Ditching the Car for Camping
 

Last weekend I parked my car at the Juniper Springs Campground in the Ocala National Forest, pulled all of my supplies from the car, and turned away from the campground.

It was the best decision I've made in camping, so far.

With an old-style, external frame pack on my back, I made my way up the sandy Florida Trail and into the woods, alone. I walked north for about four miles and found a quiet pond with soft grass surrounding that called to me and set up camp there. I spent the afternoon reading, napping, and enjoying the sun with no sound other than birds and the wind through the trees. Water was pulled from a clean stream, dinner was heated over a liquid fueled stove, and at night I did nothing besides stare into a silver sky filled with drifting satellites and shooting stars (which is an amazing event for me, living in a city that never sees true darkness at any time of the night). The morning frost was shaken off with hot coffee and apple oatmeal and, at some time during the day (I took no watch with me, considering time to be irrelevant out there), I packed up the tent, extinguished the fire, and made my way back, reluctantly, to civilization. I didn’t have the time to spend more than one night, but I would have gladly have stayed an entire week.

This outing reminded me that I'll never car camp, again. There was no luxury of water from a tap, no restrooms to walk to, and there was no easy escape should the weather go suddenly bad. Despite all of that, there were too many positives in the experience for me to go back to paying $17/night at a national forest slot or even more in a crowded state/county campground. Animals, on the trail, didn't seem interested in raiding the camp at night, possibly because they're not used to handouts or easily available food. There were signs of raccoons and bears, but there were no familiar masked bandit raids in the twilight. Everything was truly, wonderfully quiet and that includes the blissful lack of a Toby Keith CD being played on repeat at someone's pickup two slots away or the racket of an RV generator kicking in for a morning shower. No screaming children, no people yelling to scare off hungry critters, and no roar of traffic. The contrast is astounding.

This was my second backpacking trip and if any of you car camp but haven't yet tried walking the trails, I highly recommend it! Does anyone else, here, do any hiking?

Pictures posted, soon.

Not so much any more. That's one of the things my wife and I gave up after having kids. Their little legs are just too short for more than a short walk in the woods. Maybe in a few years.

Excuses, excuses. :)

I spoke with a family of five (+dog) that I met along the trail that ended up camping nearby. Mother, father, and three children aged 4 to 9! They were on day two of hiking through the entire Juniper Prairie Wilderness from north to south. I was amazed that they seemed so active, especially with the youngest girl not able to carry so much. The distributed gear worked quite well and, at one point in the night, I dropped by their site to find the mother reading stories to the whole group as they huddled around a fire. (No MP3 players, no Gameboys/PSPs! I was dumbstruck!)

I mentioned it was good to see a family with children so young out on the trail having a good time. "That's nothing", said the only son, "we hiked through Yellowstone two years ago! It was days and days!" I looked to the father for comfirmation and he noted that they had, indeed, hiked for days with the entire family, caring for their two year old daughter on the way.

Wow. My kids get tired, and they just sit down. Can't walk much more than a half mile.

I used to routinely do 12 miles of hiking in a day. Last hike I went on was when i was able to get away with a friend while my wife stayed home with the kids. That was really nice. It was 3 years ago. Here's a picture from that hike. It's Old Rag Mountain in Virginia.

Sounds like you had a wonderful time, Kit. Looking forward to the pics!

Your post also made me glad that I live out West. Last September I had a National Forest campground all to myself! The colors were changing and the scenery was spectacular. I stayed there because the campground was sited near the towns of Cortez and Mancos that I was scoping out for present move, at long last.

I'm a little old to back pack, but I have discovered the joys of 4 wheel drive roads and dry creek beds on BLM land. I generally follow a 4-wd drive road until it intersects with a creek bed, follow that for a while until I find an interesting looking spot to pull off. I carry about 10 to 20 gallons of water in the back of my car, have a little tent that I can put up in 10 minutes, a folding cot plus air matress and viola' - home, sweet, home!

I build myself roaring campfires of dead pinon and juniper branches - always in plentiful supply, and throw on a little sage just for the atmosphere. The stars are always spectacular and the distant cries of coyotes provide music to dine by. I usually bring along a few books and my journal and spend a couple of days reading and taking contemplative walks around my "estate." MY wildflowers! MY mountains! MY meadows! MY nighthawks and coyotes! I feel like the wealthiest, luckiest woman alive, and its always hard to go back to civilization.

Man, I long for hiking up in the Blueridge. Those rolling mountains have always called to me. I'm hoping, maybe, that I just might have a chance to go this summer. Site suggestions welcome!

As for Ocala National Forest, peace and quiet can sometimes be abruptly disturbed. I found this sign near Big Scrub just south of the Juniper Wilderness:

http://static.flickr.com/23/32124591_d8d14b63ab.jpg

Government land is often used for very government activities, sadly.

Awesome! Sounds like you found a new weekend activity.

My husband and I used to hike/backpack quite a bit. We did about 25 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail (goes from the Mexican boarder to the Canadian boarder) a few years back. It was awesome. I would love to train for the whole hike but who has the time? We have also hiked Half Dome at Yosemite, with about 5 billion other people. And my favorite was across Catalina Island. About 22 miles from Avalon to Two Harbors. Beautiful. And no one around most of the time.

The thing I love about backpacking is that you really have to limit what you bring along. Every oz. you pack matters, especailly when you're on a long hike.

Holy shit! And you hiked there?!

The bombing range is fenced off and is monitored to prevent anyone from being injured. The bombs they drop aren't "fully loaded", either -- they're just enough to make a visible impact. Why there is a bombing range in the middle of a national forest, I have no idea. You can see the range from the air, here. I don't know how much noise the range really creates, as I did catch the rumble of two jets and the orange glow of their engines one night while enjoying dinner at a Juniper Springs site, but have never heard the "thud" of targets being hit.

Serial killers and crazy bears make more of a camping issue than navy bombers. The bombing range has been hotly debated and many groups want it removed, but that is highly unlikely under the current administration. Hell, almost 1,000 acres of ONF have been earmarked for sale by our wonderful president. :rar:

Like Mari, I fear my backpacking days are behind me, but my favorite hiking site in Missouri borders on Ft Leonard Wood. When hiking there, one can hear the roar of 155mm guns and helicopters whoosh overhead on attack runs from time to time. The more remote a place is in this country, the more likely that the government is doing something nasty there, it seems.

A lot of the bombing ranges use lasers and computers to simulate the trajectory, instead of actually dropping bombs.
My god....you drank water that was un-fluoridated! :eek: