Heimblog

Yesterday I awoke in Tallahassee at 7am and felt like being active. I grabbed breakfast at the quite reasonable free breakfast in the hotel, then set off for Lake Jackson Mounds State Park. It seemed nice, and it was within two miles of my hotel, which made it perfect for a morning constitutional.

It was quite busy this time of year. Okay not really…

It also turned out to be cold. 50 degrees… brisk. So my constitutional became a brisk jog. Fair enough… so what do we have? First off, a mound, just as advertised!

I am glad they put a mound out front because I never did find another one. Oh, I am sure there are more mounds, and also some other important landmarks, but I could not find them. I kept circling around over and over and always ending up here:

This is the muddy stream-like Path of Shame, because if you find this, then you are about 100 feet from the entrance. Again. Each time I’d venture into the park, see some new things, and then lo and behold, I’d be back at this spot. It was quite maddening.

Actually I think I know now what happened. A little ways in, the path runs right up to a warehouse complete with bulldozer. I assumed that the park ended there and that was private property. But maybe… maybe that was part of the park? Well who knows. I don’t. It was confusing.

The place was festooned with pleasant little benches and wooden bridges courtesy of various Eagle Scouts. I found some of these little jagged tremors in the ground, about three feet deep:

These are called “Steepheads”, according to a sign in the park. They were formed millions of years ago when magma erupted under Florida and carved neat rivulets into everything. Not really. I assume the sign said what caused them, but I wasn’t really paying attention.

As for wildlife, I saw a blob of white at one point, but it was gone almost instantly. It disappeared too quickly to be a deer, so it may have been the deadly Florida Hissing Battle Moccasin, or perhaps a large rabbit.

(There was a white splotch in this scene moments before.)