Cathedral of Palms Trail - Official Girls Who Hike™ FL Meetup

Cathedral of Palms Trail

Girls Who Hike™ FL - Official Meetup

Crawfordville, FL

14 April 2018

Introduction

Link to Strava hiking activity: Cathedral of Palms Hike

Florida.....Beaches and palm trees right? Well, yes. But also no. Florida has a wide variety of habitats and terrain that often times you can see crazy diversity in one hike. The Cathedral of Palms Trail is a hike I had not heard of until I saw the event posted. The route we took, led by our fearless leader Whitney (Girls Who Hike Ambassador), was just over a 10K hike that included a mixture of forest roads, single track trail, cypress swamps, a third magnitude freshwater spring, a small portion of the Florida National Scenic Trail, and an amazing tucked away display of palm trees - The "Cathedral". 

Below are links to more information about this hike and to the right is my GPS tracking of the hike.

All Trails: The Cathedral of Palms via Florida Trail

Visit Tallahassee [Harry Smith Outdoors]: Cathedral of Palms

Florida Hikes: Florida Trail, Shepherd Spring

Now let's step into the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge ---

Girls Who Hike FL

An observation I have made from most of my outdoorsy travels is that I usually see more women out exploring. Most solo travelers I have met have been women. It only makes sense that a group of women made a national organization for women who enjoy hiking and experiencing the planet's natural beauty. Girls Who Hike FL now has several local chapters that have hiking meetups almost every weekend.

From the Girls Who Hike website:

"Established in December 2015, Girls Who Hike is a nationally recognized hiking organization based in the United States. We're designed to connect women with other local women to hit the trails together, but our members also utilize the Girls Who Hike web of chapters while traveling around the United States.. because there's nothing quite like a "local's pick" when it comes to finding a hidden gem in unknown places. We have 55 chapters throughout the nation with additional chapters on the radar for 2018." 

I am a member of the Girls Who Hike™ FL Facebook Group. On Saturday I attended my first official meetup and met a diverse group of wonderful ladies who were just as excited as I am to play around in the forest.

Photo Credit: Whitney Mermal Jones

The Gear

• Brooks Cascadia 12 Great Smoky Mountains National Park Trail-Running Shoes - Women's
• KUHL Krush Pants - Women's
• Osprey Daylite Daypack
• Yeti Rambler - 26oz

The Story

We met at the Publix parking lot on the corner of Capital Circle SW and Crawfordville in order to reduce the amount of cars at the trailhead. With a group of 10, three cars did the trick.

Once at the trailhead, our fearless leader Whitney showed us the route.

And we are off!

We walked along a forest road surrounded by beautiful pine trees.

Longleaf pinecones are almost as big as my feet!

We then veered right where we began our single track trek.

We reach some muddy sections where the leaders up front tested the waters and found a route around.

Trail Spring

Next we walked a boardwalk to Shepherd Spring - either a second or third magnitude spring.

For more information about the spring, check out Springs Fever's description.
GPS Coordinates: 30.125417, -84.285472

The sunny day resulted in some difficult photography that doesn't even compare to the real thing [should have tried out the UV filter sitting on my desk]. But the spring was super beautiful! Now you have to go.

Saw palmetto hair, don't care! Well at least that was my attempt at a selfie with saw palmetto hair.

Cathedral of Palms

We then move on to the main attraction - the hammock of Sabal palmetto/Cabbage Palm trees. I usually say "Don't forget to look up!", but it would be speaking the obvious here. Fortunately for us, it hadn't rained for at least 4-5 days, so the trail was not as muddy/squishy/slippery as many others have experienced.

Fun Fact - Sabal palmetto is the official state tree of both Florida and South Carolina.

More Sabal palmetto facts:

• One of fifteen species of palmetto palms
• Up to USDA Zone 8 hardy - exactly where this place is located
• Found along coastal plains in the Southeast including the United States East coast and the Gulf Coast - very salt and drought tolerant!

Palm Tree Graveyard

The Return

As we returned, the palms gradually transitioned to cypress trees [got to see some cypress knees!] then over to pines while we crossed through coastal marshes and wetlands. Luckily there were boardwalks!

Heather and I at the Florida National Scenic Trail marker.

Selfie/Photo Inception

One of my favorite photos - a tall archway of trees in front of a small clearing with a few badass ladies hiking ahead.

Then we made our safe return to the trailhead. A nice 6ish mile hike with a wonderful group with the same passion for hiking the outdoors was a great way to start a beautiful Saturday.

Olustee Battlefield - The Largest Civil War Battle Fought in Florida

Olustee Battlefield - The Largest Civil War Battle Fought in Florida

FL State Parks Quest: Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park - 24/175

Olustee, FL

15 March 2018

Florida joined the Union in 1845 as the 27th state. Only sixteen years later, on January 10, 1861, they seceded from the Union and became one of the founding members of the Confederate States of America. It is important to note that the vote to secede passed by 62-7, and the Unionist minority grew as the Civil War went on. Florida had a small population with about half of it being slaves. They could only send 15,000 troops to the Confederate Army so the main importance of the state was in food supply. 

There wasn't too much fighting in Florida itself. The Union retained control of multiple seaports, while the Confederacy seized many army camps. As the war went on, slaves could escape more easily where some became informers to Union commanders. Florida became a refuge for deserters on both sides. While there were some small skirmishes in Florida (Natural Bridge, Gainesville, Fort Brooke, etc.), the battle here at Olustee was the biggest and bloodiest. Just a few weeks earlier, I went to the Natural Bridge battle reenactment [Link Coming Soon].

