Trip Report: Lake Delancy (Ocala NF)- Holloway Rd. (Etoniah Creek SF)

I finally got a new trip report up! Below I've tried to record all the important details from last weekends hike. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed the hiking. Feel free to email me if you have any questions about this section or maybe need a hiking partner for this area in the future!

Lake Delancy to Penner Pond (5.2 miles) We got our hike off the ground Thursday about 4:30 in the afternoon heading out from the Lake Delancy trailhead north bound to Penner Pond. It was a really nice walk through open Pine forest and scrub oak. There were even some gently rolling hills! The weather was beautiful at about 70 degrees I think. We saw an Owl about 4 miles in but other than that the wildlife was scarce. We hit Penner Pond just before sundown which was great timing. The kicker was I made a slight misjudgment in distance and recommended we hike to the north side of Penner Pond to camp in an open area I'd stopped at once before. It was another ¾ of a mile to the camp and it was after dark when we arrived, not to mention I'd stashed firewood on FR 77 which runs to the south of Penner Pond. We had to carry it to camp. My hiking partners didn't kill me thankfully, but it was only the first day! There was plenty of water in the ponds near camp so water shouldn't even be an issue there. Even in the dryer seasons I've seen at least a little water there.


Penner Pond to St. Johns South Campground (8.2 miles) We woke up early to a brisk morning eager to get our hiking boots on. Actually it was pretty chilly and everyone wanted to stay in their tents! We mustered the courage anyhow and packed up camp setting off towards Rodman Resevoir. My two buddies had never been to Rodman so it was an experience for them. We took several pictures around the reservoir and dam. Crossing the dam we noticed a photographer taking pictures of us. He took our names and told us he was doing an article on Rodman that would appear in the Ocala Star Banner. I haven't seen anything yet but he said to keep an eye on Ocala.com. If you see our pictures let me know!! After the crossing the dam we stopped at Rodman Campground for showers and lunch. It cost us 3 bucks a piece for a day use permit which was cool with us. Afterwards we hit the trail tracing the barge canal which led to Buckman Lock. The canal was such a nice section of the trail I'll probably go back for a day hike! We camped at St. Johns South Campground which is on the south side of the Lock. It cost us 13.32 to camp. Amenities were: picnic tables, fire rings, a portapotty, and a non-potable water pump. The pump was rusty but could be filtered if you needed water. Plus you could just filter from the canal if you didn't like the pumps taste.


St. Johns South Campground to Rice Creek Hilton (11.3 miles) Friday night at St. Johns South was supposed to be the coldest night of our hike, predictions had the temperature hitting the high 20's. We bundled up with all our cold weather gear kept the fire going as long as possible. Saturday morning we awoke to frost on our tents and a fierce chill. We ended up packing our tents damp since we couldn't get the moisture off of them. Luckily for us the next two nights we were staying in shelters. We crossed Buckman Lock around 10-10:30 AM with no problem. There's a buzzer on the south side to alert the lock attendant so don't worry about crossing as long as someone is there. The visitor center is closed permanently and the bathrooms were locked as well. So don't count on a bathroom unless something changes in the near future. There is a spigot at the picnic tables so washing up and getting clean water is possible there.


Saturday was the biggest day we experienced for road walks. Except for a small section north of Hunter Road before SR20 and Hoffman's Crossing in Rice Creek CA everything I remember was on forest roads. The section between SR19 and SR20 according tho the FT Data Book is a frequent problem for hikers. Apparently people get lost on this network of roads. We didn't have any problem. The blazes were plain and the route was easy to follow. When it's rainy this section gets pretty wet. It was pretty dry when we passed through but we still had to walk around several puddles that were wider than the road. After we crossed SR20 we picked up our water cache hidden in the tree line. We even took a moment to make a phone call and have some much desired MacDonald's delivered!!! A big thanks to my Trail Angel parents for that one! The water we stashed wasn't really a necessity as there was plenty of water south of SR20 in the ponds and also a retention pond north of SR20. We just thought fresh spring water would be nice. There is a pump at Rice Creek which is posted non-potable that I filtered water from and I'm still alive! We pulled into the Rice Creek Shelter around 5:30 PM and had plenty of time to wash up, eat dinner, and get a fire going. The shelter was a welcome change from our tents and it was definitely a convenience not to have to set up camp!


