Etoniah Creek State Forest

One last opportunity to hit the trail with Kyle aka flcracker before he heads back up to Vermont for the foreseeable future. We chose Etoniah, cause we were nearby last week and saw the forest. We were not able to get to the 5 mile point, so we parked at the end of this dirt road and shuttled to the entrance of the forest.

The trail was well maintained save for one downed tree. It followed etoniah creek which formed a ravine as we hiked. There were lookout points along the trail and you could hear the creek below.

We came upon a shelter 2 miles in. Something rarely found on the FT, this shelter looked comfortable and wish we had found it at the end of the hike. We looked at the map to see if we would make it back to the car before dark.

The kiz was amazed at Santas Beard. We saw some great fungi and moss that Sandra Friend had written about.

The hollowed stump and reflections made for good photos.

The signs warned us to be careful....however some of us ignored the signs.

The map was quite clear and we made our way through the a privately owned (GA Pacific) section of the trail. The clear cutting appeared to be to our north however it was not too visable as the trail stayed along the creek. Kim fell in love with a pine tree with a missletoe like growth on it.

I liked the large cypress tree growing out of the ravine.

The flcracker stood lookout at other spots along the trail.

The three amigos saw evidence of hunters, but saw none on this day.

The last 2.5 miles along the road were brutal, with the sandy road leading to the locked gate.

Gold Head Branch State Park to SR 100

It was the weekend of the 1st innagural Crane Festival, and Linda and I did the bikes to birds. I met up with the kiz and kyle (hiker name flcracker) at Melrose's "Gator Bait" to watch the end of the 49er Saints game. With 2 minutes left in this legendary game, the crowd begins clamoring for "the Tim Tebow game". Suddenly one by one the TV's switch from the end of this amazing game to the "Tim Tebow Channel". I got up from the bar and went into the corner by the bathrooms where it was still on one small tv. The Tim Tebows got shelacked so we left at halftime and did the mile hike into the campsite in the dark.

Martin Roess Gold Head Branch State Park is awesome. There is a ravine running through the middle of the park.

I picked up HikerBob at Tonys on 100 and shuttled back to the starting point of the hike. We went down to the dried up lake to see the Cranes take flight.


Kyle gave his narrative on the branch and we were on our way.


After about a mile we ran into a couple of trailblazers getting ready for the Ididahike over this same stretch on February 11

Chance encounters on the trail foster good relationships, I think we will work good together. They told us that Devils washbasin was right around the corner, and it was.

Boy the hills are steep on the edge of these lakes. We ended up going by some beautiful lakes, some small, some big.

The lakes were shining and shimmering on this magnificent January day. We passed by Ranger Matt at Gold Head and he stamped my passport and we continued on the trail. The turkey oak leaves had fallen off the trees and we lost the trail for a couple minutes. We came upon the sand mine, but were fenced out.

We crossed in to Camp Blanding, filled the form out at the kiosk, and started hiking the 4 miles through. There were some trees down but not too bad. The steep banks of Lake Lowery lead to some falling trees. We made it to alligator creek and headed to Lake Magnolia. We hiked along the ridge line, looking down to the trees below.


Once we reached Lake Magnolia we sat down and put our feet in the water. I even laid down on the beach.

We then got back on the trail and headed out of Camp Blanding and on to a private hunting area.

We then entered the airport property. There were no tresspassing signs on the way out.

The kiz went the wrong way around mosquito lake and got confused.

We went down and back on a ravine near the end of the hike, and got the valet pickup from hikerbob at SR100. Great day great hike.