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The following trip took place during Memorial Day weekend, May 23-25, 2008 with myself and 3 friends.
After asking for advice on this site and others, reading the Trail Guide by Sandra Friend and the best resource, the topo map purchased from the FTA we designed our trip with relatively short 8 mile days. We were all experienced in the woods, 3 of the 4 hikers were Eagle Scouts, but most of our camping was limited to canoe camping or day hikes and only a couple of actual backpacking trips. The FTA map was invaluable in planning our hiking distances, water sources and campsites. I referred to it often while hiking to keep track of our hike.
We used American Canoe Adventures in White Springs to shuttle us from their parking lot to the US-129 bridge where it crosses the Suwannee River. This trip took about 20 minutes. Beware, we were quoted one price on the phone when we made our reservation. We were charged an additonal $27 for our 3 cars to park on their lot while we were hiking. This may be normal, so just be aware of the possible bait and switch.
We got dropped off at the northwest side of the bridge and hiked parallel to 129 and crossed under the bridge and headed east. It was lightly raining when we started and rained for the first two hours of the hike. No one bothered with even putting on rain gear or pack covers.
On the FTA map there are "surface water sources" marked about every 1-2 miles on average. You would think, I did, that this would mean that there is a stream or spring flowing into the river. The Suwannee is most times at a very shallow river level and so most of those springs and streams were not flowing. Some existed, but were flowing so little that you would have had trouble getting water out of them. We filtered all of our water except that water from Swift Creek, directly from the river during our hike.
Our first campsite that night was about a mile beyond Camp Branch This was about 7 miles from US-129. The "Branches" marked on the map were not places you would want to camp. They were very low, very wet ground and since the water was flowing so slowly, there was a lot of seemingly standing water. A perfect breeding ground for mosquitos.
We hiked that first day till we found a nice campsite that had easy access to water. We stopped at a bend in the river that had a good beach area and made camp. The open area we found that was next to the beach had a little used road going to it.
The bluffs overlooking the Suwannee River are really breathtaking. No where else in Florida that I am aware of are you able to have such scenic river views.
Even though it was Memorial Day weekend, we did not pass any hikers along the trail. There is an electric fence that is mentioned in one of the guidebooks as being something to watch out for. I don't even thing it was electrified and there is plenty of space between in and the cliff.
The second day of the hike was both our greatest disappointment and greatest surprise of the hike. We all had in our memory from canoeing the Suwannee of a spring/stream that flowed into the river, and that had a good rope swing, about a half mile upriver from the I-75 bridge.
After crossing under the I-75 bridge using the ladders to get over the fences around the highway we passed over a dried up stream that we thought must have been the spring/stream (later we learned that it was called Swift Creek) that we had all remembered. It wasn't a good place for lunch so we walked a few minutes more till we found a way to get down to the river and had lunch on the riverbank.
After lunch we went up the trail about 300 yards more and came to Swift Creek. What we had been looking for. The map shows Swift Creek to flow into the Suwannee from a starting point miles away. The water was crystal clear and flowing very strong. There is about a 20 foot gorge that the creek flows through from the trail elevation. And there is a very nice wood suspension bridge across the creek. Two of us tried out the rope swing . And after a day of hiking all of us soaked in the cold creek water for a while. You should make plans to stop here for a while for lunch and to refill your water bottles. I wouldn't recommend camping here because I think it is frequented a lot by locals for parties, etc.
The second day there is a short road walk that a little before you get to Sal Marie Branch. You need to be careful here. It looks like the landowner was bushhogging some firelanes and may have taken down some trees with blazes. Be careful not to miss the turn.
The roadwalk is a very rural dirt road and it isn't very far, maybe 1/4 of a mile. You'll end the road walk and go straight through a person's front yard and then go through a small section of woods that takes you through Sal Marie Branch. There was not any water to be found here, but don't be discourage. Keep walking a few more minutes up the trail you'll find a nice place to camp for the night. It's a small campsite, and the bluff is a little difficult to get down, but there is a narrow section of the river directly below and the water is flowing very fast. It almost becomes a small rapid. It's a good place to relax and look at the water. This day we did about 9 miles.
The final 4 miles of our trip were gorgeous. We saw our only real people on the trail once we entered Stephen Foster Folk Park. They were car camping right on the trail so we had to hike through their camp as they were making breakfast.
The Stephen Foster Folk Music Festival was occurring during our hike, so our final quarter mile was spent walking through the hordes of hippies. It was nice to see so many people enjoying the area and while I'm not much for folk music, it was nice to see people who seemed to really enjoy it. We lost the trail for a little bit once we got into the park. We couldn't find the next blaze. We checked the park map that was posted and just started walking towards the exit and we eventually found the blazes again. After you exit the park, the American Canoe Adventures store is right up the hill.
This is a great section of trail. Very rugged, very far from most homes and people and even during Memorial Day weekend, we didn't see any other hikers, so you have the trail to yourself.
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