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Published: November 2, 2007
Heed ye these words with the coming of fall
Step up to adventure, bid farewell to all
On the Florida Trail, that thousand-mile track
Freedom awaits you in a well-shouldered pack.
You'll learn how the cane becomes syrup so sweet
To regard beef jerky as a prime cut of meat
As you search for the trail on a night black as coal
Learn confidence, not soup, is what's good for the soul
Greet long-weekend hikers and forest firefighters
Meet a beer-drinking hog and hold festive all-nighters
Beneath trees so majestic, among blossoms so small
In forests still wild, in spite of us all
Tread trails seldom traveled and roads snarled with cars
Bed down under heavens of sparkling stars
Slake your thirst from the waters of crystalline springs
And awaken to song from a chorus of things
Walk with 'The Governor,' who'll point out with pride
Where gray and blue battled, where ancestors died
Now pines soar colossal and wiregrass abounds
In the forest that grows upon these hallowed grounds
Rest where the Spaniards sought youth in a potion
Where Paleo-Indians napped tools by the ocean
Where calloused hands, for a dollar a day
Built cabins and shelters for tourists to stay
Sunbathe with gators on cypress-banked lakes
And grant ye wide berth to the diamondback snakes
In your camp, sip your coffee as the dawn lights the sky
You'll experience riches that money can't buy
You'll wade through the waters of the 'River of Grass'
And fish Okeechobee for bluegill and bass
On Florida's footpath, you find there's a way
To live in the moment, to seize every day
And if you'll sup at their tables and respect their beliefs
You'll make friends from moonshiners to Indian chiefs
Each southernly hospitable as they spin you their tale
They, the true blazers of the Florida Trail.
Mike DeWitt
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