Hiking the Length of Florida in a Season
Plus, an interview with Stacey Matrazzo of the Florida Wildflower Foundation — and adios from the Bay Area Navigator.
Today, Judy interviews Florida Trail throughhiker Alan Roddy, who recounts the joys of hiking through standing water in the Big Cypress National Preserve. Stacey Matrazzo talks about the importance of wild flowers to the Florida ecosystem. And this will be the final dispatch from the Bay Area Navigator.
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9 QUESTIONS FOR ALAN RODDY
Alan Roddy can claim something most people can’t: He has hiked the entire Florida National Scenic Trail, or the Florida Trail, in one season. There are only 11 such designated trails in the United States, including the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail — where Roddy also has hiked. Roddy retired from a Sarasota law career in 2019 and moved to Hunter’s Green in New Tampa, which put him closer to the Florida Trail. He tackled the Florida Trail not long after “the trip of a lifetime,” a five-month truck-tent camping expedition with his longtime girlfriend. They drove up to the Arctic Ocean through Canada and down through the Rockies. They do a bit of RVing, now in a hard-sided trailer. Roddy fits in hikes along the way. Next up for him: the Arizona Trail. For anyone interested in hiking the Florida Trail or hiking in general, Roddy recommends checking out the Florida Trail Association and groups and events on Meetup.
‘I Had a Blister Across the Whole Pad of My Foot’
By Judith M. Gallman
Why did you through-hike the Florida Trail in one season?
I had first hiked on the Florida Trail around 1980 with a friend along the Suwannee. I've always liked walking and camping. Being a Floridian native, a native Tampan or Tampeño, I guess they're liking to call it, I wanted to see Florida. That's what I love. One thing I like about backpacking is not necessarily carrying all that weight; it's seeing things I would not get to see. I started on Jan. 2, 2020, and finished 10 weeks later, about March 15 or 16. I had to take nine days off total for what I call ‘my blister vacation.’ Two months is a nice round number for the Florida Trail. People tend to hike it in January and February, because that's climatically the best time, working around hunting seasons and hot weather. I thought to see Florida would be a big thing. The Florida Trails is 1,140 miles the way I went, south to north. It is a great self-guided tour of Florida. Walking and camping in my native state was something I wanted to do.
Were you alone?
I was solo, but I met up with and got to know people. There is a page of the Florida Trail Association listing people who complete it. In 2020, there were only nine of us. In the last two years, there have been around 50. So it goes up and down. Part of it was coming out of the pandemic, and part of it was a YouTube video series from a woman from Alabama whose trail name is Dixie. She made a series of six very complimentary videos in early 2021 about hiking the Florida Trail, and she has a very big following. The book and the movie Wild, about the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed, pumped up the number of hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail. I think Dixie's video had that effect here. She loved the trail. A lot of people are turned off by the thought of bugs, snakes, and water. She embraced those things. I did meet other hikers along the way at a few junctures. The people you get to know sometimes collect into a ‘tramily,’ or a trail family. Those are the people who wind up in the same place at night. You may not walk the same speed; you may not see 'em all day; maybe you walk with 'em. But because somebody starts earlier and somebody walks longer and somebody walks faster, they're all in the same place in the end.
What were the conditions like – did you ever think about quitting?
It certainly got warm sometimes, and I think the lowest it got was maybe around 30 or 31 up along Suwannee. That was about the extent of it. I carried a 20-degree sleeping bag and I don't remember really being cold. I don't think I thought I’d quit. I called my girlfriend and had her pick me up because of the blisters. I had a blister across the whole pad of my foot. The doctor finally said, ‘All right, you can go back this day, but for another so many days, stay out of that Florida water.’ She was convinced it was full of malevolent stuff. That's probably true. I lost a lot of weight, 35 pounds — the same amount of weight in 1,100 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail. It's heat and perspiration. It's a lot of exposed time in the sun. For Florida, you would think that water is everywhere a drop to drink. It is not. Water has issues, from being down in the sugar fields, where you don't want to drink the surface water to up here, in the sandy areas, where water goes underground or you have to climb into a pond through a bunch of weeds. That may not be so appealing. Sometimes the water's brown even after you filter it.
