Highland Hammock State Park

I spent a very nice week in Highland Hammock State Park in Sebring.  The park had several short hiking and biking trails near the camp ground and the park was packed with kids riding their bikes and families going for walks.  The weather was spectacular and it was nice to see everyone out and about.  Once the weekend passed, the park emptied out and became much more to my liking, nice and quiet!

Late Monday afternoon, there was a knock at my door.  Two young ladies said they noticed my truck and wondered if I could help them.  Seems their boyfriends had taken their jeep out in an orange grove and gotten it stuck.  They wondered if I could go pull them out.  I followed them out to take a look at the situation.  OMG what idiots!!  They drove a jeep about 350 feet down path of deep, loose sugar sand.  The jeep was now buried so deep you could barely see the back tires.  I really don't understand how they got it so far in.  They had a small shovel, so I suggested they dig the sand out from underneath the car and dig out the tires.  I brought along a rug to try to get some traction.  After about an hour I realized it was hopeless, the sand was just too deep and loose.  They seemed to think I could just drive down the same path and pull them out.  I said no way would I drive down there, the sand was just too much for my truck to handle.  They wondered if they might find another vehicle that was capable of pulling them out.  I had to explain to them that there was no way anyone in their right mind would drive down that path.  They needed a tractor.  I suggested they leave a note with their phone number, because it was a sure bet someone would notice their car when the pickers came to work in the morning.  About noon the next day I noticed the jeep at the campground, so I guess someone with a tractor pulled them out. 

On Tuesday my Mom came for a visit. We had been to this campground when I was a kid, but I didn’t remember it.  She wanted to go for a hike on the boardwalk trail thru the cypress swamp, so off we went.  It’s a very nice boardwalk about .6 miles long.   This is the description in the park map:

Teeter-tottering above a swamp isn’t an ideal situation for some people, but adventuresome hikers who want to have a little fun on a nature trail need to experience this stretch of old-time catwalk through the cypress swamp at Highlands Hammock State Park. The approach boardwalk is broad and wheelchair-accessible, leading back to an observation platform where the old-fashioned catwalk, a balance beam of sorts, zigzags through the cypress along the creek’s edge

Well, Mom did just fine on the broad part, but not so much on the balance beam portion.  The trail went from about 6 boards to 4 and from railing on both sides to just one side.  But I gotta say, even though she is afraid of heights and was pretty unnerved at the sight of black water beneath her and no rail to hang onto, she did conquer her fears and kept going.  We both had a good laugh and enjoyed our little adventure. 

My friend Rod came for a visit on Wednesday.  We were stationed together in Michigan and he was visiting family in the area before he retires in a few months.  It was so nice to see him.  We had a great visit, spending the day catching up and talking about how great it is to retire at such a young age.  In the afternoon we fired up the grill and stuffed ourselves with brats and chips.  We decided to go for a walk after dinner, I was going to show him the cypress boardwalk. It was late when we started out, and the boardwalk was farther than I expected.  Our little after dinner stroll turned into a much longer hike, in the dark!  On the boardwalk it was still light enough to see, barely.  Rod also did just fine on the wide part, but got a case of vertigo when the trail narrowed and all he could see below him was black swam water.  I dont think the quickly fading light helped much. By the time we started back, it was pitch dark.  I was carrying Brutus and there was a small flashlight on his lease.  It was too small really to put out much light, so we didn’t turn it on.  As we were walking along, we both noticed a black spot in the road ahead.  When we got up to it, the spot came alive and ran into the woods.  It was too dark to see what it was and we both decided how lucky we were that it wasn’t a snake.  At the thought of snakes, we decided it might be a good idea to turn on the flashlight, feeble though it was.  We finally made it back to the camp site all in one piece, no worse for the wear and with a great sense of adventure.  It was actually pretty cool being out there in the dark, with the sound of the night critters.  The moon was not very bright, and the stars were brilliant against the dark sky.  

One day, I went to the grocery store, did some shopping and put my purchases on the belt to check out.  The lady behind me noticed something of interest in my stuff, pointed to it and said she had never tried it, was it good.  I said yes, or I wouldn’t be buying it.  The crazy lady then started touching all my groceries!  No idea what she was looking for or what the heck she thought she was doing.  I had to tell her to keep her hands off my food!  She actually looked very surprised that I would find her behavior objectionable.

After my weird shopping trip, I came home and was possessed by a burning desire to scrub my entire RV from stem to stern.  I just got back from a trip to VA, where I stayed in two different hotels.  I noticed some bite marks on my legs, probably from the fire ants at the last RV park.  But what if it was bed bugs?  OK, I saw the fire ants on me, but what if it were bed bugs?  (Note to self, stop watching shows on bug infestations).  I spent the day doing laundry, scrubbing everything down and the better part of two hours just shampooing the carpet, but at the end of the day, I felt so much better.  And, as if a sparkling clean home wasn’t nice enough, Weight Watchers lists exercise points earned for housework, including scrubbing floors.  After all the cleaning, I put the trash outside my door, intending to take it to the dumpster after I rested up a bit.  I was sitting in my chair when I heard rustling outside my open window.  I looked out to find trash scattered all over the place.  Seems some critter found himself a free meal, but I had more cleaning to do.

Speaking of Weight Watchers, I’ve lost 15 lbs so far.  That’s really good considering I suspended my ‘diet’ for 3 weeks for the holidays, the rally and the road trip.  I’ve been walking at least 2 hours a day.  I’ve been looking for parks near hiking trails.  Although the trails in Highland Hammock are pretty short, there are several of them together, so I’m having no problem getting in long enough walks.  The trails here are very well maintained, one day I saw a park employee with a leaf blower cleaning the trails.  I might add, these are dirt paths out in the woods.  I can't believe they are actually blowing leaves off a trail through heavily shaded paths, but there he was.  That would be a never ending job for sure!  I really want to ride my new bike, but I haven’t been able to find any good paved bike routes that are not along the side of the road. 

I’ve seen lots of wildlife in this area.  One day I almost stepped on a big yellow snake in the road.   I prodded him with a long stick to get him out of the road.  The ungrateful serpent tried to bite me, obviously not realizing I was trying to save his life.  Another day I heard some grunts in the bushes.  I saw a family of wild pigs rooting around, including several little ones.  Even small they are not particularly cute.  I’ve heard other critters in the bushes that I couldn’t see. 

So, it’s been a great week in Sebring, next stop Santos Campground in Ocala.  Mountain biking and hiking paradise!

Pictures taken this week:

https://plus.google.com/photos/118205599704530902363/albums/5836699074279154545?authkey=CIb8ur2tkPXrjAE