Kat Sack here! Sometimes Katastrophic Sackrilege to the running community, but most definitely The Mountain Lioness to those who follow and join my adventures. I currently call Tallahassee, FL home. The mountains are my favorite place to be and explore but given my location, I dive into other types of rad places too!

I created this blog as a personal project to document my adventures. Photos are great, but I love text describing more of the story and to recall what I have learned. I am no expert at outdoorsy activities, but I learn as I go! If you end up here, I hope you can get something out of it.

My original focus was on backpacking, hiking, camping, kayaking, and mountain biking. I have thus shifted the scope as I discovered my love for National and State Parks. I have the National Parks Passport and the Florida State Parks passport which have allowed me to discover places I originally would never have seen. Now I write about national monuments, history, run-cations, etc.

At some point I hope to dive into personal growth as well with topics including self-sufficiency and improvement, turning boredom into adventure, steps to heal my body and mind, and overcoming social adversities.

Life is an adventure. Go outside. Pay attention to all that is around you. Get lost in the moment. Everything has a story. Listen for it, even if you do not speak the same language.

FL State Parks Quest: A Weekend at Torreya State Park [1/174]


Torreya State Park

Summary:

2017-04-08 - 2017-04-09
Torreya State Park is one of Florida's many amazing state parks. It is about 40 minutes from Tallahassee and has some of the best hiking in Florida. Many go here to train for Appalachian Trail hiking. The park is right along the Apalachicola River and is home to the rare Torreya tree. There is a main campground as well as backcountry campsites.

The Gear:


The Story:


Draggin' Tail Ultra at Torreya State Park

I usually wake up earlier on weekends than I do during the work week. As an amateur runner, I usually have a race Saturday morning and my long run early Sunday morning. This weekend was a little different. I got up extra early on Saturday (04:30!) to go to a race but this time to volunteer. You see, I'm still warming up to the idea of long distance running and trail running, but this race was for badass endurance athletes. They were running either a 25K or 50K on Florida's toughest trails.

The Draggin' Tail race brought about 85 runners to this beautiful park. It was probably the least exciting race start I've seen due to the long distance and slower paces.

Just before the race start
Draggin' Tail Ultra at Torreya State Park

It was perfect weather for running. It was really chilly for not running. I wish I had brought more layers. I was placed at the first aid station with my friend Sonya at the Gregory House. This station is only visited once per loop, so we only saw 25K runners once and then waited for the 50K runners to come back around. It was a beautiful morning.

Apalachicola River morning fog
Torreya State Park

Front of the Gregory House
Torreya State Park

Draggin' Tail Ultra at Torreya State Park
1st Aid Station Team
Draggin' Tail Ultra at Torreya State Park

As a side note - Torreya is in fact in the Eastern timezone. The other side of the Apalachicola River is in central timezone. Your phone will get confused as it gets signals from towers on both sides of the river. Since there was a long time between runners coming by again, Sonya was able to take an hour long tour of the Gregory House ($3), and I was able to eat a mature adult lunch. I got to hear some of the tour presentation during the outdoor portion.

Lunchables

I picked this badboy up from the Gregory House gift shop for just under 20 buckaroos. It's a small book with a page and description of all 173 Florida State Parks. You can get a stamp for each one when you go. I view it as a great motivation to explore Florida a little more while I am still living here. Granted some of the parks are a good bit away, especially the ones in the Keys. But that also means snorkeling!!

Florida State Parks "the Real Florida" Passport
Torreya page with stamp
The Torreya Tree is a very rare, very endangered tree that can be found at the park. There is a big effort to grow more of the trees in the Apalachicola River Valley, especially at Torreya State Park. The trees and saplings are blocked off where they can be found throughout the park. More information can be found in links at the bottom of this post. This leads me to the finisher medal for the Draggin' Tail race. They are handmade and use leaves from Torreya trees to press an indentation


Speaking of finisher medals, the race had a pretty sweet timing system setup. Apparently it was just a one time thing this year. I had asked because it was elaborate for only a few runners are finishing fairly spread apart in time.
Ashley Daily right after crossing the finish line as 1st place woman in the Draggin Tail 50K

Camping at Torreya State Park

Now time for hiking and camping! We first stopped by the main campground and visited some folks. They were really roughing it in their camper and made me a bloody mary served in a nice wine glass. One person also started making his own sausage so we feasted on that too. Then back to the Gregory House where we checked in and paid for the primitive campground. Picked up a nice map too.
Nice map

Our campsite was Rock Bluff 1. We parked at the front of the park, took the service shortcut as it had already been a long day. We arrived just after the friendly people in the campsite next to us and some others. It was a super fun group of people, and we even walked down to the river together once camp was set. 

