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I’m thinking my next camping trip needs to be to Dry Tortugas National Park.  Who’s with me!

But before I go I need to finish my scuba diving stuff..  That would be great!

Linky - http://www.nps.gov/drto/index.htm

GeoCache – http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=274798a9-8829-4de9-bf91-62c43f9e4876

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*** Disclaimer***  I make a statement in the story here that sounds as if I think it’s Allen’s fault that we went the wrong way.  Please note that that is not true.  We all made the decision to go that way and we all thought the car was that way.  I just started to question the decision after we started (I take full responsibility for not asking anyone once I was not 100% sure) and also it would have been a bad decision to change directions after we made up our mind.  Changing directions is a good way to get really lost and confused when you are out in the woods.   ****

Ok, it was a great trip.  But we did make some poor choices along the way.  But I’ll get to that.  We left at 5 am Friday.  Made great time and had lunch with my good friend Lance in Macon.  We had BBQ it was great.

Right after exit 218 (the McDonough exit) I guess there was a major accident and Allen got stuck right after the exit and I was alittle bit before it.  Appearently they decided that it was going to be a long time before anyone was going anywhere so they made us all get off at the exit.  So at this point I have no idea of where I am and I also don’t know how long it’s going to take for I75 to clear up.  So I stop and get directions.  The detour took about 45 mins and I guess it took about 30 mins for I75 to clear up.  So in the end the detour was about 10 mins longer then if they would have just let me wait.

So we got to the trail a little later then we wanted.  Not to much of a problem.  Allen’s GPS is working on the Forest Roads and that’s awesome.  We go and park the car at the end of the trail jump into the Jeep and follow the GPS to get to the start…  Only problem, it was wrong this time.  We end up at another trail head but it leads onto Jacks River Trail.  It’s starting to get dark and we need to do something fast before day light ends on us.  So we park the Jeep and take off from that trail.

Let me say that the whole area is just beautifull.  I saw more water falls here then I have in my whole life.  The weather was great, it got cool at night and warm during the day.  In fact the only realy down side of this area is that we had no cell phone coverage at all.  So we were not able to call our wives and let them know we made it.  But we start

down the trail  find a camp site about a mile and a half into it and set-up camp just before dark.  We cook dinner and had a little camp fire.  Allen set-up a bear bag for us and we all went to bed early.  I guess we all just had a long day and we were excited about the next day.

So we hit the trail and do about a mile before we hit Jack’s River Trail and have breakfast.  It was great, even got to go for a dip in the river and cool off before going on.

From this point we only have about a mile and a half to the falls.  We are refreshed, well feed and ready to go.  Come to our first river crossing and are like “Awesome”.  Oh a side note, Allen could not find the water filter so we were trying to be carefull on how much water we used.  However when Taylor went to take out his water shoes he finds the water filter.  Allen is a little mad at Taylor because he spend several hours looking for it and he does not have his water shoes.  But we do get fresh water so I’m happy.  :)

The trail only gets better as we get closer to the falls.

When we get to the falls it’s still is only about 10:30 and we are the only people there.  It’s amazing.  We hiked in our swimming shorts so we all jump in and spend about an hour and a half at the falls.

So this is the point where the trip starts to become alittle less rosy.  About 11:30ish some more people show up, most of them are really nice and we don’t mind them.  But there is one group who starts smoking something and it’s not a tobacco.  So we decide that we should start towards the car, so Allen takes off and we follow.

Stop and have lunch, it’s good but the amount of garbage that is around from people is horrible.

I don’t understand why anone would do this.  But I know why people say that it’s “Loved to death” now.

We have about 9 miles and 13 water crossings to the car.  Not to bad.  We keep going.  As we go I start to think we are going the wrong direction.  I’m like “Allen I think the car is the other way” but he’s rather sure we are going the right direction.  I decide that I trust Allen more then my self and keep going.

We make it to the parking lot and sure enough it’s the wrong one.  We decide to make camp at the parking lot in hope that some nice person will drive by and take us to the other end.  Allen is hurting so he takes some pain killer only they are not what he thinks they are and he get sick from them.

So one person does drive by around midnight but he has bad news for us.  The 16 mile walk is about a 80 mile drive.  Takes 2 hours to drive from the start to the end of the trail.  I think we all feel like crying at this point.  Then at 2 am it starts to rain and continues to rain untill about 7 am.  Allen, Taylor and DJ did not bring tents but Allen made a little shelter for them before they went to bed.  But they still got rather wet from the rain.  Anyways, come around 8 am I decide that we need to do something.  Taylor and my self take off down the trail with only water and some engery bars and will drive back.  DJ and Allen are not doing good.  We go about two miles when we find some people (we spent some time with them at the falls and ran into the several times on the trail) and they agree to take us to the other end  of the trail.  Wow, they are great.  Turns out they are Christians from Florida.

So we get back to the vehicles have lunch at BoJangles and leave Cisco Georgia at 3 pm.  We drive back home almost with out stopping.  I had to get gas right before Macon and just inside of Florida.  It was hard.  To be honest I don’t know if I should have been driving as late as I did.  I was not with it.  But I did make it home safely (thank you Jesus) at 1am.  I did not get up untill 11..

So like I said, looking back at it.  I had a great time.  If the car would have been at the parking lot that we were at the whole trip would have been great.  We would have made it home sooner.  But thanks to the kindness of some fellow Christians it was not as bad as it could have been.  So to the people who helped us, thank you.

You can see all my Jack’s River Pictures here.

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I’m back from Jack’s River Trail.  It was great (is the sort answer) I’ll write more about all of it later.  Bellow are the pics from the trip.

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So I was checking out the weather where I’m going this weekend. The high for Saturday will be 89 with a low of 65. Saturday and Sunday are both about the same, and they have a 40% chance of rain. So over all I’m thinking it sounds about perfect!

Also – we went to Dr. Barret again. Marci is doing great. Heart beat is still strong and good and he said Nyssa’s belly is just the perfect size (Nyssa was a little worried about that because people were telling her she did not look 6 months pregnant).

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Allen Bell, his son, a boy scout (DJ), and my self are going to Jacks River Falls!  We are leaving around 5 a.m. on Friday. I’m going to have lunch with my good buddy Lance and then go to the trail.  I’m really looking foward to it.  Bellow is a map showing where we will be at. The trail is 16 miles that we will do in about 2 days (part of Friday, Saturday and part of Sunday).

They do have one Geocache on the trail we are doing. It’s a photo cache so you take a picture and send that in. The area around it does not allow traditional caches so that’s why they did one this way.

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