Winter Hiking...Come on along!

 

Winter hiking is the best here in Florida, as you can imagine!

A 'bird' ornament high in the pine tree! It's REAL!

And some Reindeer Moss!

 Temps were in the 60s and 70s for these hikes....perfect!

And there are some trails that I have to save for the cooler weather. Walking down in the canal diggings is too hot in the summertime. I can hike in hotter temps as long as I have a bit of a breeze but in these low areas it's hard to 'catch a breeze'!

This is a section between the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway paved trail and Shangri-La.

It's very peaceful and I love these big old limestone formations. 

I know I've shown them to you before but I still love to share.

You can imagine faces and animal shapes in some of the rocks.

When I got back up to the higher trail, I spotted an American Kestrel.

I thought it was perfectly posed and took a lot of photos on the perch.

But then it took off flying to snag a Dragonfly in it's talons!

So then I took another group of photos. 

Time to stand still and watch the Kestrel eat lunch!

I was ready for a break anyway!

Amazing!

Nature has outdone herself this winter with red berries!

What a fabulous day for a wintertime hike in Florida!

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

  and Mosaic Monday HERE !  

Walking through the Canal Diggings

 We save our hikes into the diggings for the winter months.

 You go deep into the canal diggings with the land rising on both sides, so very little air moves on the trail. In the summer months it's just too hot and buggy and poison ivy crisscrosses the trail. But in the winter months, it's perfect.

The tall pine trees create a thick bed of pine needles to walk on and the air is hushed. I started to say it was quiet but hushed is a better description. You don't hear any sounds unless an airplane flies overhead.

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

We walked in the diggings for over 2 hours and only saw one other person.

I want to share photos of the limestone boulders we saw.

It would be fun to play 'what do you see?'

This was a favorite!

There are so many interesting shapes and just think how few people ever get to see them.

Would you want to hike this trail at night?

Maybe when the moon is full?

It would probably be a little spooky!

But I love it and I think you would too!

Have you seen anything unusual this week?

Hike into the DEEP woods and GO WILD!

I'm joining Mosaic Monday HERE 

and I like Thursdays HERE !  

Sightings on the Florida Trails!

You'll be very glad I used mosaics to share photos I took on the Florida trails this week. We've gone on 3 hikes in this area and there are huge outcroppings of Limestone all along the trail.

And I love to photograph all the unusual 'sightings'!

How about an Alien? Can you see it?

Or a turtle?

This was actually part of the trail that you walk on. It looks like something emerging from the sand.

And would you stick your hand in here? 

I double dare you! heeheehee!

Maybe some of these are where the fairies live!

A couple of mosaics...

to take part in the fun!

The trail itself is kind of dreamy.

But I wouldn't want to hike there after dark! Would you?

I'm joining Angie for Mosaic Monday HERE .