I left Diane's place late in the morning and followed a route she recommended to avoid traffic returning from yesterday's Daytona 500.
Today's forecast said nothing about rain, but a light sprinkle began around noon and kept up all afternoon. It was just heavy enough that I needed to wear my poncho; fortunately the day wasn't hot enough to make that an ordeal.
Ocala National Forest has much sparser underbrush than other Florida forests I've seen, so that I could imagine just pulling over and finding a place to camp, now that deer season is over. The underbrush at Apalachicola National Forest was so thick I think I'd be hard-pressed to find a place to stand, let alone lie down!
Mid-afternoon, I started seeing hikers on the Florida Trail, which runs through the forest. I stopped to talk with one of them, who lives near the forest but had spent the holiday weekend hiking and camping and was on his way home. He told me there were a lot of "Rainbows," or modern hippies, camped at one of the primitive campgrounds, and sure enough, I saw a bunch of college-age folks wearing hemp and tie dye when I passed near there.
I opted to stay at the Salt Springs campground instead so that I could get a shower. As soon as I got my tent up, the rain stopped!
45.4 mi
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