What caused your blister?
In the first segment of the Big Cypress, it's sandy and watery and you're pouring sand out of your shoes. It’s like sandpaper — rubbing, a lot of irritation. My feet were pretty beat up, pretty raw. So I would say it was the sand getting in my shoes.
What were your favorite parts?
I would call highlight No. 1 the Big Cypress. It is probably the most unloved section of the trail depending on the water level there. The difference between 6 inches and 10 inches is a lot of effort when moving your feet. Some people don't like that they can't see their feet all the time. You get the kind of the boot-sucking or shoe-sucking mud that pulls at your feet every time you are stepping. But it is an environment you'll never see anywhere else. It is unique to us, and I think it's a must-do. Sometimes, there aren't many areas up above the water, and you have ‘an island,’ they call it, a little place to camp on. Surprisingly, there are black bears. Another is Everglades National Park. You start at Oasis Visitor Center, which is on Tamiami Trail, and that's where you'll see the most and the biggest gators anywhere, right along the Tamiami Trail in the moat or the canal. It's a unique habitat, and it's dark sky, and it is about as alone as you can get down there. After that, the next highlight would be the Ocala National Forest. The big, beautiful springs at Alexander Springs and Juniper Springs. A beautiful forest. It's very popular but also a lot of black bears there. Then farther north is the Suwannee River area, and to be able to hike along the Suwannee was a real highlight.
Did you fear the gators, bears, or other animals?
Not really. They want to get away, and they're big, and they're pretty easy to see most times. The little ones aren't as much of an issue. Pythons you wouldn't see. If I had any concerns, it would be pythons you couldn't see. Now, I've never heard of anybody getting wrapped up or hikers being wrapped up by a python, but you don't know when you're stepping on one when they're really good at hiding. So I actually carry a little knife in case. The bears, they're not the biggest black bears, like you might find out West. Most of 'em are pretty small, but they have a lot of run-ins with humans because humans are in their territory.
Who is the typical through-hiker anyway ?
Generally people in some form of transition — out of college, out of a job, out of the military, retired. What I observed this last year on Pacific Crest Trail, because of the job market, was a kind of person I hadn't seen before, the one that tells their boss they're going to disappear for a few months, and the boss says, ‘When can you come back?’ Which never happened in my working life. On the Pacific Crest Trail, it's people in their 20s and 30s. And probably 30 percent or so from overseas, primarily Europe. We get a smattering of people from other countries. I was surprised the year I went, all but one were from Florida, because that's kind of unusual and probably much less than half most years.
How does the Florida Trail compare to the PCT or the AT?
Fewer people. A lot more time to yourself. You don't have the complex of businesses, helpers — trail angels, as we call 'em — hostels that you do on the others, or trail towns. We go through a town or so, but I walk through areas and people say, ‘What are you doing?’ Those other places, those towns live on hikes. That's a big part of their season. On the Appalachian Trail, you can always get somebody to pick you up and take you somewhere, to their hospitals, to their whatnot. So that is a big difference. Obviously, we don't have mountains. We have swamps, which they don't have so much. I have people get in my face about how they would never hike the Florida Trail. They just are adamant they don't want to do that. It does freak out a lot of people — walking through water. That depends on the year and the amount of rainfall, but it just doesn't seem natural, now that you should be able to climb mountains and all that.
What’s the story of your trail name, Silver Meteor?
My dad was a railroad man, and Silver Meteor is the name of the train from New York to Miami. It had something to do with my hair color and my tendency to walk fast. Sometimes you take on a ‘defensive trail’ name, i.e., one you thought up and isn’t too bad to avoid one which usually relates to your most embarrassing moment or an early embarrassing moment on the trail when you get named something like Poo Shoes. On the Pacific Crest Trail last May, I came up on a pair of Great Danes in the middle of nowhere. I'm 6-4. I'm pretty tall, but these dogs were pretty tall, too. They were not giving ground and they were growling. I tried all my tricks of good dog, bad dog; stick, no stick. Maybe I have some food in my pack, all that. They were not fazed. Finally some guys who were hiking along came up from behind, and the dogs dispersed. They laughed and thought that was funny. Now I have the name Big Dog. I used Silver Meteor until that particular incident. I've used Big Dog since then.
