Osceola - Day3

West Tower to Deep Creek

If "rain" was the word of the day for Day 1 then "cold" certainly fits the bill for last night. I believe we saw 48. Both of us were chilled. As long as I kept cocooned in my blanket I was warm. It's still evident, though, that even my JRB WeatherShield does little to help in cold weather.

I was dubbed Red Riding Hood as I gathered my blanket around me to get the morning started. I seriously needed coffee and I needed it quick. I rushed to pull our food bags down.

I put water on my alcohol stove to get it ready for coffee. Then I fired up the Giga stove to whip us huevos rancheros. I felt like a hearty breakfast was in order to start the final leg of the trip.

After breakfast we set about trying to recover my good caribiners. They got wrapped in an oak tree last night while trying to hang the food. After many failed attempts to knock them loose with rocks and sticks I gave up and climbed the tree. I safely rescued by prized biners!

After breaking camp and topping off our water we walked a short bit down the road to find the trail. We skipped a little here. We didn't see the point in going back to the trail we left just to cross the road we were already at. We saved a little time and distance but that would be lost later.



As we looked at the trail we realized we'd finally found the "bad" section we'd been warned about. Talk about overgrown! A machete would have been nice to cut through the vines and brush. Oh, and how could I forget the thorns?



To say the third day was a challenge would be too little. It felt as if, and the GPS confirmed, that we were meandering through the forest. It didn't make sense but we kept to the blazes.

We finally made it to a timber road and got some welcome relief from the brush. I'd mentioned as we started the day to be on the lookout for snakes. I knew that with a cold night it was likely they'd be out sunning. It only made sense that I'd be the one to walk right past one without even seeing it. It's a good thing it was friendly. Of course he didn't move a muscle so I figure he was still too cold to do much.



The last section had us off and on timber roads. More off than on. We did have a couple of rare open spots that would make nice campsites though. We used one of these to take a break and tend to our feet.







At long last we stumbled out of the brush again and onto FR237. Unfortunately, the trail went cold. We'd followed the blazes the whole way but now they were gone. How could that be? It took a while but we finally found another trail on the same side we'd come from and the matching sign across the road. They were about 50 yards from where we exited. I have no idea how the two trails were so close to each other.







We picked up the blazes again and were thrilled to finally reach the power line leading us to the Deep Creek trailhead. Of course, our journey wasn't quite over yet. We'd parked at Milton's Country Store, not the trailhead. We still had about 2 more miles to go.





We started down the road and even the cows looked at us funny. There were still blazes, though, so we were doing something right. After long last we arrived at Milton's, dropped our packs, and breathed a sigh of relief. Over the three days we covered 25.1 miles. It was tough at times but proved a rewarding experience. I'm already looking forward to the next adventure.









Happy hiking!