For our third hitch we headed south to Boney Marsh, about thirty miles north of Lake Okechobee and located on the Kissimee River. The drive from St. Mark's took us a whole day to complete. We set up our tents in the dark and waited for morning light to finish the rest. The next morning we finished setting up camp and met Jim, the FNST volunteer responsible for this section of the trail. We worked with Jim for the next six days; mowing, lopping, painting blazes, setting posts, and dismantling a bridge. On the 9th we dismantled an 80 foot bridge that needed to be replaced and mowed, brushed, and painted blazes on two miles of trail. We spent the next morning pulling nails from the old bridge and discarding the scrap wood. After lunch we mowed, cleared, and painted another mile of trail. The following day we finished the last mile of trail at Boney Marsh and moved to Avon Park Air Force Base. We spent the afternoon of the 11th, the 12th, and the 13th mowing, lopping, and painting at the Air Force Base, finishing a total of 5 miles of trail. That evening we moved camp again, as the Air Force Base was closing for a training exercise. We moved to the River Ranch on the Kissimmee river, which claims to be the largest Dude Ranch in America and also contains a few miles of the FNST. We spent the moring mowing, blazing, and dropping in sign posts on the Ranch, then packed up and headed home to St. Marks.
Hitch Totals
Bridge Dismantled: 80 feet
Trail mowed and cleared: 8 miles
Blazes Painted: 8 miles
Sign Posts installed: 12
