The Savage Traveler: Winter 2014: Torreya State Park

Thu. Feb. 27 & Fri. Feb. 28: We got on our way after a quick breakfast and drove to the northwest and the panhandle of Florida. Marv had checked state parks the night before and found that there were no campsites available at St. George Island State Park, where we had stayed on our two other trips to Florida. Instead we hoped to get to St. Andrews State Park on a barrier island west of Panama City where they had some sites available. It took longer to get there than we anticipated and when we got about an hour and a half away we called to be sure they still had sites. The ranger said they had sites but we had to arrive before sundown at 6:30 when they would close their office and lock the gates. That didn’t look possible to us so we looked for something nearby and came up with Torreya State Park, set high on a ridge above the Apalachicola River. This is yet another CCC park and they still use one of the old barracks for Registration/Office/Camper’s Lounge, complete with a wood burning stove and chairs and tables. The tiny campground has only 30 sites but there were perhaps four taken and the YURT was occupied so we had plenty to pick from. We set up on #30 for one night with the option to stay another night, if we wanted. There was no one else near us so we could leave the curtains open and enjoy looking over the ridge and into the woods around us. As we looked over their map we found that there were lots of hiking trails and an old plantation house to tour so we decided we would stay another night and made reservations for the three days after at Big Lagoon State Park, just about on the border of Alabama. We warmed up our can of New Brunswick Stew from Brenda’s parents and watched a Northern Exposure as the temperature dropped down to the high 30s overnight.

CCC Barracks

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KEN!! In the morning we took our time getting up and enjoyed apple-cinnamon pancakes made from a Jiffy muffin mix while the sun slowly warmed the day into the fifties. My cell phone was showing the time sometimes for Central and sometimes for Eastern Time Zones so Marv went down to the office to find out what time it really was. In the old CCC barracks that is used for a campers’ lounge and registration office there was a clock that had a sign beneath it warning us that we were in the Eastern Time Zone and that one couldn’t rely on cell phones for the time. That meant we needed to drive right over to the Gregory House in order to make the 10:00 tour. Ranger Howard took us and a couple from The Hague, Netherlands on an informal and personalized tour of the Gregory Plantation House. We learned that the house was built in 1836 by Jacob Gregory on the opposite shore of the river on his 2000 acres of land with a River Boat landing right in front of the house. He ran his very successful plantation there until the Civil War and then had to leave when he couldn’t sustain his success without slaves. He sold the plantation and moved away. When his daughter was older she bought the house and 200 acres and lived there until her death. The house was abandoned until a lumber company bought the land and offered the house to the State of Florida on the condition that they move the house across the river to a parcel of land on the high bluff that the company also donated in order to get the fire hazard away from their lumber. The CCC dismantled the house, numbered the boards, took it across the river and reconstructed it overlooking the Apalachicola. It is beautifully restored and furnished with some of the original furniture, donated by the family, and other pieces of period furniture. Ranger Howard was a “good ol’ boy” from the area and he did a nice job on the tour. He was knowledgeable and not canned or robotic. He knew a lot about the house, history and furnishings. He mentioned that he had had a couple come through the day before from Michigan who knew all about furniture and wood and taught him new things. He mentioned they even got out their tablets to look up things on the internet.

Gregory House

Courting Room/Parlor

Apalachicola River from high on the bluff by the Gregory House

We enjoyed the tour very much and then returned to the campsite, where we made chili in our little CrockPot and took the on the mile “Weeping Ridge” hike right from our campsite. The trail descended steeply to a spot where the water flows out of the ridge rock and makes a small waterfall before going back underground. When it has rained a lot it apparently has a small stream above and below but not when we were there.

The Weeping Ridge. Water is dripping steadily in front of the white rocks

As we climbed back up the ridge we could appreciate why Ranger Howard had said that the area is the far southern tail of the Appalachian Mountains. The topography is unlike anything we had seen or knew existed in Florida. After a lunch of turkey wraps and veggies we took the same trail down the ridge side and then turned off to hike about half of the Torreya Trail. We had learned that the Torreya is an ancient prehistoric pine that forms a fruit instead of a cone for its seeds. This variety grows only along the Apalachicola River and there are only about 200 specimens left. As we hiked we saw a couple of small trees protected by fencing. The trail was hilly and rigorous and afforded some lovely vistas over the river far below. We climbed Lawton Hill and were hundreds of feet over the river. The trail also descended to the river level before climbing up over other ridges. There were several different biomes to pass through and we enjoyed seeing the different plants along the way. The ground was littered at different times with live oak leaves, sweet gum seed pods, big magnolia leaves and seed heads, slippery longleaf pine needles and sweet smelling yellow jasmine flowers. There was no wind and the sun shown down from a perfectly clear blue sky but since it only got to the mid-sixties it was remarkably comfortable for hiking. Surprisingly, we saw and heard very few birds and saw no animals the entire way. We were really tired after the three and a half mile hike so a cold beer tasted great. The campground that had been so nearly empty Thursday night slowly filled until there were only 2 or 3 empty sites by nighttime. We had the chili with some corn bread and a marinated vegetable salad and did all the dishes. Marv built a small campfire to enjoy until it became too chilly so we retired to the camper to write and read before settling down for an episode of Northern Exposure.