Archive for March, 2010
Gearing up for a night on the trail
After an failed attempt at using my old flint stick while I was at the Black Creek Conservation Area, I decided to restock with a more competent stick that I found at Black Creek Outfitters (yeah, its come to be my favorite place to go and peruse around – the women working there are all adorable and the stuff is really useful).
Given how long it took me to chisel the mud and re-polish my boots, I decided to get a more comfortable pair of actual hiking boots (and not my bdu boots) for the trail. Timberland had a nice deal at dick’s on their Conway Trail Mids, they’re comfortable and keep you warm and dry, which is all a guy can ask for.
In regards to the most epic show ever played at the Hampton Coliseum, I managed to locate the show on the ever-so useful Internet Archive, I recommend taking a gander at the darkstar and scarlet begonias.
Black Creek Ravines
Awesome little place to hike. Took me a while to locate the place thanks to a few misguiding directions provided by google. Florida isn’t like Virginia when it comes to hiking, everything is either sandy/marshy/desert with the guaranteed bonus of absolutely not serious grade of elevation. I managed to pack lighter than I was hoping, and left my water supply back in my car (didn’t realize it until about 4 miles into the hike). The path had a very nice sand-covered path with a bit of marshland towards the camp site area, and the path switched back and forth between clear and covered which allowed you to not freeze and stay away from over heating.
Me being from the north I’m definitely not familiar with anything other than the random armadillo I saw casually strolling about on my return hike, so the vegetation was something that kept my mind wandering. The camp site was extremely secluded, with only one path to get to and from it made it exceptionally peaceful while I sparked a fire and relaxed.
By Trail or Paddle
Which one would you choose? Since arriving in this awesome state I’ve been on a witch hunt for a good rack system and kayak to be able to explore areas as far away as possible from the ship. Thanks to a bit of Yahoo’s local search feature I was able to find a really nice outdoor store – Black Creek Outfitters – which not only sold everything you could possibly want for the camping/hiking/kayaking enthusiasts (even close-toed keens…didn’t know those even existed) but also provided American Canoe Association (ACA) to get anyone comfortable with kayaking and to help understand what size/type of kayak would be the best choice. I had an issue regarding Thule and Yakima not carrying anything that would fit atop my little rice-burner, but I did manage to (hopefully) situate myself with a fix from ORS Racks Direct.
I discovered a neat little bookstore in the historic area of St. Augustine that had quite a selection on Florida’s ins and outs. I found a book that had quite a detailed list and map of numerous areas to hike/kayak all along the Florida coast/inland areas, which I’ll hopefully be able to actually use after we get back from deployment. I’m looking into hiking/kayaking dork-type groups to try and hook up with in the mean time.
Always remember, go everywhere, see everything, leave nothing but footprints.