Trail Monsters

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   So the test hike went well. We started off by attempting to hike the Crabgrass Creek portion of the Bull Creek trail system but it was pretty flooded and since we started our hike around 6:45am the dew on the grass immediately soaked our shoes to their very soles. So seeing that the trail looked to be flooded for a ways we decided to turn back and hit up another trail in the WMA. So we went down to Billy Lake but that was even more flooded. Finally we went to the registration area and saw a FWC Officer and he busted a map out and showed us what we had already known. Fortunately there was a drunken bubba on a bicycle who directed us to a location where he said we would be able to hike for a ways before encountering a flooded portion of the trail. He was accurate in his description as we had dry ground for about a mile and then hit the flooded portion of the trail he described. On our way we did see the remnants of the observatory that used to be there. Once we got to the flooded portion it was a good 6-8 inches deep for about 50-60 yards and then we were back on dry ground. Jesse saw a snake, possibly a Water Moccasin, as we walked through the water which was not reassuring but we made it without incident. We continued on a little further until the trail we started to encounter more flooding on the trail and decided to turn back. Other than that it was relatively uneventful. I can tell you the weight of my pack was definitely felt on my shoulders but other than that I was feeling good the next day.
   When I returned I broke my pack down again to try and find some items I could remove and decided to remove the slingshot as I do not anticipate that being of much use. I also decided to buy some 5-hour energy shots and will get some GU gels as well. I am not one to take energy drink/shots but when you are planning on hiking around 20 miles a day so I think those might come in handy. Honestly, I kinda wanted it to rain just to see how we would all react. I have a cover for my bag which came with my pack but Mike and Jesse do not have covers so they would have either just let the pack soak in or cover it with a garbage bag. I also purchased some lightweight shorts and a wicking shirt which definitely turned out to be a worthwhile investment considering how soaked Mike and Jesse’s shirts were compared to mine. So the gay look of the shirt was outweighed by its performance. Its not about looks its about what gets the job done.
   I tested the filter at Crab Creek and found that putting a coffee filter over the input valve came in very handy in preventing the filter from clogging due to sediment. The coffee filter clearly did its job. I also made sure to use iodine on the water before filtering due to the fact that the MSR MiniWorks does not filter out viruses. But there was no hint of the taste of iodine in the water and there was still a shade of brown to the water and it tasted just like filtered water should. So far no diarrhea or any nausea so if there was anything nasty in that water the iodine and filter did their job.
The big hike is tomorrow. So we are making the last minute preparations of getting waypoints and the maps ready. We will have two GPSs, Mike’s iPhone and my Garmin Nuvi 350 and two compasses. We are bringing a mask and snorkel in anticipation of Alexander Springs and Hidden Pond so hopefully we wont be let down. Based up on the pictures I have seen of hidden pond it looks to be a pretty sick place; being a remote spring where you can snorkel and then camp right beside the pond. We are also hoping we wont run into any trouble with water. We have iodine tablets and an MSR MiniWorks so as long as we have a source of water it can be made fresh. Even if the filter were to break we could still boil water with relative ease so, again, as long as there is a source of water we are good.
   It was thought that there was a fire ban in effect for Juniper Prairie and possibly other areas. However, I found a I neat site on the DOF website(CLICK HERE) that has an interactive map giving status of every active fire and fire ban in Florida and there are currently no bans that I can see in the entire park. But I have decided not to bring my camp axe as it is about 4-5 lbs and wasnt of too much use during our canoe trip in Econlockhatchee. So it is just going to be the Gerber Gator Machete, which I must say thus far has held up very well and the saw side of it seems to work ok on small tree limbs. If you envision cutting a big tree down with this FORGET IT! Otherwise it is a lot sturdier than the walmart brand machete(figures) which might as well be constructed of aluminum foil.

I will be posting pics after the trip and we may try to blog along the way if we have a good cell signal.

With the economy such that it is, and with the already high prices for prepackaged backpacking food I decided to try and make my own. I purchased a bag of Back to Nature Cherry Vanilla granola for $3.49 and dried milk for $7.99 at Publix. The suggested serving size is a 1/2 cup at 200 calories (4g fat, 38g carb, 5g protein) with 7 servings per bag. I measured out 2 servings (1 cup). I added 1/3 cup of dried milk which will reconstitute to 1 cup milk at 80 calories. Now for the packaging.

I was blessed to have access to a FoodSaver V3840 that I already have. If you don’t already have a FoodSaver the cheapest model is their V2060 model at $79.99. I emptied the granola and dried milk into the bag and used the FoodSaver to seal it. Dried milk can spoil easily by just being left out of a container from the humidity in the air. Since the granola had dried cherries in it I was concerned that the little amount of moisture in the fruit might cause the dried milk to partially reconstitute and then spoil. After sealing my new breakfast I decided to wait a week to see if anything spoiled….