Gotta have Nantahala Brewing App Trail XPale Ale



I tried to get a cool sunset picture of my hammock tent, but the above photo was the best I could do. Dinner consisted of a Knorr pasta side. I had a flavor I hadn't tried before, a Thai chili something something. Firewood was available at the campground ($5 prepay for it) so got a good fire going, ate, and drank more beer. The temperature dropped a decent amount and was chilly going to bed, especially in a hammock. However getting almost completely enclosed in my sleeping bag did the trick. I didn't even know it was light outside in the morning until I uncovered my head.
Camping hair don't care

Finally got to use my JetBoil French Press!

Backpacking at Torreya State Park

 Torreya State Park has two loops. There is the main loop as well as the Challenge Loop. I've done the Challenge Loop in the past, but I got to finally do the main loop. It's about 6.5-7miles-ish of moderately hilly hiking. There are a few steep climbs. The terrain also varies too!

Stone Bridge
Torreya State Park

Florida Torreya Tree
Torreya State Park

Apalachicola River Sign
Torreya State Park
Hiking along the Apalachicola River
Torreya State Park
Being a dork
Torreya State Park

Did I mention that it's copperhead mating season and that there have been multiple sightings of them around the park????? This guy (or gal) (or whatever self-identification) was chilling on the path by the river and did not like being directed off the trail with a hiking pole. 

"You better stay away from Copperhead Road"
Torreya State Park

Soon after we started to see a bunch of cypress knees. I found a lot of them very fascinating because nature is beautiful and also weird and goofy at the same time. Apparently no one knows for sure what their purpose is. According to Wikipedia: "A cypress knee is a distinctive structure forming above the roots of a cypress tree of any of various species of the subfamily Taxodioideae. Their function is unknown, but they are generally seen on trees growing in swamps. Some scientists have thought they may help in oxygenation to the tree's roots or assist in anchoring the tree in the soft, muddy soil." I think they look more like fingers making hand gestures rather than knees but that may just be me.

I think it's giving me the middle finger
Shocker or peace sign?

Cypress knees indicate swamps. Guess where we ended up next? If you said swamp, you are almost correct because it's not JUST any old swamp, but a RIM SWAMP. In case you don't know what a rim swamp is, it means exactly that. There's even a sign that elaborates on how it is a swamp on the rim of a river.



There's a bit of a climb around this area to get out of the rim swamp, but you get to see some cool things:
Cool thing #1

Cool thing #2

Cool thing #3 - Indian Pink (Spigelia marilandica)
Torreya State Park

Then we get back to where we started. We had to cut the loop a little bit due to other obligations. Through the wide trails, back past the campground, and then onto the car.


Yay!

Hurdles:

None really. Probably could've used more beer.

Relevant Quote:



Other:


  • I tried out hiking poles for the first time. I thought they were stupid Saturday, but it was all flat and a short hike. They were significantly helpful on hillclimbs the next day though. My biggest complaint is that it's hard to eat at the same time. Almost impossible. Maybe I'll look into ones that fold up easily because I like snacks!
  • I got to see a possum (an opossum) Saturday night. I think. Everyone else took a trip to the portapotty, while I heard noises and tried to pinpoint what was making them. For some reason I thought it was an anteater but knew that had to be wrong.
  • This was my second visit to this FL State Park in my lifetime
  • This was my first visit to a FL State Park in 2017
  • This park is 1/174 for passport stamps
  • Strava Map of Sunday hiking: 

Notable Resources:






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Location: Torreya State Park, 2576 NW Torreya Park Rd, Bristol, FL 32321, USA

1 comment:

  1. Unknown20 April, 2017 07:10

    Great trip Katie, thanks for camping and hiking with me.

    ReplyDelete

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