Date: 2018-02-27
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Hi there this is crazy Brit again, This may be my last shake down hike before heading up to Dave's house in Nantahala North Carolina, Dave's coming with me on the trail his , trail name is ¢ D square ¢he has a house just up the gorge from the Nantahalla outdoor center ,I will leave Bradenton on March 6 to start March 10 its coming up real fast .I'm headed to Little Manatee State Park ,this time I called ahead and got a booking its a great hiking park, trail is about 7 1/2 miles in a loop I am camping in the primitive campsite it's about halfway thruIt's a nice hike through the woods, I was only carrying about a liter of water as I wanted to test out my filtering system ,well I crossed the river Shall I stop or no ,thinking that the campsite was pretty close I thought why carry the extra weight¢ Wrong Decision,¢ it turned out that the campsite was one and a half miles further along ¢Lesson Learn¢t ¢ when you need water fill at your first location.The campsite was great I set up my tent ,I¢m really liking this Fly Creek I tried the fast Pitch method , where you erect the grounsheet and the rain fly, then get inside and put up the inner tent ,you need to do this in the rain to keep inner tent dry ,and it worked out great, I had to walk an extra 3 miles there and back to collect my water and filter it ,as I said before¢ Lesson learned¢.I collected my firewood there was an ample supply after Hurricane Irma which closed the park for two months, trees down all over the place, my camp was already, all there was to do is to cook my dinner, poor Jack Daniels and Coke and relaxHad a great fire really good dinner and apres dinner drinks ,time for bed ,going into my really great sleep system I'm nodding of ¢ Yeah to be woken up by a couple of hogs¢ no problem tho, then at 1 AM on the dot the coyotes started yapping.These coyote¢s started calling from different sides of the campsite ,then all of a sudden all hell broke loose ,the damn things must've cornered their prey and dinner was served, I found out the next day from a volunteer, that the hogs were having their young, I'm thinking Bacon must've been on the coyote¢s minds.After that episode I slept really good ,had a good breakfast packed up and headed back to the ranger station to book out a great shakedown, still pleased with my tent ,all my gear, my liner and sleeping bag are great my tent is working out really good ,my pack feels really comfortable, my Jet Boil cooking system is working out nice ,it boils water in 90 secs , in fact I am really pleased with all aspects of my gear ,and think ????? i am ready to go Hiking.My thanks to my Friends at Trailwalker Gear Outfitters , Jimmy , John and Judy also Andrew who is about to go Backpacking to India, all my friends for their continued support in this adventure, I know I am living some of their dreams,And last but not least my extended family and friends both here and in the UK, and really last but never least my Wife Janice, who thought it a joke at first ,but as I began buying my gear, thought ¢Hell I had better start writing out his Honey Do List before he leaves for NC on the 6th of March ¢ , might add she is pretty good at writing lists.Thanks for reading ,hope your not to bored, my next report should be from NC and my final days prepping ready for the big day ¢ MARCH 10th¢