By Lino Cappelli

Our pads, pillows, and bags were meant for backpacking, and I was confident they would be fine for our trip. One of the lessons of the trip was that there is such a thing as packing too light. A light bag might make a happy hiker, but it makes for a sad, sore, and tired overlanding enthusiast. Regretfully recalling how assuring I was to my dad that he did not need his own pillow or sleeping bag, I slept uncomfortably and felt guilty. After all,  I had packed a set for each of us. His suggestion to get a hotel for the last night of our trip came as no surprise. It would not have taken much convincing, but we agreed to tough it out since the next night we would be sleeping on our warm, dry, beds. For the first part of the day, we were going to go back in time. 

We arrived at the Richloam General Store after a few hours on the road, really the only time we have driven on the highway since day one. A time capsule back to old Florida (1922 specifically) this point of interest in the Florida Adventure trail got on the national registry of the US dept of Interiors after its restoration in 2017. The one-room building used to serve as a post office and general store for the local loggers. Era-appropriate tin posters, wooden kids’ toys, and old-timey pots adorned every level of the store. I found a jar of fig jam and handmade soap to take back to my wife (The fig jam is really for me though). Camilo and Annabel bought some sort of turn-of-the-century-looking tin coffee pot. 

I’m not sure if morale was low due to our poor sleeping conditions, or if we were tired of making our own meals but the group decided to drive into town and have an early lunch at a sit-down restaurant chosen after a quick snoop of Google reviews. Personally, I like to enjoy the culture of an area through food and history as much as I like seeing new trails and campsites during an overlanding trip. This is one section for which the Florida Adventure Trail file won’t be much help. However, travel does require a bit of adventure, and part of that is finding great places on your own. Although I can’t recall the name of the restaurant, something about the experience lingers with me to this day. The service was welcoming, and I was made to feel like the staff actually wanted me to have a good time. I guess that’s the South for ya: a stark contrast to typical service in a big city like Miami. 

Fortunately, our lunch detour was only 15 minutes from the Richloam trailhead. The terrain changed yet again, with “islands” of oak hammocks in an ocean of cypress swamp and bottomwood. The northern section floods badly when the little Withlacoochee River grows, as evidenced by the many chicken tracks on the trail. The southern section was drier, but the harder passes were nastier. If we saw green or yellow water, we knew to stay away. After bypassing what felt like every obstacle, I decided to do a muddy climb because the soil was black and it had no standing water. As soon as I started to push the vehicle through I knew that I was going to get framed out. “Totally meant to do that!” The guys could now get some experience with vehicle recovery. Totally meant to do that. 

Stay tuned for Day 3, part 2