Pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/Van1300/LittleBigEconBackpacking

My husband and I decided to celebrate the end of another successful semester with a quick, but relaxing, overnight. We decided we wanted to hike one way, instead of doing a loop, or an out and back. So we dropped of a car at the Barr St. Trailhead along 426, and got a friend to drop us off at the parking lot of the Geneva Wilderness Area (a few miles from Barr St).

We have day hiked the Geneva Wilderness before, enjoying the little chapel. We started our hike, and knew we did not have far to go to get to camp. We must have passed over or around about 20 spiders and their webs. You could tell the forest was dry, because everything was brown and crunchy. We haven't had real rain in a long time. It was a pretty warm day, high about 80 degrees, so the bugs were still out and about. We hiked I think about a mile before coming to a well water restroom. We completing half the loop trail and found the Flagler Trail, which would lead us into the Little Big Econ Forest.

The trail was my kind of Florida hiking, and actually quite nice. While we were hiking this stretch, a lady and her horse came up behind us. She told us her horse was afraid of backpackers because they looked scary and asked us if we would be so kind to feed her horse a carrot so she could see we were friendly. We stopped to pet and feed her horse, and enjoyed a little chat. Knowing we had only about 1.4 miles left to get to camp, we took our time, stopping to take some pictures and eat some trail mix. We got to some benches where the Florida State Forest Trail Walkers and Trail Trotters trails all converged.

After a short rest to chat with a biker (I told you it was a multi-use trail), we pushed on for the last .3 miles or so. When we got to the bridges that go over the Econ river, we stopped to make camp. We checked out a few sites, and picked a really nice one right by the river. It was only $5 for both of us to camp in the Little Big Econ Forest.

Our campsite was seriously awesome! Flat, grassy, and cool next to the water. We set up our tent and proceeded to make some tuna mac for lunch. We sat under a big tree enjoying our food. I spent a few hours reading a book while my husband gathered downed wood to build a fire. We took a nap in the grass, and just simply relaxed. Another biker stopped to chat for a bit, and we could see many riding across the river on the bike trails coming from Snowhill Rd. We waded into the river, filtering some crystal clear water. There was evidence of the drought however, because the banks of the river were very exposed. Later on, we made a asian rice bowl and enjoyed some freeze dried ice cream, and a few marshmellows. The fire was excellent, and we watched the sunset.

After a while, we crawled in the tent to play cards and drift off to sleep. A few times during the night, I was startled awake by owls and other birds, but we never saw wildlife, and hung our food and trash up the tree. We woke up in the morning, had some oatmeal and started packing up. Three men and their dogs were wading further down the river, under the bridge. The dogs managed to find their way to our campsite and tried to run off with a bag a beef jerky. The man came over to collect his dog, and without apologizing said "well, this is where we come during the day" and left.

We headed out on the Florida Trail towards Oviedo. My camera died or I would have taken some pictures. This is my favorite stretch of trail in the area, because it skirts the river and is well maintained. We spent the first miles knocking down spider webs and avoiding bigger spiders. Eventually we came up on a cub scout troop who had cleared the trail from the parking lot. They asked us if we had camped and were quite impressed to see some real backpackers. We took our time getting over the bridges and through the trail, back to the parking lot at Barr St. The sign said 1.75 miles, while the other sign said 2.1 miles. Nothing intense. We picked up the car we dropped off the day before, and headed the 20 minutes home. All in all, a very very relaxing and enjoyable trip!

Post edited by: sfriendfla, at: 2007/12/15 21:16

Vanessa, nice pictures, and what a great view from your tent. That section of the FT is wonderful. Sorry to hear it's so dry, it was like that the first time I hiked there in 1999 ... and the next time, we waded through Geneva Wilderness. Thanks for the trip report!

Sounds like a great trip. And since it sounds like you live in the area, you know we probably got a couple of inches of rain last night - we definitely needed it, and more.

As for the horse, my wife often rides there - that wasn't her, she always rides with at least one other person - but yeah, horses can be afraid of hikers. And deer, and other horses, and flies, and...