Rice Creek Hilton to Iron Bridge Shelter (14 miles) We started our day Sunday by hiking out of Rice Creek and crossing SR100. The trail has been moved from it's old route which goes almost to Bud's Grocery in Bardin and then to Old Starke road and finally to Carraway Mail Route. Now the trail follows the old railroad bed that parallels SR100 all the way to Carraway Mail Route (The rail trail is a section of the Palatka to Lake Butler Trail). The Carraway Mail Route section was the only significant road walk we did that day stretching over 3 miles. We seen some traffic in this area by private land owners but nothing to be worried about. Everyone was pretty friendly. After the road walk we entered Etoniah Creek SF and followed Etoniah Creek and the large ravine it forms to our final shelter. The shelter called the Iron Bridge Shelter is slightly larger than the one at Rice Creek but also well made and a welcome sight for sore backs and feet. Both shelters had camp chairs which was great when you're tired of sitting on the ground! Sunday evening before sundown we all went down to the creek to wash up in extremely cold water! As refreshing as it was I don't think it was worth it! My partners both had pretty fierce blisters by this point so they spent a lot of time doing foot care. I actually got the first blister I've had in years on this hike. I think it was due to the road walks!?

Iron Bridge Shelter to Holloway Road (1.8 miles) On Monday morning we packed up camp on our last day. My girlfriends, ... I mean hiking partners both had to where crocks because of their blisters. It wasn't a big deal since we had a short walk. We spent most of the last mile or so reliving the past few days extremely happy we got to experience this portion of the trail. Our ride picked us up around 11:00 AM at the Holloway Road Trailhead which has picnic tables and bathrooms. After cleaning up we hit the Golden Coral lunch buffet in Palatka and needless to say, we tried to eat them out of business! I also acquired a trail name on this hike which is “Reverend” on account of my studying to enter ministry. Will it stick? Who knows, we'll see if you call me that when you see me!

To summarize it was an excellent hike. Water should usually never be an issue. Camping is available mostly everywhere and where it's not you could surely stealth camp if needed. I think the itinerary we followed made for a good beginners hike. The progression from 5 miles, to 8, to 11, to 14 made it easy to get accustomed to Florida hiking. The trail in Putnam county is great. It's well maintained and fairly scenic. I will surely be doing this section several more times since I live in this area.

Don't forget to see the photos!

Foothills trip report

As everyone knows I never posted my anticipated trip report from June of last year on the Foothills Trail in South Carolina. Don't be discouraged, my hiking partner did! He put together an awesome detailed account of each day with all his photos on TrailJournals.com. I highly recommend everyone read his report. His photos are great. If you enjoyed mine you'll get a kick out of his. By the way his trail name is Blisterz. I'll let you guess why!

Click HERE to view his trail journal from our Foothills 2008 thruhike.

Ocala NF to Etoniah Creek SF photos are up!

Hey everyone I just uploaded all my photos from last weekends hike to my Picasa account. The trip report is forthcoming this weekend. In the mean time I hope you have time to check out my photos! I'll also try to add captions later so you can get an idea of where we are at. Also I'll post a few on myFloridaHikes.com!

Click HERE for the web album on Google's Picasa.

Next Weekend

If there are any curious folks who check in with my blog once in a while I'm going to be back on the trail next weekend. Me and my buddy Blisterz (guess how he got his name) will be doing a section hike from either Delancy or Penner Pond to Holloway Road in Etoniah Creek SF. That's 40 miles if we start at Lake Delancy, 34.8 if we start at Penner Pond.

I am going to take a bunch of pictures and actually post a trip report, unlike the let down I gave everyone with my Foothills report which never happened! Sorry about that guys. Perhaps I'll post my journal form the Foothills at some time in the future. In the mean time get ready for a (hopefully) good report along with some gear reviews since I got a bunch of new goodies to test out.

See you after the hike. Keep us in your prayers as we brave Florida's backcountry!

I'm still alive

Just wanted to make a quick appearance here on the blog to let visitors know I'm still around. The blog has been inactive since last summer. Hopefully I'm going to get it rolling again. I lost touch with the trail last fall when I started college and had to juggle classes with work. I'm back though, got the school/work schedule worked out, got some new gear, and can't wait to get on the trail! 

At the latest I'm going to do a 3 day hike at the end of February so there should be something up by then. Perhaps I'll do some gear review in the mean time.

Thanks for remembering me!

All my Foothills Photos are up

I've finally gotten the time to post all my Foothills photos. There are 150 plus shots, some better than others. I've tried to give location information whenever possible in captions but on some photos I either didn't remember or didn't see a need for captions. You can view the photos on my picasa album. I hope you enjoy them. If anyone has there own Foothills albums post a link in the comments for me.