50 Hikes: #19 Black Bear Wilderness Area

50 Hikes: #19 Black Bear Wilderness Area

This is Hike #19 in the book 50 Hikes in Central Florida, completed on April 22, 2019.

This hike was supposed to happen on Easter Sunday but it was changed to the next day. The thought was the trail might not be as crowded on a Monday. This turned out not to be the case. The Black Bear Wilderness Area trail is a single loop trail of 7.1 miles near Sanford, Florida. It’s recommended to hike the loop clockwise, saving the best views for the last half.

All of my previous hikes from the book had been solo. My companions on this hike were A. and her dog Freida.

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50 Hikes: #46 Lyonia Preserve

50 Hikes: #46 Lyonia Preserve

This is Hike #46 in the book 50 Hikes in Central Florida, completed on April 14, 2019.

My wonky left knee was bothering me before this hike, so I chose to make a short one. The book said the suggested hike in Lyonia Preserve was only 2.1 miles. It is a home for the Florida scrub-jay, the only species of bird endemic to Florida, so my goal was to spot (and photograph one). Another bonus was that there was an Environmental Center and the Deltona Regional Library at the trailhead.

I set off down the trail which passed behind the Environmental Center. At the first loop trail, I turned left onto the Rusty Lyonia Trail (orange blaze). Almost immediately I passed a den of Cub Scout Webelos coming the other direction. I worried there would be lots of others on this suburban trail, but they were the only people I passed.

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Book Review: The Oxford Handbook of the History of Physics

The Oxford Handbook of the History of Physics

The Oxford Handbook of the History of Physics edited by Jed Z. Buchwald and Robert Fox

ISBN-13: 9780199696253
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: January 1, 2014

View the publisher’s page for this title.

View details and find a place to buy or borrow at Google Books.

Reading note: Started on May 19, 2017 and finished on March 15, 2019.

When this beautiful and hefty book arrived in my office in May 2017, I knew I had to read it. I enjoy reading history and I also have an interest in modern physics. One of these two interests was satisfied by this book, but the other was left disappointed. I set the book aside many times to read other books, which is why it took so long before I finished it.

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50 Hikes: #5 Hidden Waters Preserve

50 Hikes: #5 Hidden Waters Preserve

This is Hike #5 in the book 50 Hikes in Central Florida, completed on March 10, 2019.

I had already completed two hikes and arrived at my final park by 3:30pm. Hidden Waters Preserve is a small nature area surrounded by residential neighborhoods. The “hidden waters” is a marshy lake at the bottom of a huge sinkhole. The recommended hike was a 1-mile loop trail encircling the lake. More notable was the 105-foot elevation change from the trailhead down to the water’s edge.

After an accidental turn down a side trail which went out to the boundary of the preserve, I returned to the main trail that plummeted down to the loop trail. Here I turned left to follow the Ravine Trail, climbing up the bank clockwise around the lake.

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50 Hikes: #4 Trout Lake Nature Center

50 Hikes: #4 Trout Lake Nature Center

This is Hike #4 in the book 50 Hikes in Central Florida, completed on March 10, 2019.

After a short drive from Flat Island Preserve, I reached the Trout Lake Nature Center. I wanted to hike this park and still have time to visit the Environmental Education Center before it closed at 4:00pm. The recommended route was only 1.4 miles. I signed in at the Center.

Not long after setting off from the trailhead on Lazy Oak Trail, I arrived at the Bobcat Walk, the first of several wooden walkways during the day. This part can sometimes be flooded, but at the time I was there it was very dry.

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50 Hikes: #6 Flat Island Preserve

50 Hikes: #6 Flat Island Preserve

This is Hike #6 in the book 50 Hikes in Central Florida, completed on March 10, 2019.

My second hiking trip from the book was actually three hikes of three parks in Lake County, near Leesburg and Eustis. I began with the longest and farthest hike from home at Flat Island Preserve, arriving just before noon. The recommended route was 3.7 miles along an entry trail and a perimeter loop trail. The morning was cool and sunny.

The hike began on a winding, wooded trail which soon reached the beginning of the loop (marked with an B sign). I turned left to walk the loop clockwise.

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50 Hikes: #44 Ponce Preserve

50 Hikes: #44 Ponce Preserve

This is Hike #44 in the book 50 Hikes in Central Florida, completed on February 17, 2019.

This was my first hike from the book. Ponce Preserve is in Ponce Inlet, a short 20-minute drive from my place. I set off on a late Sunday afternoon knowing that the suggested trail was only 1.6 miles long. The site lies on a strip of land between the Halifax River and the Atlantic Ocean so the trail was sandy with broken shells. The perimeter loop trail circles the historic Green Mound with extensions over boardwalks to the ocean and river.

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50 Hikes in Central Florida

For years I have wanted to hike more of Florida trails, either by day-hikes or by taking longer multi-day hikes. While I don’t intend to through-hike the Florida Trail, I have thought of hiking much of the Florida Trail in sections.

So in mid-January 2019 I bought the book 50 Hikes in Central Florida by Sandra Friend and John Keatley. This practical guide gave me information on the best places within driving-distance and the numbered hikes will serve as a checklist while I systematically work my way through the list. I am not going in order and I have not set any time limit to complete all of the hikes.

The area of Florida covered by the book stretches from Daytona Beach (where I live) in the northeast, down to Palm Bay on the east coast, over to Tampa Bay in the southwest of the area, and up to Ocala as the northwest corner.

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Riverfront Park Cleanup

Riverfront Park Cleanup

On January 9, 2019, my friend A. texted me with a request: “Hi James! I plan to go to the river bank near the [N]ews [J]ournal and pick up the trash. Would you like to join me?”

I often ride my bike through Riverfront Park along the Halifax River and adjacent to Beach Street in downtown Daytona Beach, so I had a selfish reason to clean up the area. I had noted after a recent storm, the shoreline in the park near the Daytona Beach News-Journal building was heavily littered with trash and debris. So when A. suggested cleaning the park, I quickly agreed to help. We planned to meet at noon on Sunday, January 13.

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Ellie Day (2012-2018)

Sadly, my cat Laser Eyes “Ellie” Day died on New Years Eve. Literally minutes before midnight on December 31, 2018, the veterinarian at the animal hospital where Ellie had spent the last night called to say that her severe pneumonia and dehydration had worsened to the point where she was suffering and would not live through the night. I gave my permission to euthanize her. It was an awful end to her life and an awful way to end the year. She was a few months shy of her seventh birthday.

Ellie was a rescue cat, so I didn’t know her exact birthday. The papers that came with her estimated that she was born in March 2012. That meant she was about fourteen months old when I got her on May 5, 2013.

I didn’t intend to get a cat. But that changed when I was contacted by my ex-girlfriend to ask if I would adopt a cat. A mutual friend of ours was visiting her and impulsively agreed to adopt Ellie from a pet rescue inside the pet store they had visited that day. She was due to pick up the cat the following day but in the meantime came to the realization that she could not take yet another pet home. They needed someone else to take the cat, thus the sudden call to me. After some resistance, I agreed to take the cat if they would supply a few basic necessities, which they did. Ellie arrived the next day, Sunday, May 5.

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