Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category
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.
Florida or Bust
After the awesome concert last friday night, I had a quick rest and did the whole 10 1/2 hour drive down here to Mayport. I managed to evade whatever storms were supposed to come in my path and even with a handful of stops still made the trip under what Google said it would take. The ship isn’t too bad, our space has crystal-clear tv and air conditioning as well as semi-comfortable chairs. The people are pretty close-knit and welcoming, everyone knows everyone. We are still scheduled for a deployment the first week of April and we’re still headed to the South America region, we’re expecting a ton of port visits and days in port. Its taken me a little while to get used to things, but I’m happy to say that my rack is quite cozy (when it does finally get quiet and I’m inside my sleeping bag) and since its a clean berthing it doesn’t have a horrid stench to it. If you try and get a hold of me, most likely I wont get your call (your messages and texts possibly) due to the lack of service inside the ship, but I am able to check my facebook regularly via my phone.