2015-03-29: Geocaching and Hiking With Friends in the Ocala National Forest

In store for us today was another hike along a section of the Florida Trail in the Ocala National Forest. We met up with YankaBucs, MsYB, and TeamFelixG along 52nd Place Rd and left a vehicle there. Then drove down to the south end of the trail along 145th Avenue to begin our hike.

We could definitely tell that this was a less often used section of the trail as the ground cover was growing up and some sections were very narrow making the trail almost non-existent. Near the beginning the ground was pretty muddy as well but soon dried up. I think we also picked up more ticks than the other hikes.

Overall it was a good day for hiking as the temperatures stayed fairly cool. We found a total of 26 caches along the trail. Another great adventure in the ONF with friends.

2015-03-28: An Event and Geocaching Around Lake County

Today was a Geocaching event day hosted by QQnonrev up at the new Lake Hiawatha Preserve in Clermont, FL. It started at 7:30 in the morning, so we were a little late in arriving and missed out on the group photo below. The cachers who attended were: of course the hosts QQnonrev, YankaBucs & MsYB, CoalCracker7, TeamFelixG, RD69, MrsL10, TT23, RAHNNERGOTHUC, kricklick, victorthevmandawson1, TheLF, stephers88, framptoncomesalive, TomToad, DirtyD13, moparots, Turfgator, Pen4, and GeoCharmer81. Had a good time there chatting with some old friends and meeting a couple new ones. And found a few caches in the park also.

After we left there, we ended up heading south picking up random Geocaches. Our total finds for the day was 22. Tomorrow we head back up to the ONF for another hike with a few friends we saw this morning.

2015-03-08: More Geocaching and Hiking in the Ocala National Forest

After the change of plans yesterday, today we got an early start and headed back up to the Ocala National Forest to finally finish up the TAFF series power run Geocaches. Twenty park and grab caches later and the series completed, it was time to stretch our legs and go for a hike.

So we drove up SR-19 a few miles, turning west onto Forest Road 595 and headed over to Farles Prairie Recreation Area. Setting out from the trail head to the east side of the lake, the was a series of caches that went all the way up to Forest Road 599. However it looks as though there was a very recent controlled burn in the area. Of the 24 caches along this trail, we found 13 caches in tact, 5 caches partially melted, and the remaining 6 were completely burnt up with very little remains if any all.

We also found several tree stumps and areas still smoldering and even some flames. Getting to the end we turned around and backtracked to the car. It was about 6-7 miles of hiking round trip.

Of course we also ended the day at Beef O'Brady's in Umatilla.

2015-03-07: Geocaching Around Clermont and South Lake County

Right off the bat, we had a change of plans. Our initial plan for today was to head back up to the Ocala National Forest to do some more Geocaching. However as we were getting ready, I noticed a cache that had published 2 days ago up in Oakland had yet to be found. So off we went.

We drove quickly north up the Florida turnpike and exited off at Oakland. A few minutes later and we pulled into the Oakland Nature Preserve. It took a little bit trying to figure out the right trail getting back to the cache, but eventually we did it. After finding the cache container and opening a nice clean log sheet, we stamped our AwayWeGo to the top spot for the First To Find!

From there we just decided to head west over into the Clermont area for lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings and keep Geocaching in South Lake County. A few urban caches nearby before driving over to Lake Louisa Rd and two more caches within the Crooked River Preserve. A couple miles down the road was another cache at the entrance to the former Lake Susan Lodge. Probably a cool place back in the day, but now closed and gated off.

Making our way over to SR-33 and headed south, grabbing a few caches along the way. After finding 12 caches for the day we decided to head on back home. Maybe tomorrow we'll do our original plan of the ONF.

2015-02-21: Geocaching and a Long Hike in the Ocala National Forest

WOW, what a hike! Today we met up with another cacher, RD69, to hike another section of the Florida Trail through the Ocala National Forest. The rendezvous point was where the Florida Trail crosses Hwy 42 near Paisley. We left one car there, jumped into the other and drove around up to CR445 to begin the hike there.

We hiked a total of around 13 miles averaging between the 2 GPS's and one pedometer. Along the way we found 60 caches with only 2 DNF's. Another great day in the ONF grabbing caches, hiking, and enjoying the outdoors. What's next?

This tree looks like a gorilla ran into it at full charge!

This section had a boardwalk running through the scrub.