Ryan, Debi, and Toren Cragun's Blog

Toren and I did a little hiking a few Sundays back at a new park.  The layout was odd and the maps they had didn’t align with the actually trails as far as I could tell, but we did get to hike around a lake (Toren made it most of the way) and actually saw an alligator drop into the lake and swim across.  Pretty cool!

Here are a couple of clips of Toren hiking.  In the first, he mentions rhinoceroses.  It was actually pretty funny what happened.  We were walking along a 1/4 mile nature trail with informational signs.  After reading one to him, Toren turned to me and said, “I be the next sign says ‘beware of rhinoceroses.’”  So, that’s what I was asking him about in this video:

Here he is hiking by the lake with the alligator in it:

He hiked the longest he has yet, about a mile, then I put him in the backpack and hiked him back to the car.  Here’s our route:

View Colt Creek State Park 4/14/2013 10:47am in a larger map

We tried out another new hike from the Southwest Florida Water Management District’s website: the Alafia River Corridor.  This was one of the first hikes we’ve done here in Florida where I felt like I was really out in the middle of nowhere.  From the parking lot to the wider trail by the train tracks felt like untouched Florida wilderness.  Here’s Toren doing a little hiking (he did about 1/2 a mile before he wanted in the backpack):

But once we got to the train tracks, it was clear a lot of construction had taken place in the area.  There was a gas pipeline running parallel to the train tracks and the remains of a concrete bridge on the side of the trail.

Even so, there were hills!  Yep, HILLS!  Okay, these were rather small hills, but it was elevation gain, which is absolutely unheard of in Florida.  I’m not sure if the hills are natural or were constructed.  The aerial view of the hike gives me the impression they may have been constructed.  For what, I’m not quite sure, but they are a good 30 to 40 feet higher than the surrounding area.  We also saw a pack of wild pigs.  We were walking along the top of one of the hills and I saw something moving in the distance, about 80 feet away.  I stopped and we saw about 15 feral pigs or boar rooting in the ground.  I should have thought to film them, but I was more concerned for our safety since there literally was not another person for miles at that point, so I banged my walking poles together a few times.  The pigs paused, looked up, then took off down the hill.  As we started toward where they were, the daddy boar came up over the other side, looked at us, crossed the trail, then followed the rest of the pack.  Pretty cool!  I think that’s the first time I’ve seen wild pigs.

Here’s the trail and the stats:

View Alafia River Corridor in a larger map

Name: Alafia River Corridor
Activity type: hiking
Description: Nice hike.  Saw boars.
Total distance: 7.18 km (4.5 mi)
Total time: 2:16:47
Moving time: 1:44:19
Average speed: 3.15 km/h (2.0 mi/h)
Average moving speed: 4.13 km/h (2.6 mi/h)
Max speed: 19.80 km/h (12.3 mi/h)
Average pace: 19.04 min/km (30.6 min/mi)
Average moving pace: 14.52 min/km (23.4 min/mi)
Fastest pace: 3.03 min/km (4.9 min/mi)
Max elevation: 23 m (76 ft)
Min elevation: -21 m (-69 ft)
Elevation gain: 246 m (808 ft)
Max grade: 0 %
Min grade: 0 %
Recorded: 01/20/2013 9:39am

Having spent far too much time at Busch Gardens over the last few months, I decided to do some hiking with Toren on Sundays instead.  Last weekend we visited Weedon Island Preserve, just across the bay in St. Petersburg.  Toren wasn’t interested in hiking and rode in the backpack the whole time, but he seemed to enjoy himself.

The hike did have some of the best mangroves I’ve seen, which Toren likened to Dr. Octopus:

We saw a few dead horseshoe crabs along part of the mangroves; something had figured out how to kill and eat them:

There is a lengthy boardwalk in the preserve that is in great condition.  One branch of the boardwalk took us out to a scenic lookout of an inlet just off the bay that was quite picturesque:

Here’s the track with our hiking stats:

View 1800 Weedon Dr NE in a larger map

Stats:

Name: 1800 Weedon Dr NE
Activity type: hiking
Description: -
Total distance: 6.32 km (3.9 mi)
Total time: 2:03:42
Moving time: 1:54:32
Average speed: 3.06 km/h (1.9 mi/h)
Average moving speed: 3.31 km/h (2.1 mi/h)
Max speed: 9.00 km/h (5.6 mi/h)
Average pace: 19.58 min/km (31.5 min/mi)
Average moving pace: 18.12 min/km (29.2 min/mi)
Fastest pace: 6.67 min/km (10.7 min/mi)
Max elevation: -15 m (-50 ft)
Min elevation: -46 m (-149 ft)
Elevation gain: 211 m (691 ft)
Max grade: 0 %
Min grade: 0 %
Recorded: 01/13/2013 10:33am

I posted photos from my Scotland trip, but forgot about the footage.  Here are some clips I shot.

Here’s the bowl in the Cuillin Hills that was amazing:

Here’s a shot of the scree pile I hiked to get to the top of the Cuillin Hills bowl:

A short clip of the summit and the weather that blew in that kept me from staying very long:

A quick clip of the sun setting around 10:00 pm on the Isle of Skye:

And one of my favorite clips of the wind blowing in the beautiful Scottish grass of the Highlands:

I just posted my trip report for Granite Peak.  In addition to the report, I posted, I shot a few videos.

First up, here I am rappelling from the top of Granite Peak:

Now Tom’s turn:

Now the mountain goats’ turn… Okay, they weren’t rappelling.  But they did climb right up one of the chimneys that we rappelled with ropes like it was a walk in a meadow:

One thing I left out of the trip report was the mountain goats who followed us for about an hour on Froze-to-Death plateau.  And when I say “followed” I mean they were 10 feet away just hanging out with us.  We thought they might want food, so here’s Tom trying to feed them some:

Finally, a clip of Mark riding into the trail head on the Search and Rescue horse: