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Today’s Adventure: Sante Fe River.

June 15, 2020

According to the AllTrails app. there are hiking trails at the Canoe Outpost in High Springs. However, the owner of the boat rental company said there are no trails.
We did go down by the water for some exploring.
We checked out the area and the river. Then we left to try a different location.
We ended up down the road a bit.
We found a little trail.
And spent the rest of our adventure on, in, and by the Sante Fe River.
Very relaxing!!
The Brave Explorer.
We enjoyed watching otters play 😊.
Found a friendly bug.
Interesting specimen.
Enjoyed making a Carin by the trail.
Turtles!
Tik Tok dancin’.
One last look at the view.
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Cats and Kittens!

June 7th, 2020

A feral cat we call “Effie” had a litter of kittens about a year ago. Although we tried to get them fixed through operation catnip, the pandemic hit and they stopped accepting cats. One of her kittens we call “Katniss” became pregnant. Her mother, Effie also became pregnant. Effie had a litter of kittens about 6 weeks ago. Katniss had her kittens 2 weeks and three days ago. We have been helping (bottle feeding) Katniss with her kittens because she is not consistently taking care of them. Last night Effie brought her kittens to us. We caught three of them. We are looking forward to getting all of them fixed and to good homes. This house has turned into a full-time care center! We are currently caring for 12 cats/kittens, one dog, and a rabbit.

So little!
They are so cute!
Playtime.
Effie’s (3) kittens – about 6 weeks old. There are at least three more in the litter we haven’t caught yet. We hope to take them all in to get fixed through operation catnip soon. Anyone interested in one of these sweet little ones?
New friends (Katniss and Bunya).
Luna dog 💕. She will be happy to be the center of attention again when all these kittens and cats are adopted!
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Today’s Trail Adventure: San Felasco Park Trails – Cyprus Trail, Firebreak Trail, Pond Trail, and Flatwoods Trail South.

June 4, 2020

Mom, Dad and Luna did this one on their own:

Trailhead.
Ready for an adventure!
Cyprus Overlook boardwalk.
Cyprus Overlook.
Information Station: trial maps and nature information.
Pond Overlook.

We explored a few offshoot trails along the way.
Pretty!
Sink hole.
We had a great time exploring the trails at San Felasco Park.
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Today’s Trail Adventure: Florida Trail from Rodman Dam.

June 3rd, 2020

We really have enjoyed the Florida Trail adventures so we are looking forward to trying this section of the trail.
Just outside of the trail is the Rodman Reservoir at the Kirkpatrick Dam
This beauty was right at the edge of the water.
Now to get on the Florida Trail.
These were right at the beginning of the trail.
I found out after returning home and doing research that these are Chickasaw plums (Florida sand plum). We didn’t know at the time they are edible.
The trail started off along the water.
Beautiful views!
Lucky feather ☺️.
The Florida Trail crossed over the Rodman ATV Trail. The girls had a great time playing in the sand!
Running in the deep sand is quite fun but exhausting 
Go Lizzy Go!!
We headed back to the water.
Time for a swim.
Awesome adventure!!
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Today’s Trail Adventure: Broken Arrow Bluff Nature Park.

June 2, 2020

Mom, Dad and Luna went on without us on this trail adventure. This is our first time at this park.
There is a very small picnic area and the trail which goes right down to the sink.
There were awesome limestone rocks to climb.
Luna and Dad enjoying the view.
Sink.
Luna did not realize this was water. She was tricked by the duckweed 😆.
An even larger limestone rock.
Luna is not so sure about climbing the big rocks. 
The trail is not much of a trail and there are no trail blazes or marks. We made our way through the brush to another sink.
Further in and another sink.
Pretty.
A great place to explore!

Now that’s green!
Happy couple 😊💕😊.
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Family Adventure

June 1, 2020

When the pandemic hit and everything went on lockdown, we started our daily trail adventures. We went on our trail adventures for eleven weeks while we were doing virtual home school and mom was out of work ! It is officially summer break and Florida gets pretty hot so we will be cutting back on our trail adventures. Today we went on a very small Trail Adventure and it was late enough in the day that Dad was able to join us.

This is not our first time at this park or on the trail, however the park just opened up today since the lockdown closure. FYI – there is still no access or use of playground or pavilion, but the trail is open.
Nice easy trail.
They sure love popping these berries.
There was a boardwalk bridge but no water right now.
Fungus that looks a bit like Navaho Fry Bread 😋. -Perhaps we were just hungry.
Do you see the dear?
Luna was so happy to have the whole family out on the trail ❤️.
End of trail pic. We had a nice time on this little trail.
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Congratulations 5th Grade Graduate

May 29th, 2020

Rachel was awarded Citizen of the Year for her school!

