9 February 2019 Picayune Strand State Forest

This was it.  Our time in Florida would be over today with an early flight home Sunday.  We decided to spend the last day with a return to Picayune Strand and a visit to another section of the forest.  We met a cacher from Canada who was down for an extended stay.  She was in the parking lot with her bike preparing for a ride on the trails we had previously visited.  After a fun visit, we were ready for the trail.

In parts of this forest, Florida has invested a lot of effort in removing the highly invasive melaleuka tree.  They don't appear to have started that effort here.  The Australian native was introduced over a century ago in Florida.  It was considered an ornamental and an effective tool to dry up swamps.  It was even planted by the Army Corps at Lake Okeechobee :O.

Most of the hike was a fairly easy journey on old roads with side excursions to find the caches.

The latter portion of our visit passed through a nice area of cyprus.  The bromeliads were ready to bloom.