Florida Trail Hike--Eaton trail road N Across CR314 deep into vicious Ocala National Forest Video 1

It was a beautiful hike on a hotter day than I had anticipated. I had my hiking pants with boot blowers and bug netting in my backpack in case I ever thought I would need them. In the summer the Florida Trail is not hikable because of heat, bugs and sometimes weeks of rain. I guess I extended my welcome in to Florida's Ocala National Forest one hike too many. I even ran out of water.

On Monday May 10th the stars aligned for what I thought would be one last great hike North of CR 314 on the Florida Trail through the Ocala National Forest. The result was a nightmare of bug bites and what I can only call chigger-flea-tick-mageddon. I'm surprised I did not have to fumigate my home as I infested our laundry hamper, my shower, and my body with a chiggers, fleas, and wood ticks. It was a bug bite nightmare. Even had a spider bite on my hip that almost got infected.

Needless to say there may be no further hikes into the Ocala National Forest until November 2021 god willing. Here is the critter:

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse3.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.aPelceOf93Ibo-QMHJoqZgHaEO%26pid%3DApi&f=1