Awesome recognition!
Proud Dad!
Proud Mom!
Sisterly support.
They gave her the certificate and a few other “prizes” in a pizza box. They actually gave them a doughnut instead of pizza.
Great job Rachel!

Week Eleven Day Four Trail Adventure: Creek Sink Trail

This is not our first time here at San Felasco Hammock, but we are taking a trail we have not yet taken – Creek Sink Trail 2.3 miles.
Rachel thought we might be taking the 1 mile Moonshine Creek Trail. We collectively agreed to take the Creek Sink Trail instead since we haven’t tried it yet.
It is a beautiful trail!
The creek runs along much of the trail.
Swamps are cool!
We stopped on the bridge on the other “Moonshine trail” (we previously took this trail and posed on this same bridge).
Now to see what this trail has in store for us!
Anyone missing some glasses they were up in the tree as we passed by.
Cool tree! Looks like he’s sleeping.
Wow!
Cool web of vines.
Mushrooms – probably not edible.
Swamps are hiding something I’m sure!
Check out the tree roots.
We all really enjoyed this trail! I absolutely will be back to visit this trail!
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Week Eleven Day Four Trail Adventure

May 28, 2020

Week Eleven Day Four Trail Adventure: Serenola Forest Preserve Trail.

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This is a new preserve (2018) and the trail opened just last year. This is our first time here.
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There is a small picnic area right at the entrance.
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The weather has been stormy for several days now. We are in between storms. The trail is about a mile. 🤞🚫🌧️!
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One of the highlights of this trail were the red berries. The girls love to pop them. They make quite an audible 🎉.
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After picking off the berries Rachel was impressed by the flower-like remains on the stem.
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The trail is beginning to get overgrown in a couple spots, but it was still very easy going and very well marked.
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There is a second picnic area along the trail.
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Back to the trail before it rains! – We have been rained on two days in a row.
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These berries became the focus of the girls attention.
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The girls picked them, popped them hoarded them and even renamed themselves Berry Queen and Berry Princess!
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The girls were now singing berry songs 🎶.
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Impossible to get lost.
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Rock, Paper, Scissors for the title of “Queen of All the Berries”
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One guess who won 😉.
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No hard feelings.
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Really mom, we’re fine 😏.
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Luna and I are suspicious of their sincerity 😏. It was a nice little trail for a quick trail adventure between rain showers.
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Week Eleven Day Three Trail Adventure

May 27, 2020

Week Eleven Day Three Trail Adventure: Sweetwater Loop at Sweetwater Wetlands.

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This is our first time here at Sweetwater Wetlands. It was sprinkling on the drive here, but the sun is trying to peek out. 🤞🚫🌧️
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There were ponds of water everywhere!
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Several different types of birds.
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Every pond had a different bird.
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Unusual flowers too.
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Big guy”!
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Even a heart shaped puddle 😍.
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The sun was starting to come out a bit.
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Spreading his wings.
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He must have been drying his wings.
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There is no shade here, but it is beautiful!
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There were lots of ponds with varying birds at each.
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And pretty flowers too!
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Do you see him? . . . 🐊
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Another interesting flower.
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We got caught in the rain again! This is a place to come back to for sure!
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Week Eleven Day Two Trail Adventure

May 26, 2020

Week Eleven Day Two Trail Adventure: San Felasco Old Spanish Trail (Blue) and Spring Grove Trail (Yellow) – 7 miles today (not actually intentional)!

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Although we have previously been to this trail head we are taking a different trail today. The plan was to do part of the recently opened Old Spanish Trail (blue). This is a loop trail, but it is 4.9 miles long, so we intended to cut it short.
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Happy to be on an adventure.
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The beginning part of the trail is a very wide (service road) trail.
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Then we headed into the forest and came to a swamp.
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Rachel had a class Zoom meeting.
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The trail branched off further into the woods.
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Taking notes from her class meeting.
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We left the blue trail and hopped onto the yellow trail hoping we could cut off a large portion of the trail. There was some rain drops and dark clouds heading our way.
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What we didn’t realize was we had taken the long way around the yellow trail loop adding another 2.2 miles to the hike – oops! I enjoyed this tall grassy area of the trail.
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There were all kinds of interesting plants and flowers along this section of the trail.
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These were on the right side of the trail.
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These were on the left side of the trail.
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We got caught in the rain 🌧️. Slightly grumpy and pretty wet.
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Yup, wet and slightly grumpy. We were about five miles in at this point.
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We eventually made it back to the trail head. This was the longest hike of our trail adventures!
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How did you like the adventure Rachel? See pic for her response. Lizzy said, “Well we did 7 miles on a 4.9 mile hike.” They did great despite the wrong turn and the rain!