Hike #96 - Florida Trail - Okeechobee West - Day Four

We returned to the Indian Prairie Canal today for the penultimate segment of our Lake Okeechobee hiking adventure! We figured the parking area was busy last week because it was the Friday of a holiday weekend but were surprised to find it even busier on a normal Tuesday. I guess there really are fish to catch.

 

One unusual aspect of this particular hike was being able to walk a mile without losing sight of our car - half a mile back along the "frontage" road to cross the canal on the bridge and then walking on the other side another half mile to connect to the main dike. Once there we realized last week's fire had gotten quite close to the canal itself. We suspect that some "containment" fires were started there to prevent it from spreading further. 

I found it quite interesting to compare scenery on either side of the trail and was happy the fire fighters were able to keep the fire in the lakebed.

The plan was to go about six miles and then turn around. Just before that we passed a weather station and then a "bump" in the road near a double canal. We figured that spot would be easy enough to recognize next week, so we declared that our end. On our way back we stopped for a pleasant snack at the only bench along this section of the trail.

What a beautiful day!