Blueberries, Mud and a Dental Floss Spider--Part II

After my harrowing night wondering if I was going to be coyote fare, I awoke to a beautiful sunny day. It was 7 am, and I had overslept. No worries, heaven knows I didn't sleep as much the night before as I had hoped. (If you missed Part I, you can find it here:  http://goadventurewoman.blogspot.com/2015/08/twelve-wild-pigs-and-pack-of-coyotes.html )

I set out on the trail and was immediately confronted further by the depths of the flooding, as much of the trail was thigh high in water, so I opted to carve a wide swath around.

Today's journey was fairly uneventful animal wise. I saw a five foot black snake cut a path across my trail as I approached. I was amazed by his speed, but he had no interest in me.

Further up the trail  I also found what I believe to be wild blueberries, but I didn't eat any, as I wasn't sure.

The trail was much better marked today, and I strode through tall grasses with woods on either side. Clearly the boy scouts had made play out of the area. There was the "Stairway to Heaven" in which the trail was marked by some stairs someone had built, "Cripple Creek" which was just a dried up muddy creek bed and Grate Bridge, which was a bridge built out of a grate.

The bridge enabled me to miss out on waist high water, but I was up to my knees in water in order to keep on the trail further beyond. My boots were suction cups pulling up dark smelly mud from underneath. I left a trail of black footprints and I transgressed further into the woods.

Somehow I wound up on a swath of trail that appeared to have been traveled by a pick up truck at least within the past six months, as the grasses weren't too overgrown. Lucky me, I wound up smack dab at somebody's property.

Although I didn't quite make it to the end of the trail, I had already been hiking for 4 hours at this point, so it seemed as good a time to turn around as any.

Heading back I almost ran smack dab into a spider's web with a wild mid-section. It almost appeared as if the spider had found some wide dental floss and woven it into his web. The spider was rather beautiful too.

And as I got back to the part of the trail which was on the lake, I was surprised by the amount of animal bones. I saw a few fish skeletons, as well as what I believe to be turtle bones.

I continued on my path, at one point getting lost and taking a trail which lead me right back to where I started on it. It was a beautiful segway, but one which added 40 minutes to my trek.

I had been walking along the entire 2 days with a great walking stick I found. I managed to break my fall and the stick at one point today, trying to cross under a fallen tree. I found another, but managed to break another fall and it not a mile further on. Feeling that I must be within a few miles of being back where my whole journey started, I opted to go stickless moving forward. Naturally that means I fell flat on my ass in the mud as I crossed the very last mucky creek.

I unloaded my back, my shoulders were killing me! I found a hose from a campsite hookup hosed off and made my way to my Aunt and Uncle's house, where I was thrilled to have a shower and comfy bed to spend the night.