How does one get from the White Mountains of New Hampshire to Florida between one trip report and the next? Well, after leaving the White Mountains I visited friends in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and New Jersey. Washington, DC was the next stop where I did the tourist thing for a couple of days.
Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and the scenic Skyline Drive was next, right in the middle of the fall foliage season too. It didn't have the bright reds of the red maples in New England but was very pretty in its own right. Pretty enough that its on my list of places to visit again in the middle of October.
Unfortunately I got rained out of Virginia and then snowed out of West Virginia and ended up in the Daniel Boone National Forest of Kentucky before I got some clear weather. Caught the tail end of the foliage season there too and enjoyed exploring the area. Nothing in Tennessee, Mississippi or Alabama for me so I wandered back across the Smoky Mountains and down into northern Georgia.
Visited several 150+ foot waterfalls in the Chatahoochee National Forest and enjoyed the tail end of that foliage season. Worked my way south under gray and rainy skies. Wanted to do some paddling in the Okefenokee Swamp but cold and dreary skies forced me southward. So here I am in Florida.
11/25/06 Paddling Ocean Pond:
Ocean Pond is more a small lake than a pond since its about 1.5 miles across in all directions. I've been here for several days and spent noon of Thanksgiving Day out in the middle of the lake under crystal clear skies, reviewing my life and admitting how lucky and thankful I am to be leading this kind of life. It has been cool though, here in northern Florida, lower 60's anyway. I'm about midway between Jacksonville and Tallahassee.
I'm trying to get in shape for a season of paddling here in Florida. A 10mph wind seems to blow most of the day so paddling against that requires some effort on my part. The lake is lined with small cypress trees covered in Spanish Moss. Since I haven't been to Florida in 7 years that makes for a pretty and interesting view. No gators here, just a few herons.