Wekiva Springs Hike Trip Report

I have finally been able to get some time away from work and do some hiking in Florida. It was not very long and it was not an exotic location, but it was satisfying and now I've been exposed to the Florida terrain and "wilderness".

I hiked a 13 mile loop trail located at the Wekiva Springs State Park. The park is located in the middle of the City of Altamonte Springs. It is fairly close to the highway, about a 20 minute drive from my house, but is large enough to keep most of the city noise at bay. There are a few places where the trail comes close to main roads and cars or sirens can be heard easily, but I was not able to see them due to the thick trees and brush.

The terrain of the trail is FLAT. Although the trail boasts "sand hills", I was unable to find elevation changes over a few feet at a time. The trail winds through very dense brush, open plains of low growth palm bushes, and one area that almost had a meadow like appearance. I'm still new to Florida and can not identify the trees and plants I passed, but I'll work on it as I become more comfortable hiking through this jungle.

It's hard to see in this picture, but on the trunk of the tree, just above the level of the palm bushes, is a "white blaze". The eastern half of the country uses the blaze system to mark trails. This park paints a small rectangle on the trees to denote where the trail winds. There are four or five trails in this park and each trail uses a different color to mark the trail. The system is easy to follow until the trees are blown over by high winds and the trail hasn't been used in so long that it is hard to follow in the ground. Between keeping one eye on the ground trying to avoid stumps and rocks on the ground and keeping the other eye on the trees looking for marks, I can understand how a hiker not paying attention can become easily lost.

All in all, the hike was enjoyable. Next time I will take a set of swim trunks and a towel so I can jump into the natural spring at the end of the trail head to cool off. Even though the temperature was a cool 92 degrees, I lost a lot of water weight in sweat. In fact, every item in my hip pack was thoroughly soaked. I learned that even though my camera is water resistant, the lens gets fogged up from being near my sweaty self. I will have to zip loc bag it next time and see if I can get some less fuzzy pictures next time.

Not Quite A Notch

The snakes around here are getting awfully gutsy. Stacy recently found one in the guest bathroom. I was driving home from a job in Tallahassee and was about an hour away from home when she called. She seemed pretty calm for having a snake in her bathroom.

Stacy closed the door, stuffed a towel in the crack, and waited for me to come home. When I got home, Stacy reported that the snake was curled up in a corner and wasn't really moving. Alayna had decided that, "She was scared". Apparently, this particular snake is a girl. I entered the room and noticed a 12" long snake curled up in the corner. Stacy has the camera and is taking pictures. The snake seems pretty calm at this point.

Stacy told me that she had looked on the internet and found our new house guest. She is a Blue Stripe Garter snake. Normally found in Florida around residences and water sources, eating small bugs and supposedly harmless. I guess I was supposed to start feeling warm and fuzzy about this snake. But when I tried to get her to crawl into a plastic bag, she started attacking. Luckily, I was able to persuade her to enter the bag without any party being harmed.

I took her outside and released her by the pond down the street. She slithered off without even looking back. Not even a thank you for not chopping my head off. Ungrateful snake!

You can kind of see the triangle shaped head.