Good things happened in Florida in May 1865 which include:

• A Union division led by General McCook was assigned to re-establish Federal control in Florida
• Florida's Governor Milton did not want to submit to Union occupation and committed suicide
• The last active Confederate troops surrendered to the McCook
• McCook read the Emancipation Proclamation in Tallahassee, which officially ended slavery in Florida
• Union troopers raised the United States flag over the capitol building

Florida was completely restored to the United States on July 25, 1868.

Park Profile

• Park Name: Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park
• Region: 
• Physical Address: 5815 Battlefield Trail Rd Olustee, FL 32087
• Fees: Olustee is free!
• Hours: 09:00 - 17:00, Daily
• FL State Parks Website
• FL State Parks Brochure
• FT Ranger on Duty: No
• Passport Stamp Location: 

The Visitor Center

This old building is the visitor center. It had very dated displays on the American Civil War. You could also watch the film on repeat in an odd looking room where there are two benches facing a tiny TV.

The Memorial

The Memorial was built in 1909 to commemorate the Battle of Olustee.

Memorials for Confederate generals. I didn't realize there was a United Daughters of the Confederacy.............

The Interpretive Trail

The interpretive trail winds through the pine forest where there are occasional signs explaining the various stages of the battles. The trail briefly has a view of the field where they have a reenactment every year. In the following section, there is a little more history and a lot of pine trees.

The Olustee Battle occurred on February 20, 1864 towards the end of the Civil War. In summary - The events started at 06:00 when Brigadier General Truman Seymour of the Union Army headed West from Barber's Plantation across St. Mary's River with 5,500 men and 16 cannons.

Brigadier General Joseph Finegan, the Confederate commander, waited in Olustee for the Union arrival with 12 cannons and 5,000 men. He ordered cavalry and finantry to advance and skirmish with the Union forces in order to draw them towards the Confederate earthworks. As it all grew more intense, Finegan ordered General Colquitt to feel out the strength of the Union forces. They immediately took control of the scene and drew additional regiments from Olustee Station to form a battle line a few miles ahead. It resulted in a very short range fight in an open pine barren, as you will see in this post with lots of pine tree pictures.

Longleaf pinecones - the size of my feet!

06:00
Union forces left Barber's Plantation going West with the expectation of defeating the Confederates in Lake City 32 miles away. If that was successful, they planned to cut off railroad communications between East and West Florida by destroying the railroad bridge over the Suwannee.

Early afternoon
The Union cavalry drove the Confederate cavalry West for several miles; however once they got close to Olustee Railroad Station, the Confederate's resistance grew stronger. This is when the bloody, 4-hour battle started.


Follow the arrows!

The Union troops had a very disadvantaged location when the battle began. There were two swamps - one stopping them from advancing and another blocking a retreat. They had almost no cover to hide. Just to the North was a cleared field where the battle's severity would occur. No one expected this to become such a major battle. Neither side was familiar with the area in which they were fighting, and they kept sending more and more troops forward keeping an even match.

14:00
Union troops reached a railroad crossing east of Olustee. They (7th Connecticut) opened up heavy fire from their Spencer repeating rifles catching the 64th Georgia off guard. All of the Confederate's field officers were killed. General Colquitt's reinforcements made a timely arrival unfortuantely for the Union and kept the 64th from being destroyed. The Union kept advancing and ended up in a cross fire. They had to withdraw several hundred yards when their ammunition ran low.

15:00
The 7th New Hampshire deployed on the Union's right flank. They had issues from the beginning where they had been ordered to exchange their Spencer repeating rifles for old, defective muskets. Then Colonel Hawley either gave a wrong command or it was misunderstood, so the 7th scattered due to confusion.

On the Union left flank was the 8th U.S. Colored Troops who had no battle experience and little training. 310/575 men in this troop were killed or wounded.

Also 15:00
Colonel Harrison arrived with Confederate reinforcements. Ceneral Colquitt ordered the troops to advance. Colonel Barton's brigade for the North was subjected to concentrated fire when they relocated to the area that was just vacated by the 7th New Hampshire. The battle kept going for three more hours without a pause.

The Union had five of their cannons captured and the others were practically useless. A train arrived bringing more reinforcements for the Confederate troops. There was a large cannon on one of the railroad flatcars that shot a large shell every five minutes. This was devastating to the Union troops.

It seemed that at this point the Union was going to lose, but the 54th Massachusetts and the 1st North Carolina U.S. Colored advanced which momentarily staggered the enemy.

17:00 Low ammunition on both sides slowed down the fire. They searched their fallen comrades' pockets in hopes of desparately finding more ammuniton. More ammo arrived for the Confederates allowing them to move forward and force the Union out of their positions. The battle kept raging on.

After three hours of fighting, 115th New York was the only Union regiment remaining on the field. They alerted their defiance and retreated. Over half of the men were killed or wounded.

Union casualties - 1,861 killed, wounded, and missing

Confederate casualties - 946

This defeat ended the Union's efforts to organize a loyal Florida government before the 1864 Presidential election. Even though the Confederates won the Battle of Olustee, they would lose the American Civil War

Florida National Scenic Trail and Osceola National Forest

I broke away from the interpretive trail as I neared the Florida National Scenic Trail.

Here is a weather station.

President Roosevelt approved a plan to recruit thousands of unemployed young men into the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) during the Great Depression. The CCC from 1933-1942 employed over 3 million Americans where they completed construction, planted trees, developed caves into a public tourist attraction, fought forest fires, etc.. The fire tower here is named Olustee Tower and was manned by the CCC. In conjunction with other towers, it served as an observation station for directional detection of forest fires in the Osceola National Forest.

At the Florida National Scenic Trail, there was information on the trail and the Osceola National Forest.

At this point I was at the park entrance where I took pictures of the sign and road leading to the visitor center.

The Past Meets the Future Here at Olustee AKA Park Upgrades Coming Soon-ish

There are upgrades planned for the visitor center area. Yea...I would say the current building needs to go.