Kirsten Kischuk's Page

Today I did a hike in Little Econ State Forest, starting at the Barr Street entrance and following the orange blazes until the trail dead-ended at a trail head beside an active road... a roundtrip of about 5 miles (I think). The trail was nicely maintained and well-marked. Around 1/4 mile in, you are treated to nice views of the river which meanders through the forest. The trail mostly overlooks the river from high-ground, and in some cases comes quite near to drop offs where the ground has erod… Continue

Today I hiked the North Loop and Lake Loop of the Split Oak Mitigation Trail. The park is back in a Florida Water Management District area as well as wildlife management district... so no hunting is allowed, and the main trails are vehicle paths, criss-crossed by non-trail vehicle paths. The paths are pretty well flagged by color so it was easy to stay on track.

The first push of the North loop is through a broad scrub of what appeared to be swaths of rusty lionia. The sun was blazing, and with… Continue

I just picked up hiking again. When I was a child, my family used to go out to the Rocky Mountains (from Indiana) and hike some of the more well-known trails up to mountain lakes, tundras and rocky peaks. When we moved to Florida, we pretty much stopped hiking.

A few years ago, I fell on a staircase and most likely busted my tailbone. After that was a year of intermittant pain that would curtail my activity for days at a time... I had what I called a "weak hip" that would start to hurt about 3… Continue

Yesterday I was out at Tibet-Butler Preserve to enjoy some outdoors and get used to my pack. I pulled up to the Visitor Center and was told by the first ranger that all of the trails were closed, but that I was welcome to walk the parking lot. I walked around for a while, and stopped to look at the map, at which point a younger guide told me that I could go on the trails -- I should just expect ankle-deep water. I think that with the pack and athletic clothing, I didn't look totally city-fied.… Continue

Last month I went to Mead Gardens.

It would be a great spot for picnics, but the hiking was rather poor. Due to deterioration of the boardwalks, the walk out to the lake is no longer possible. A major portion of the boardwalk is closed with security cameras to prevent people from going onto those portions. Basically, whole areas of the boardwalk are falling apart, ,missing boards, sinking into the wet ground or had trees fall on it. It would take them a lot of time and money to re-open the boar… Continue