Are you ready to hike? Cap, hiking stick, backpack with water (and emergency items), camera, comfortable clothing, hiking shoes and phone?
OK, let's park at the trailhead and take off down this trail.
The first bird sighting was this flock of wild turkeys!
Now we'll turn onto the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway for a short distance on the paved trail.
We'll turn onto a horse trail and then onto the Florida Trail down...down...down...into the diggings.
There are a lot of really good articles (and books) written about the canal diggings but my sweet hubby helped me with some of the pertinent information.
"When I talk about the "canal diggings" I'm referring to a canal that was proposed in 1935 as a 30-foot deep, 150-foot bottom width, Ship Canal for commercial traffic to have a shortcut from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico across Florida from Jacksonville to Yankeetown.
Concerns about salt water intrusion into the fresh water aquifer caused proponents to adjust the canal to a 12-foot depth thus allowing only barge traffic and the name changed to the Cross Florida Barge Canal.
After many starts and stops, construction resumed in 1964 only to be stopped for good in 1971 due to efforts led by environmental activist, Marjorie Harris Carr.
About one third of the canal did get completed, some at each terminus, but the remainder includes long stretches of earth having been dug out and piled up along the sides. Over the ensuing decades the forest has reclaimed this ground.
Today, the 110-mile long, 70,000 acre Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway (renamed in 1998) is a state park that provides over 300 miles of hiking and biking trails on the remnants of the Cross Florida Barge Canal."
Above written by sweet hubby
Now we are in the diggings!
Be alert!
Doesn't this old root look like a serpent?
And what if you come across your knight in shining armor?
It could happen if you are paying attention!
At first I thought it was an Army man but he has a shield and a spear!
And there are some amazing rock formations down in the diggings too.
You can hear and see woodpeckers in the forest.
Yellow bellied Sapsucker
Red bellied Woodpecker peeking out from behind a pine tree.
Finally we reach Josef's table. It's up ahead!
It's a little longer hike than I normally make but the weather was fine and I felt good.
I love it deep in the woods. The pine needles under the trees soften the trail and it is a quiet you can't find anywhere else!
We did it! Thanks for coming with me today.
