Swampy at the Suwannee!
Posted by Rob Smith, Jr.Mar 26
Swampy (on the bottom in the bush) makes a trip to Stephen Foster State Park. Here he is way down upon the Suwannee River.
Here’s where the Florida Trail goes through Stephen Foster State Park. The orange mark on the tree is called a “Blaze”. The orange stripe is specific for the Florida Trail vs. other trail colors across the country. The blazes are what you follow while walking or hiking the trail. That’s Florida’s foremost hiking expert, Sandra Friend, and owner of Genuine Florida.
Below is Swampy with the native Florida azaleas by the Suwannee.
[...] We made a trip to White Springs so that Sandra could drop off a ton of materials for the upcoming hiking festival and to test a hike she will be leading a “V.I.P.” group on Saturday. The test was to see how much of the trail was passable due to recent high water levels of the adjacent Suwannee River. We tried getting through a number of ways but kept running into the Suwannee running over the trail or thick clusters of saw palmetto being impossible to find a way around the water. The hope is that the water recedes and the trail will be passable Saturday. Otherwise, Sandra will have to take them down boring dirt roadways used by government vehicles to do whatever they do. It was a lot of walking for me, but much needed. Above is a sketch of a native azalea. Click here to see a photo of the azalea flowers at Genuine Florida. [...]