This article has been edited for length and clarity.
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12 QUESTIONS FOR STACEY MATRAZZO
Stacey Matrazzo is a Florida native who grew up spending a lot of her time outdoors. After finishing her bachelor’s degree in environmental studies and knocking around freelancing at other nonprofits, she started working at the Florida Wildflower Foundation as a contractor in 2008. She went full time in 2013, and took on the executive director position two years ago, when the executive director retired. She never tires of preserving Florida’s natural resources.
Wildflowers Support Pollinators, Which We Rely Upon
By Judith M. Gallman
What got you interested in wildflowers in the first place?
Just having grown up here in Florida and a lot of exposure to our natural ecosystems. It wasn't flowers specifically, but, obviously, they're the kind of the bright spots in our landscapes, another thing that really draws your attention, and certainly drew mine when I was studying botany and other environmental classes. I was interested in conservation in general and working with organizations that were dedicated to preserving Florida's environment.
What is a wildflower, and are they delicate or hardy?
‘Wildflower,’ botanically speaking, a wildflower is any herbaceous flowering plant that is naturally occurring or wild. But generally speaking, it tends to refer to native herbaceous flowering plants. You'll hear people talking about putting a wildflower garden in or adding wildflowers to their landscape. They're really talking about native species as opposed to the non-native flowering plants. In our home landscapes, they're not technically a ‘wild flower,’ since it was intentionally planted. But for the purpose of our work and the scientific community, we use ‘wildflower’ to refer to those native species. Some are delicate; some are a little bit hardier than others. It depends, but having that herbaceous quality does make them a little bit less persistent in the landscape as opposed to our shrubs or our woodier species.
What are the advantages of planting wildflowers?
Wildflowers support pollinators, and pollinators support us. We rely on pollination services for about every third bite of food that we eat. Our agricultural crops are not necessarily sufficient to support the pollinators that rely on them, so we need native wildflowers and other flowering plants. These are the plants that have evolved here with our native pollinators for millennia, but they're best suited to provide the nutrition that our pollinators need. The native wildflowers also provide seeds and attract insects that then feed our birds and other small wildlife. They're really foundational to our ecosystems, to our food web, and to us as well.
What does the Florida Wildflower Foundation do?
Our mission is to protect, connect, and expand native wildflower habitat, and we do that through research, education, and planting programs. We do monthly webinars, we give public talks, we do outreach events. We have a lot of publications. We have over 350 plant profiles on our website, as well as many publications that are designed to help people choose plants for their landscapes. We've funded a number of research studies over the years. We are looking at site prep to manage for weeds. This will be helpful for homeowners as well as municipalities, public works departments, anyone interested in establishing a native plant garden. We're also exploring the creation of a seed strategy to help increase the availability of native wildflower seed. This will help with native plant growers and nurseries, as well as get more seed available for restoration and other planting projects. We also have planting grants. Our planting program the Viva Florida Demonstration Garden Grant Program is for municipalities and public places to put in a native garden. The Seedlings for Schools Wildflower Garden Grant Program provides actual wildflower seedlings to schools throughout Florida. We're about to launch a library grant program, too, which will allow libraries to establish demonstration gardens and educational components on their campuses.
Do you want the same types of wildflowers in yards and public spaces?