One week later, I grabbed the bag on my way out the door and decided to eat it for my 2nd morning meal while at work. I cut the bag open along the top of the bag just below the seal. Everything was still smelling fresh!! I didn’t have a measuring cup so I poured what looked like 1 cup of water into the bag and started mixing.

It took about 10 seconds of mixing for all of the dried milk to dissolve. The dried milk is a little sweeter than I’m used to, but mixed in with granola there’s definitely no bad taste to it.

The total cost per bag is $3.68 while similar products cost 25% or more. Buying a FoodSaver may have a high initial cost but after a few trips it will have paid for itself if you can share between buddies, not to mention the other applications this has (dried food, preserving food, jerky, etc etc etc).

I plan to do something very similar with Grape Nuts and dried blueberries and Oatmeal with dried milk for creaminess. But for now, I’m staring intently at my dehydrator waiting for the scrambled eggs to finish drying………..

      As of today we are presently 8 days away from our planned Ocala Thru-hike which will be about 60 miles total. It will be three of us(myself, Mike, and Jesse) and I think this is the biggest hike any of us have ever done. We are all very excited about the prospect of such a massive undertaking as mere novices. Most of the equipment we are taking is on its maiden voyage so I am sure it will be interesting.

     Although, we are by no means going ultralight we aren’t taking sleeping bags so that will significantly reduce the weight of our packs. The main two items I purchased are an MSR MiniWorks EX($60) and a Therma-Lite Pro Lite 4($55); both of which were on sale at REI. I also bought the maintenance kit and a spare ceramic filter but I wont be bringing the filter with me. I didn’t know until after I bought it but the MiniWorks does not filter out viruses so based upon some research we will be using iodine before filtering it just to be sure. Fortunately, from what I have read, the filter should eliminate the taste of iodine so it shouldn’t be so bad. We plan on packing the simple foods: rice, pasta, mashed potatoes, nuts, grains, energy bars, dried veggies(mushrooms, pepper, olives, onions, etc), ramen noodles, and a few of those packaged meals. And then flavor-makers like salt, pepper, cajun, soy sauce(courtesy of your local asian takout place), and teriyaki. So our goal is to have enough calories until the next meal for the least amount of money,the most amount of flavor, and the least amount of weight.

     Right now my pack weighs about 35lbs with 4 liters of water and after wearing it around for an hour I adjusted the pack for optimum comfort and actually forgot I was wearing it a couple of times. Before the trip we plan on a hike in Bull Creek WMA with all of our gear packed. We don’t plan on staying the night but will be doing as much testing as possible. For example, we want to test the water filter using iodine tablets and also field test the new stove and pot. Another skill we are obligated to master is the hanging of food to keep away the bears. Right now the plan is parachute cord and plastic bags. So hopefully that will be all it takes but things never seem to go the way the should. We already tested the Pro Lite 4 sleeping pad and found it to be a thing of beauty. This little self-inflating pad might as well be a cloud because I nearly passed out just laying it on my wood floor. It has just the right amount of cushion so that you are off the ground and dont wake up with a sour hip.

      I did a basic test of the water filter just by filtering some tap water so not much to be expected from that. I will be bringing coffee filters at the recommendation of some posts I read in order to minimize the frequency of cleaning the filter due to sediment. I also pretty much took the whole filter apart and put it back together using the exploded diagram provided with relative ease. My biggest concern with the filter is how fragile the ceramic element is. From what I have read in some reviews a drop of about 2 feet and its all over for this little beauty. So suffice to say I am going to be very careful with the precious filter.

      As for mapping/navigation I wasn’t able to find any good gps data for ALL of the Ocala National Forest trails so I downloaded the shapefile for all of the trails in Florida from the Florida Trails Network Database site and extracting the Ocala trail using GIS software and converted it into a format compatible with my GPS. I then downloaded the topo data using Garmin US Topo East which just happened to have Ocala National Forest as the only location it provided topo maps for in the state of FL. And since I cant just have a single point of failure I retrieved downloadable versions of the topo maps for the areas in Ocala from Topoquest and had them laminated. Another good site is OutInTheBoonies.com who have sat maps and gps data for a lot of trails around FL including Juniper Prairie. The most important lesson to take from this is that you should not ever have to pay for topo maps, or any other map for that matter, as they are freely available online. Until the next post…

This is the beginning of our blog, however not the beginning of our adventure. Over time, we’ll go back and post some of our pre-blog trips that we’ve taken. For now, things will be starting with the “big trip”…all things relative of course!