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Farles Prairie hike

Hiking Farles Prairie

Hiking along the Farles Prairie section of the Florida Trail adjoining Pine Castle Bombing Range, we get to experience both a bomb concussion and a charred “nightmare forest” after a dropped bomb.

March 3, 2009    Sandra Friend

If you’re wondering why I’m so quiet right now, I’m working hard at creating the next generation of the Florida Hikes website!

I did, however, take the time last week to rejoin Lou and Rachael Augspurg’s Florida Trail section hike through the Ocala National Forest.

FTA Group Hike Augspurgs
Quite a crowd joined this group hike through Farles Prairie

This time it was Farles Prairie, the first place I ever knowingly hiked on the Florida Trail.

It was June 1999, and I’d just lost my sister to cancer. I was looking for a place to get away.

I posted a note on one of the hiking mailing lists, probably the AT-L, and said I needed to find some solace in the woods, despite the season. And that’s where a fellow list member met me for a hike.

Farles Prairie hike
Following fellow hikers through a hilly sand pine scrub

Last week’s hike was a bit different. With 50 people in the group, it was quite a mass of humanity moving through the forest, which I hadn’t remembered was so hilly.

This part of the Florida Trail skirts near the Pine Castle bombing range, and at one point we felt a BOOM!

Bomb charred forest
Forest charred by a bomb dropped on it

Part of the hike snaked through a place my friend Debbie called a “nightmare forest,” charred spindly trees like something out of “Nightmare Before Christmas,” caused by an errant bomb.

It was pause for thought. A comfortable day for a walk, too.

Category: Articles, Florida Trail, HikingTag: Astor, Florida Trail, FT Ocala

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