In public settings, it's a struggle with the aesthetic. People are very used to manicured landscapes, and so in a public space, we might try to do something a little more formal and choose some foundational plants, flowering shrubs, evergreen plants — things that are a little more permanent in the landscape that'll give it structure when the wildflowers aren't blooming. A lot of our wildflowers go dormant or they're annuals, and so they're not present or visibly present all the time. What we do like to suggest is that you have some other foundational plants and a landscape that'll always be there and be visible and provide that structure. For people’s own landscapes, we have tons of resources on our website, including a publication called 20 Easy to Grow Wild Flowers. They are also readily available at native nurseries. We also have a book I co-wrote with Nancy Bessette, a botanist and a nursery owner. It’s Native Plants for Florida Gardens and covers 100 different grasses, trees, shrubs, and vines, all pretty easy to grow and readily available.
Do you have a favorite wildflower?
I have a lot of favorites.
Are there good places for seeing blooming wildflowers, and are they interesting when they're not blooming?
Sure. A lot of them have very interesting foliage or will have other qualities that are worth seeing, but it depends on where you go. Spring and fall are really our best wildflower seasons, but we do have a lot of summer blooming plants. We have many that will bloom throughout the year, too. Our website lists hotspots as well as roadsides where wildflowers are seasonally thriving. In the Panhandle, I would say the Apalachicola National Forest is really amazing for roadside wildflowers. Here, where I am, in Central Florida, we have Tosohatchee Wildlife Management Area and Hal Scott Preserve. Those are both really spectacular places for wildflowers. Kissimmee Prairie Preserve as you're heading a little bit further south. Most of our natural areas, especially the ones that are more open, like our pine flatwoods, our sandhills, even our scrub and our prairies, they're all home to many wildflower species.
Is picking wildflowers a no-no?
It is a no-no. The state has a statute that makes it illegal to pick anything that's endangered or threatened. Most of our natural or managed lands as well as our state parks have prohibitions or codes against the removal of plants. So within those spaces, it's prohibited, but we generally advise against picking wildflowers. Our focus is to create habitat. So we're trying to preserve the plants that provide vital food and habitat for pollinators, birds, and other wildlife. If you pick them, you're removing that resource. A lot of these also reproduce by seeds, so if you remove them, you might be taking away the opportunity for that plant to regenerate. We just tell people, ‘Take pictures; they last longer anyway.’
Is there a most “Florida” of wildflowers?
Our state wildflower is Coreopsis, so that's probably what I would associate. There's not one that makes me think, ‘Oh, that's Florida for sure.’ There's a lot of endemic species here that aren't found anywhere else. We have an incredible diversity here.
Is there one that people consider to be the prettiest?
Beauty’s in the eye of the beholder, right? There's so many unique flowers and flowering plants here. We have a lot of orchids, so they have a really unique flower structure. We have a lot of insectivorous flowers as well. They have really interesting parts, not just the flowers, but they're pretty amazing to see.
I like sunflowers, and I noticed there are so many varieties here.
There are 15 species of sunflower. Most are typical to what you'd expect of a sunflower. Ours don't grow as big and boisterous as the Mexican sunflower, the one most people are familiar with. Some of them are more low-growing, like our Dune sunflower, a sprawling, low-growing ground cover in coastal environments. We have a Rayless sunflower, which doesn’t have those yellow ray florets that people generally think of as petals. Very different than your typical sunflower. But most of the 15 are pretty standard — that big yellow flower with a nice, dark center.
How can someone get involved with your organization?
Become a member. We do offer some member-only benefits. We do monthly field trips that are free to members. We've had webinars and other events. You could also get the state wildflower license plate, a specialty plate. It's only $15 more a month. That money directly supports our programs. If you have the tag, you are automatically a member, as long as you let us know. The best thing anyone can do is just start learning. We like to encourage people to get out into our natural areas, whether it is on one of our field trips or getting out there on your own, seeing what wildlife are interacting with the other plants. That can inspire people to come back and plant them in their own landscapes.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Sadly, this is the final issue of the Bay Area Navigator. Although the Tampa area sorely needs more local journalism, several months of publishing taught us that we lack the resources necessary to grow the Navigator into the news outlet we hoped it might become. Thank you to our readers and supporters. Support local journalism.
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Editors: Judith M. Gallman and Stephen Buel