Pine Castle history hike

Thanks to intrepid local historian and hiking enthusiast Steve Rajtar for combining those passions as he led this morning's tour of historic Pine Castle!

If not for the frustrating inability of the new iPad2 to accommodate Flash, yours truly would post some of the great shots snapped with said new toy.

In their absence, ye socks shall be left to your own imaginations!

A shuttle launch and some amphibians

A group of us got together to participate in a night-time hike at the Geneva Wilderness Area up in Seminole County this evening.

Things got started with a spectacular Space Shuttle launch.

Then, Jim Duby, Principal Coordinator of the county's Natural Lands Program, led us off into the wilderness.

We got a bit of a break at the Ed Yarborough Nature Center, where Jim taught us how to differentiate the different calls of the native amphibians we were hearing along the trail.

Yes, that's right. The focus of tonight's trail was frogs and toads, which left certain hikers' skin crawling . . . especially when Jim passed around plastic containers with live specimens!!

Anyway, it was a beautiful night for hiking, and "a good time was had by all" in what is left of the old piney woods around here.

Happy trails to all of you socks out there who were not fortunate enough to have joined us this time, but hopefully there will be many more opportunities in the future!