Thursday, May 12, 2022
Dinner last night was 1/2 fried chicken, Mac and cheese, and collards. I can’t imagine sitting down and eating 1/2 of a chicken but it’s on the menu, so apparently someone does. The chicken was good but not as good a home made and the collards seemed fresh but not as good as home made.
In any case, I was ready to do some hiking this morning. I was ready to start around 8:45 am on the Sally Ward Trail. It’s a six mile one way trail with a loop starting at 3.5. If you hike the whole trail, it’s 10 miles.
The ranger said to be careful of ticks. They recommended long pants, long sleeved shirt, tuck your shirt into your pants, and tuck your pants into your socks and spray down with insect repellent. I did. The only thing that bothered me was the horseflies. At least I didn’t find any ticks after the hike.
The weather was perfect (58F) the trail wide and well maintained. It is also the best marked trail I’ve ever hiked with blue paint splashes on trees at eye level all at the right points and it also had mile markers every half mile along the trail. The only problem is it is an extremely boring the trail. You see everything you’ll ever see in the first 30 minutes of the trail.
Around mile marker 0.5 you come to a bridge over the Sally Ward Spring Run. This seems to feed into the Wakulla River.
Looks inviting doesn’t it? Especially on a hot summer day. There’s only one, not-so-little problem.
Since it is May, you would think there would be a lot of wildflowers in bloom. However, due to the canopy, it’s so shady they haven’t really started to bloom yet. I did find a few, however.
I don’t know if I overdid the 6.2 walk/hike at Cedar Key or if I’m just getting old but I stopped at the 2.0 mile marker. I was no longer interested in the trail and it was getting warm. That meant the return was going to run me to a total of 4.1 miles.
I made it back in time for lunch at the Lodge Restaurant. I had the small navy bean soup and the small Bee Line salad (it was huge).
Tomorrow I head to Clayton, Georgia. Apple Maps says it is on 6+ hours and my jeep GPS says it is 8+ hours. I don’t understand why there is a two hour difference but I’ve noticed that my trips typically take longer than what Apple Maps says and less time than what my GPS says. I do know the GPS updates itself as I travel. In any case, I have reservations at the Beechwood Inn and at the Julep Kitchen at 6:30 pm for dinner. I don’t want to miss that. The Beechwood Inn used to do three meals a day but since the pandemic, they only do breakfast. They recommended several restaurants in the area and the Julep caught my attention.
By the way, I slept great last night. The bed was comfortable and the walls of the room are so thick, I heard absolutely nothing. I was out like a light at 10 pm.
There were no ghosts last night roaming the halls but there was one thing.
Stay tuned!