Olustee to Osceola Shelter
One word sums up this first day on the trail: rain. It rained all the way to Lake City with only brief intermissions. We left one car at Milton's Country Store on US 441 near Deep Creek. Thirty minutes later we were at the visitor's center at Olustee National Battlefield where we met Ranger Frank. We talked for a bit while he told us about the four hunters that had been found shot dead in their stands. Thanks Frank. As we hit the trail we heard a gunshot. Great way to start. :-)
I cheated and took this the 3rd day
Despite the rain this first leg has been nice. The lush pines have given us the occasional woodpecker sighting. Also, contrary to what I was told the trail so far is in fine shape. I had the role of point man today so I got to clear all of the spider webs. The forest will be busy tonight with recovery operations. There were some very interesting spiders I'll have to look up when we return.
White stripes indicate woodpecker nests
We took our lunch break at the spur trail to Ocean Pond. We were both soaked and wanted to wring out. We decided to skip the 1 mile round trip to Ocean Pond and keep trucking to the shelter. After a 30 minute break we headed out again.
Our hike took us through some slightly varied scenery. We crossed several boardwalks. Our longest was through a beautiful cypress stand. The first section of this boardwalk was at an angle and it was very slippery. Both of us made it safely across, though. We crossed roads and walked down others. We stood over I10 and I even got a trucker to honk!
Cypress stand
We finally made it to Osceola Shelter after 9.9 miles. It took us 3 hours 55 min per the GPS. It's a nice shelter with a privy down a short path. The first order of business was to get a line up to hang our clothes. My laces were dripping for quite a while. The rain gear I have stinks. I'll be taking it back. I was soaked inside and out.
The tent is pitched and the hammock is hanging. Dinner was early to get our food bags hung before dark. After a couple of hours sitting in the dark talking we decided to turn in. Tomorrow is another day.
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