Outdoors
Published: Jan 14, 2007
ST. MARKS - In retrospect, I should have regarded that black widow spider as a sign of cool things to come. We met over breakfast, this femme fatale and I, on my first morning inside the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. Her onyx coloration was a dead ringer for that of my backpack, and I almost didn't see her. Almost. Black widows wear a red, hourglass-shaped brooch when they come a'courting, and that's one more thing for which to be thankful.
Another thing to be thankful for is the 26 miles of pure wilderness trail the Florida Trail Association has so delicately carved through this 68,000-acre refuge. Hiking the Florida trail in the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge is a biodiversity play in the three acts - from west to east there is the Panacea Unit, the Wakulla Unit and the St Marks Unit.
The Florida Trail crosses seamlessly from the Apalachicola National Forest on to the 75-year-old refuge at U.S. 319, a high ground, curvy two-laner that connects the towns of Sopchoppy and Medart. The U.S. 319 crossing is as close as it gets to civilization. Hikers would do well to take advantage of the convenience store just two miles east of it. The owner is hiker friendly and the building has external power, making it a good place to fuel up any electronics you might be carrying.
The next mile brings one more road crossing at U.S. 98. Once you duck into the woods after that crossing, you've nothing but trail ahead of you. The orange blazes transport one from the rumble of U.S. 98 in quick fashion. Before long, the only sounds to strike the ear are the chatter of woodpeckers and the whisper of a coastal breeze through the lofty canopy of long-leaf pine.
St. Marks originally was set aside as a migratory waterfowl refuge, a history that explains its occupation of many miles of the Big Bend coastline. Timber and turpentine were the primary land uses before the government acquired the land. Signs of both of these industries are two attractions of this section of the trail.
The turpentine - also known as naval stores - industry once ruled Florida's pine studded woods. Deep gashes called cat faces were carved into the trees. The cuts would encourage a flow of pine sap, and from this sap everything from turpentine to pine tar caulking was manufactured. The term "naval stores" was coined because so many of these products had ship building and sailing applications. The trail winds passed a few of these veteran pines. Their rough-hewn cat faces rise from the wiregrass, blackened by fire and permanently scarred.
The trail departs the upland pines within five miles of the trailhead as it makes its way toward the coast. The land is alive here, including the ground beneath one's feet. The tread of the trail softens to mud, then water and then back to mud. Saw palmettos and cabbage palms hold the high ground here and endless acres of needle rushes occupy the saltwater marshes on the tidal border they share. The trail skirts along the coastline of what the map calls Marsh Point for a couple of hundred yards here. There is a campsite here for hikers who are hiking the entire length of the refuge. It's not fancy, but it's the driest lot in the neighborhood.
I explored the marshes in the last hours of daylight, and came upon a small limestone island bristling with Spanish bayonet and prickly pear cactus. The cactus was holding a half-dozen ripe cactus apples. Purple and juicy, they made a fine addition to my oatmeal at breakfast. The seeds can be hassle, but the taste of fresh fruit is a rare delight in the dehydrated world of backpacking cuisine. Delicious!
A good breakfast is just what you'll need as you cross from the Panacea Unit into the Wakulla Unit. Wakulla is named for the river that fuels the St. Marks River. Earth-chilled and as clear as a windowpane when it boils from Wakulla Springs, the Wakulla River flows south into the refuge, where it mixes with the freshwater seeps and saltwater tidal streams that comprise the Wakulla Unit. The main body of the Wakulla River is called the St. Marks River when it passes by the abandoned fishing village of Port Leon.
The hike can be wet through here, and the trail has designated blue-blazed high water trails for those out of touch with their inner amphibian. The highlight of the Wakulla Unit hike is the "Cathedral of Palms," a sprawling coastal forest of cabbage palms grown to heights as great as 50 feet. True to their iconic namesake, their weather-bleached trunks arch gracefully like smooth marble columns. These combine to support a Sistine-like fresco of palm fronds and sunlight.
It was along here that the Union and Confederate armies had some serious skirmishes, including one that resulted in the deepest Union incursion into Florida. The coastal waters here were home to salt works, where salt was distilled from seawater. The salt was used to preserve meat and fish, vital commodities to a Confederate army that like all others before and after it, traveled on its stomach. Union naval forces raided these often, shelling them from the sea or landing troops to burn them to the ground and render their large cast iron pots unusable.
Vestiges of these sites remain, as do those of illegal whiskey stills. Charred nubs of old building timbers, rounded smooth by time and the elements, jut from the dark, wet soil from which the rain has unearthed bottle fragments of thick, cloudy glass. Can the stories conjured by the imagination compare to the actual events that once transpired in this wet, salty forest? An interesting contemplation as you leave the artifacts for the next visitor to appreciate, but take along the mystery. Because in the wilds of St. Marks, there's no shortage of mystery.
Keyword: Florida Trail to read Mike DeWitt's blog, see photos and videos and pinpoint his current location while he continues his three-month hike along the Florida Trail from the Alabama-Florida border to the Everglades.
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