This was my Monday adventure (May 20th) at Princess Place. I started by parking my car near the covered bridge, intending to hike the Equestrian Trail toward the Moody campground. First, I checked the current conditions of the Hominy Trail from the Stiles Creek side — the area was still closed. I was standing on a bridge over Stiles Creek when a sudden squall arrived, lightly raining at first, then increasing… I beat a hasty retreat to my car which was parked nearly a half mile away and got a bit damp in the process.

The storm strengthened, but fortunately didn’t contain any embedded lightning. One of the forest employees parked nearby — he had seen me enter the park earlier and might have been checking on my status. I was merely damp, but waiting for the storm to subside. I checked the weather radar on my phone. The storm cell was moving quickly and would soon leave with nothing backing it. So, if I was patient…

I ended up moving my car figuring the loop road would prove a drier surface to walk on, which proved true. I continued my interrupted walk and then added the Artesian and Creekside trails onto my loop. While I was damp there was no chance of my developing hypothermia like I would have had I been hiking in the Cascades… The temperature was 80 degrees F and very humid as can be seen from some of the photos. I had also thrown my bumpershoot (umbrella) into the car, so packed it along on the second half of my hike. I needed it a couple of times and the trees were still dripping from the previous sharp shower.

I was going to add my Bulow photos from today’s walk, but will save those for later. This post is long enough.

The temperatures in Florida now are typically in the upper 70’s to low 80’s during the day. When I sat outside cleaning the sticky coquina sand off the soles of my boots that evening, the skies had cleared. There was a light breeze… and it felt like heaven… or nearly as close as you can get here in the third dimension.

In Joy,

Eliza Ayres

https://sunnysjournal.com

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