Sports

Adventure On The Florida Trail THE FLORIDA TRAIL

The Tampa Tribune

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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