Latest leg of hiker's adventure features tortoise habitats, bright days and a kindred spirit

Latest leg of hiker's adventure features tortoise habitats, bright days and a kindred spirit

By Lynn McNutt

March 23, 2014

Publication: Florida Times-Union, The: Web Edition Articles (Jacksonville, FL)

Word Count: 1070

Jacksonville native Lynn McNutt is hiking the Florida National Scenic Trail and sharing her adventures through weekly journal entries.

An avid adventurist who loves exploring the outdoors by land or sea, McNutt is a graduate of Terry Parker High School, Florida State University and George Washington University and has been on the faculties of Auburn, Miami, Flagler College and Jacksonville University.

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Beautiful trail with the iconic Orange Blaze leading the way

A keystone species is a species that exerts an impact on its community that is both strong and disproportionate to its abundance. Like the keystone at the apex of an arch that is responsible for locking all the other stones in place to form the arch.

Gopher tortoises are a keystone species. I came across some pine and palmetto land with black plastic fences running through the pines. About 30 Gopher tortoises had been rescued from a new housing development and relocated there. But the first thing they try to do is crawl home, so the fences go up until they start new burrows. Their burrows are about four feet deep and 18 feet long.

If there is horrible weather or fire, all sorts of animals huddle up together until it is safe to go outside again. Many of these animals are natural enemies, like snakes and mice, but it’s as if they call a “time out” to survive, then carry on as usual when they go out again. The gopher tortoise holes are responsible for the survival of approximately 360 species of animals and insects. I found that very cool.

Leaving the dry piney woods, I hit the soggy boggy St. Johns River Water Management District. This has to be the wettest dry season on record. I am constantly covered in mud! Palmetto fronds make excellent bridges over muck and shallow water. It takes some time to lay them all down over and over again but it beats wet boots any day. Wet boots, I’ve learned, never dry.

My ankle is practically healed, my blisters have turned to glorious callouses, I’ve shed some weight both physically and in my pack, so I feel like I have been flying down the trail. My left calf feels like I tore or pulled a muscle, but that could be due to compensating for my ankle. Aleve has become my good friend.

The last few days have been wonderful and I use that word in its true sense. No rain, no bugs and moderate temperatures. I woke to fog and dew as usual, but the recent rain and warmer temperatures have led to spring buds and greens so varied and vibrant I started wondering if I had eaten the wrong forest ’shrooms.

I was hiking in the Little Big Econ State Forest northeast of Orlando. The saturated colors and the green earthy wet smells lent a kind of electricity to the air. I swear the oxygen in that forest was supercharged. I put in 43 miles in two days.

One night I camped under a huge live oak on a small bluff overlooking the Little Big Econ River. With the light fading and the mist rolling across the tea-stained water, I was as content as a human can be eating my dinner of cheese, bread, craisins, and cracker jacks as I watched the water swirl and the sun set.

The next day dawned gorgeous. I didn’t want to leave my idyllic spot, but I had a friend picking me up in two days and I needed to get a move on to put in the miles toward a hot shower, hot meal and a bed. The only bummer to the morning was that I was out of Pop-Tarts. I had not eaten a Pop-Tart in 30 years, but for some reason it’s the only thing I have been able to stomach for breakfast on the trail. So, it was a cracker jack day.

I ran into two people that day. The first was a scruffy 40-something cyclist named Jason. He wore shorts with no shirt and had a huge cross tattooed on his right chest and a huge bull on his left. Various smaller tattoos covered his back and arms. We met at a trailhead and he seemed a little too eager to hear about my travels, so I exchanged small pleasantries and moved on up the trail.

The second was a man with black hair and black thick glasses in his 50s scraping stuff off trees with a knife. Obviously, he was studying plants and things, but he just seemed a bit odd and weird. As I passed him the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I listened to that and picked my pace up to a trot.

Then along came Jason on his bike. He passed me with a hello. Then he circled back about 15 minutes later. I was getting a bit concerned as to why this guy who told me he was heading north for a few days would circle back for no obvious reason. With a few exchanged words he turned and headed north again.

About an hour later I came upon a much-needed stream as I was out of water. And there sat Jason, as if he was waiting for me. I couldn’t outrun a bike and really needed water so I stopped. Jason asked me if I had seen “that guy” back there. I said I had and that he gave me the creeps. Jason agreed and said he was totally weird. I laughed and asked Jason if he had looked in the mirror lately. He cracked up. He said he had circled back to check on me as that guy gave him a bad vibe and thought he would wait at the stream to make sure I showed up alive.

Over the next 30 minutes I learned we had really detailed things in common, the craziest being the same birthday, May 17. Hence the bull, Taurus. Jason insisted I take his knife as he was worried my little pen knife would not protect me against weirdos. He was so adamant that I took it and thanked him. Then he tried to get me to take his Red Bull drink. It was cold and I knew the caffeine would be a fantastic mileage boost, but I staunchly refused as he would need it himself as he had three days to go before a resupply, and I only had one. We said our goodbyes as new old friends. I took his picture then off he rode north.

Several hours later I got to a rest spot with a picnic table. On the picnic table was a Red Bull. There was also a pack of strawberry frosted Pop-Tarts. My favorite. I had not told Jason of my Pop-Tart affection. I now know that there are keystone people in this world. Jason is one of them.