Day 2-3. Hiking Westbound
Miles: 16-17
Water availability: good until mile marker 69 and it becomes mostly stagnant for a while.

I’m back on the Lone Star Hiking Trail! The hike was great today beside one thing. Spider webs. Tons, tons and TONS of spider webs laid across the trail. As this trail doesn’t see much foot traffic during the week, it was up to me to clear it out. It was so bad that it slowed my hiking speed down. Every few steps I would have a face full of webbing or my arms and legs would tickle and be sticky from the webs. I walked into a huge thick web and it took forever to remove from my eye and lashes! So now imagine… How many spiders did I actually end up having on me from walking into all of these webs?! EEEEKKK, I don’t even want to think about it…I wondered, will I end up looking like Frodo after a few days of hiking this trail? Wrapped in the spider silk! *shudders*. I hope not.

Alright back to the trail talk. Within 7miles or so, I reached the San Jacinto river crossing. There was a detour noted in the guidebook but it seemed confusing and would add unnecessary miles to my day. I had read a blog posts from a hiker who had done this crossing the week prior. She had mentioned knee to waist deep crossing… Where am I? Back on the Florida trail?! Haha.

When I got there, it wasn’t as bad as I thought! I scouted the area. 20ft to the left was a very clear section and I could see the bottom. I put my camp shoes on and went in. The cold water actually felt nice after a few hours of hiking. After crossing, I sat and dried off my feet since it was only ankle deep. I was relieved.

The trail was pretty uneventful after that, you know besides the spider webs and all! There was a bit of road walking as well. After 3 miles it turned to a dirt road. Which was much nicer than pavement. Passed several houses, one with dogs that came running towards me barking loudly. Seriously, was I back on the Florida trail?!

A woman came out and we chatted a bit as she got her mail. She used to take her horse on the  trail. I bit my lip, wanting to tell her this trail was foot travel only and it was clearly marked on the signage…ugh. She was nice and wished me a safe hike.

I had to get off the trail at Section 6, on the road walk section, because I got a job opportunity and had to get the travel trailer ready to move to Arizona. Hope we get back on this trail in the future.

Hike on!