Reply by footTRAX on March 3, 2010 at 5:07pm: Where did you hike?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Barbara Bowen on March 3, 2010 at 5:52pm: I hiked last Saturday in the Withlacoochee State Forest. We started about 8:30 AM at Lake McKethan off US 41. We had a light sprinkle. Then we headed over to Hog Island off CR 467 and it was just damp but the drizzle seemed to stop. Then we headed up north along the 41 corridor to Citrus County. We hiked Johnson's Pond (around 1:00 PM) and Oxbow. By the time we got to Oxbow the sun came out and it was a nice day. We were able to get 8 miles under our belt.

We came prepared with a change of clothes, shoes, and a plastic old trash bag to wear as a rain jacket if we were caught in a downpour.

It is good to get out and experience adverse conditions. Jeff, I am glad you did not cancel the trip and the boys had to learn how to deal with the rain.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jeff Norder on March 4, 2010 at 8:06am: Oops I left that key piece of information out? We hiked from Clearwater Lake to Alexander Springs in the ONF.

Barbara, Yea I had my doubts on Friday. I knew they could handle the rain, I knew they could handle the freezing temps at night, but I wasn't sure about the combination of the two in case they didn't keep their clothes and gear dry. They lived up to the Scout motto of "Be Prepared". It was a light but steady soaking rain, sounds like you fared a little better than we did.

footTRAX said:
Where did you hike?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Mikeal on March 4, 2010 at 11:01am: I took my three daughters camping at Jonathan Dickinson State Park. It only rained for a couple of hours here though.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by melanie Taylor on March 5, 2010 at 11:09am: I hiked in Juniper Springs for the first time.......I dont mind rain its the cold i hate!!!; ▶ Reply to This