Backpackin'

There's this story about luck. Probably many versions. Here's mine.

A poor farmer one day captures a fantastic young horse. Strong. Beautiful. Intelligent. His neighbors say how lucky he is to have caught such a fine horse.

Week later, the horse runs away. How unlucky, the neighbors say.

Day after that, horse comes back leading a whole herd. How lucky, the neighbors say.

Farmer's son tries to break the horse but breaks his leg instead. How unlucky.

War breaks out and young men are drafted, but not the farmer's son, due to his broken leg. How lucky.

And so on.

Now, when backpackers are asked where to hike they don't automatically exclaim "Florida!" We certainly don't. But I am beginning to believe this is more from ignorance than anything else.
 

Last year, Mudpie and I discovered the Myakka River State Park (see a story about our trips there here {"There Here"?}Life and Death in Myakka). It's a very popular place and deservedly so. There's a huge back country area you have to hike into and lots and lots of trails. And we've camped in the Withlacoochee State Forest where there actually are some teeny-tiny hills. And we have been trying to learn about more places to backpack near us in Florida. (Good sites for this include Florida Hikes, Wahoo Hiker and Travis in the Backcountry.) But in each place the opportunities to have a lot of company are big, and that's not our first choice.

Anyway, last spring we were trying to reserve another campsite at Myakka and were having no luck. It is rare we get two full days off in a row, but we'd managed it and wanted to hike. But all the Myakka sites were taken. You really need to reserve well in advance in Myakka.

How unlucky.
 

So I'm moping. I'm wandering around White Blaze, my favorite backpacking/hiking/camping web site (you'd think my favorite would be one of my own), and for the first time ever I go into the Florida Trail sub-forum of the Other Long Trails sub-forum thinking I'd check out the Florida Trail when I land on a post telling me there are terrific places to backpack right near me where I'll probably not see another hiker for all of my trip. (See the post here).

They're owned by SWFMD, pronounced "Swiftmud", the Southwest Florida Water Management District.  I zoomed to their site ( see it here.) and they sent me, free, a thickish booklet on all their properties (see it here.) and I got it (and a lot of other free stuff including DVDs) in a heartbeat. We picked the two tracts of the Green Swamp, just a short drive north of us.
 

How lucky.

Now, you have to get a permit to camp in a SWFMD property, and I steeled myself for some bureaucratic stumbling around and a hefty fee. You can apply for a permit online at https://www5.swfwmd.state.fl.us/applications/Campingpermits.nsf/Permit?OpenForm. You can also apply by FAX or mail. But we were running out of time and even the on-line application said to give them as much as 10 days to process it. We applied for our first choice. Got what looked like an automatic email response almost instantly that the place we wanted was taken.

 
How unlucky.
 

Applied again. Missed again. Applied again, got a phone call.
 

A phone call. A SWFMD employee named Margaret Blommel, with the Land Resources Department, noticed our misfortune and called to help us out. On a Saturday! Imagine. What were we looking for? How long did we want to stay? How about here, or here? This hike would take you this long, that one this long.
 

How lucky.
 

Given what was available, how much time we'd have and how far we wanted to walk, we chose the Foster Bridge site. Margaret sent us a map and directions and soon she sent us our permit.
 

All this cost $0.
 

How lucky.
 

We didn't see another soul once we left the trail head. The site was beautiful, with plenty of space for tenting away from the food area, a picnic table, a fire ring and even a supply of wood. 
 

Our Double Rainbow tent and Equinox Fly at Foster Bridge

Filtering water at the Withalachochee River