October 10 – October 15, 2011 This week started off with a productive day of planning and organizing for our future volunteer days. We found many organizations that would potentially like to volunteer with the Florida Trail Association. We also welcomed the new Trail Program Coordinator, Eric Mason, all the way from Northern Michigan. On Tuesday we ventured back into our 6 mile stretch of trail that was proving to be much more work than anticipated. Luckily we were able to finally finish that section! The trail blazes look beautiful and the palmettos are no longer poking hikers along the trail! Later that evening, we attended the Florida Trail Appalachee Chapter meeting where we met the excellent members and volunteers that have worked on this trail for years before we came along. And Marchetti perfected his balloon-on-the-nose balancing act. On Wednesday we scouted out the next 3 mile section of trail, as to avoid underestimating the amount of work. Turns out this section was a little more well-maintained. Then we went back into town to work on our plan for increasing the volunteer base for the FTA. Thursday was a volunteer work day that had a little bit of a delayed start. One of our great volunteers got into a run-in with some yellow jackets, so Michael and Eric had to make sure he was o.k. before we continued. Finally by the afternoon, we decided to work away from the yellow jackets and we ended up getting a good amount of work done! For the rest of the week we enjoyed hiking the next Apalachee Ambles section with the locals and canoeing on the Wakulla River with manatees, cooters and great blue herons. Can’t complain about being in Florida for the winter 🙂 – Emily Galanto
