{"id":2318,"date":"2019-09-09T15:04:42","date_gmt":"2019-09-09T19:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/?p=2318"},"modified":"2022-08-10T13:54:49","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T17:54:49","slug":"gators-guts-glory-adventures-along-the-florida-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/gators-guts-glory-adventures-along-the-florida-trail\/","title":{"rendered":"Gators, Guts, & Glory: Adventures Along the Florida Trail"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Gators, Guts, & Glory: Adventures Along the Florida Trail  <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

By Lauralee Bliss<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wander on the wild and humorous side of adventure with long distance hiker Lauralee Bliss (trail name Blissful), hiking the 1,100-mile Florida Trail from Big Cypress National Preserve to Gulf Islands National Seashore. From alligators and cottonmouths to tenting among the palmettos and walking on water, from forests of cypress knees and lofty pine to the help of trail angels along the way, \u201cBlissful\u201d uncovers the hidden gems of glory in this National Scenic Trail with a unique journey unlike any other. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Chapter 1<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t

A Monument to Sucking Mud<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

 Is anyone out here? <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s been no water for miles, no\nsemblance of humanity, and my water bag is dry. I am a lone wanderer on the\nFlorida Trail, and things are getting desperate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Water is normally everywhere, pouring\nout of faucets, filling rivers and streams and great oceans. One never misses\nanything so commonplace\u2014until you don\u2019t have it. I look at my empty water\nbottles while my tongue runs over parched lips. Many of the streams listed in\nmy guidebook are dried up. The sweltering Florida sun beats down, and my need\nfor water after hiking many miles is getting critical. I must have some liquid refreshment\nsoon, not only to ease the dryness in my throat that feels like sandpaper, but really,\nto prevent full-blown dehydration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I lumber along, wondering what to\ndo, when I look off to my left. Suddenly I spot a silvery pool glistening in the\nbright Florida sun. It\u2019s a pond of water, surrounded by a beach of black sand. Water! Yes!<\/em> Heaven on earth. Thank you, God.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I need to leave the trail and walk out\nto the pool of water, but that shouldn\u2019t be difficult. I\u2019ve already done many\nthings to reach water\u2014hiking through tall grass, slogging across bogs and cypress\ndomes while batting away palmettos in my face. The black sand looks pretty wet,\nso I elect to keep my backpack and shoes on grassy turf and don my Crocs\u2014my\nfavorite footwear for camp and water crossings (they have holes in them to\ndrain out water). I pick up a water bag and small cup I use to collect the water\nfrom a natural source and gingerly make my way toward the pond. How lovely it\nlooks. I can\u2019t wait. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I step onto the black sand. And\nsink. Rapidly. All the way up to my hip. It\u2019s not sand but a muddy trap known\nas sucking mud. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo!\u201d I yell. I try to pull out my\nleg but I\u2019m stuck fast. I twist, attempting to maneuver out of this mucky stranglehold\nand finally drag my leg out, now covered in black slime. I step out with my\nother foot and meet the same fate. Mud all the way to my hip. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No,\nno. How am I going to get out of this? How am I going to get the water I need?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a hiker I\u2019ve been in lots of wacky\nsituations. I\u2019ve done over 6,000 miles on the Appalachian Trail in all kinds of\nweather and in wild terrain where I thought I\u2019d lose my life. I\u2019d been lost and\nstabbed on the Allegheny Trail in West Virginia. I\u2019d been in a veritable wind\ntunnel and flooding rains along Vermont\u2019s Long Trail, not to mention my\nbackpack falling off a cliff, but that\u2019s another story. I\u2019d been attacked by\nthe infamous Japanese hornet on the Foothills Trail of South Carolina where my leg\nswelled to twice its normal size. But I\u2019ve never be caught in quicksand, i.e. sucking\nmud. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Memories of the classic movie The Princess Bride<\/em> flash through my\nmind, of the hero and heroine caught in the depths of lightning sand and nearly\nsuffocating. If I don\u2019t find a way out of here, I could very well be stuck for\nwho knows how long, a permanent muddy monument to the rigors of the Florida Trail.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I force away the fear and turn to\nprayer, asking fast and furious for help from above. There is no one else out\nhere but God, and He has been with me through thick and thin. Though right now I\u2019m\nin a situation as thick as mud. I think of how often God has dispatched mighty\nangels to help in my time of need as I wander these many trails. I wonder if\nthe angels pull straws in heaven to see who is responsible for helping Blissful\nthe Hiker out of her latest predicament. Seriously though, I consider how much\nangels have taken care of little ol\u2019 me, involved in some crazy stunt while\nhiking a trail. And here I am in another pickle jar, stuck fast in the mud. I\u2019ve\nnever been through anything like this before. But then again\u2026I\u2019ve never done anything\nlike this before, either. Nothing is normal out here. And maybe that\u2019s a good\nthing. A backpacking trip should never be boring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welcome to \u201cAdventures along the Florida\nTrail.\u201d You will never be the same. <\/p>\n\n\n