Just arrived at our doorstep today: my latest book and the first to come out in nearly a year. I spoke with Johnny just a couple of days ago as he was wrapping up “50 Hikes in the Ozarks” (the hiking part, that is) and he was quite happy to see this out on the market. We wrapped up the manuscript nearly a year ago.

Now you know your part … we hiked it, we wrote it … you get out there and order it!

See www.upf.com for direct-from-the-publisher orders. It’s already on Amazon.com as well.

Rob and I spent Monday kicking around Tampa and riding trolleys to celebrate my Dad’s birthday. This is from inside one of the streetcars in Ybor City.  They have to wait at the sidings for a while in order to keep on schedule.

Happy birthday, Dad!

I enjoyed a great whirlwind tour of Chattahoochee’s botanical wonders on Sunday thanks to Leigh Brooks, who worked for The Nature Conservancy for many years and is extremely knowledgable about the unique botany along the Apalachicola River. The first thing she did was took me to see Angus Gholson, the man who has spent a lifetime learning and sharing all there is to know about the region’s flora. After a visit to his herbarium and a chance to admire the Ashe magnolia blooms, we headed down to the nature park named in his honor and poked around for rare wildflowers in bloom, and we were not disappointed. In one tract near the park, Leigh introduced me to croomia, a plant I’d learned about but never had seen before.

A driving loop down along the Apalachicola River and past the dam yielded more showy botanical treasures, including oakleaf hydrangea in bloom. We finished up with a visit to a natural area hidden behind the state prison, where the trail has been let go but the shores of Cypress Cove are as pretty as can be. I’ve had the chance to write these places up for the new book, which is now consuming all of my “spare” time.  Thanks, Leigh, for treating me to a side of Chattahoochee I didn’t know was there!

Doing the usual bounces across the state, I’ve been to the friendly rural berg of Blountstown twice in the past week. For those of you not in the know, it’s the seat of Calhoun County and perched above the Apalachicola River right where SR 20 crosses over into Central Time from Bristol.

The first visit was to join in the Blountstown Chamber of Commerce 60th Annual Dinner, where Rob drew and I, along with fellow FTA staff, helped to answer questions about the Trail. Mike DeWitt drove up from Tampa to see Willard & Linda Smith receive the Citizen of the Year Award for their hard work on the Panhandle Pioneer Settlement and to generally be there for the community - and he was quoted more than once by the Chamber president! (Thanks to Mike for the photo of us).

The second trip was this past weekend for the grand opening of the Blountstown Greenway. This new paved trail from Sam Atkins Park to the Landing brought out hundreds of community members to walk, bike, skate, and ride in wagons to test out their trail. Festooned with balloons, the Old Depot on Pear Street was party central and our Florida Trail booth was right in the center of it all. It was great to see folks look at our map and connect their new trail as a part of the whole Florida Trail. 

Joe and Ron from the Panhandle Chapter showed up and helped with the booth, and I managed a hike down to the landing with Janette from Suncoast and Marti Vickers, Chamber of Commerce go-getter who got the media in for some great TV coverage. It was a very long and tiring day but did everything we all hoped would happen: connect the community with the trail.  A job well done to the many, many folks who worked on this for nearly a decade to help it become reality! For more details about the day, read Joe’s great writeup on the FTA Panhandle Chapter website.