FT2018 Day 41: Black Tract Campsite (mile 674.4) to Deerwood Inn (mile 691.9)

17.5 FT miles

This morning I needed water. There was pretty much only one place to get it along the route today and it was over 4 miles away. I packed up as quietly as I could and headed off, leaving the sleeping father and daughter to their father-daughter time.

I walked near the Suwannee for a time before having to take a dirt road around a property, then headed back to the river. I was walking through an area used for timber harvest and, for a short section, it looked like they harvested the trees that had blazes on them. So, that was fun.

One of my last views of the Suwannee. Of course it is overcast.

I finally got to the Mills Creek North campsite and put my bag down on the table. Supposedly there was a spring here coming out of the hillside so that I wouldn't have to filter river water. I checked the comments on the app and it mentioned the campsite, but gave a waypoint of half a mile ahead on the trail. It also mentioned broken concrete, which I wasn't immediately seeing.

Thinking either the campsite is spread out, or that the spring is near the campsite, but not actually at the site, I continued down the trail until I reached the listed waypoint. It was pretty clearly not there as there was no river access. Well, that was a waste of a mile.

I went back to the picnic table and looked for the spring. The instructions said to go down the old boat ramp, pass some broken concrete. I went down the largest access point saw some broken concrete, and looked left. I didn't see or hear anything either. I even went down the bank further and couldn't find anything.

I ended up just filling up on river water. Later, I had received a reply to a message from Gramps about the spring location. Apparently I was supposed to go down the smaller of the access points to find the spring. I left comments for others in the app so that they could have an easier time finding it than I did.

While I had been trying to find the spring, I had gotten a series of messages from Sugar Rush, who was going to catch up to me at some point today. She had asked me what I had planned to do about the upcoming long roadwalk and I confessed that I had a trail angel arrangement. I texted Belinda and asked if she was comfortable taking on one more and luckily she was. I also offered to split a hotel room for the night to get out of the big storm that was supposed to hit.

I followed the Suwannee for a short time, then said my goodbye as the trail turned away from the river. I walked a monotonous dirt road before I walked a monotonous paved road, hitting the junction of I-10 just as the rain had started.

Monotonous dirt roadwalk.

Monotonous paved roadwalk. 

The very first hotel before the interstate was the Deerwood Inn. I checked to see if they had a hiker discount, and they did. The room was about $60 after tax. While Sugar Rush wanted to join in on Belinda's generous trail angel offer, she wasn't sure if she wanted to split a hotel room with me tonight. If she did, it would only be $30 per person.

Deerwood Inn. 

After I checked into the hotel room, I went under the interstate to take advantage of the services. It was hiker heaven. I only went to the Mobile station, but the building had an extensive convenience store (complete with gator heads), a Subway, a Wendy’s,  and a Dairy Queen. I got myself a cherry misty slush from DQ, some snacks and drinks from the convenience store, and dinner from Wendy's.

A hiker oasis. Also, fireworks .

In case you need a gator head while traveling.

Vlog 

As I headed back I saw Sugar Rush approaching the Deerwood Inn. She had decided to “wimp out" from the storm and stay dry with me in the hotel.

She made her own trip to the stores as the rain really started coming down. We watched the Olympics for a little bit before realizing we were just too tired and went to bed. We looked at the radar, but decided to make a plan for tomorrow when we woke up and had the most updated weather information.