FL has a wet season, about mid June through mid Sept - where we get
most of our rain. We can get a foot of rain in a day here without much
problem - with or without a hurricane. In Oct it pretty much dires up
and Feb, March, April and May can be bone dry. Many a year people are
doing rain dances in early May. During the dry season is when we have
fire problems. Most of the public lands practice controlled burns to
keep the fire problem down, but we still do have problems with fires in
the spring. There is a lot of both public and private timber land in
FL. In 98 a large portion of east central FL had to be evacuated
becasue of the fires. While it was on the east side of the state I
could smell the smoke 150 miles away on the west side of the state. The
Everglades typically have large fires in the spring. Most of the fires
are lightning set. Like parts of the west much of the ecology of FL was
shaped by fire and water. FL has a unique varity of pine tree that like
the lodgepole pine requires fire to open the cones and drop the seeds.
As far as gators on the trail, I've only seen a couple in 20 years down
here. The biggest thrill is when you are riding along a ditch and a big
gator jumps in - makes quite a splash and even the calmest horse will
have dish pan sized eyes. I've only seen one on an endurance trail. He
was sunning himself in a forest service road. His tail was at one edge
of the road, the tip of his snoot at the other edge. The trail came out
of the woods, went down the road for a short distance and back into the
woods. Three of us came out saw it, though it was a log - big log. Two
of us jumped it. The third rider screamed at her horse to stop. The
gator had started to move off the road.
The gators won't bother you - they are more afraid of you than you of
them.
Truman
abigail Madden wrote:
Interesting. So, FL dries out over the winter months? You
don't get much rain then? Forgive my ignorance, I'm just curious.
I've only travelled east of the Sierras once in my 35 yrs. and am not
very well informed on the weather patterns in the southern US. Are you
serious about there being forest fires in April in FL? What a very
interesting world we live in. Here in N.CA not much worry for a
serious forest fire in April (most years). Everything is still so wet
and in some places there is still snow on the ground just an hour from
where I live, and I'm at 125' elevation. In fact, the fire danger was
so low in April this year that friends had a barbeque/party where they
touched off a brush pile that was approx. 30' wide by 15' high in a
field with 2' of grass. It was still so wet you couldn't sit down
without getting soaked. (Was actually neat to see as they dumped about
5 gals of diesel on it and then fired a flare gun at it. They are all
firemen ........pyros at heart). Try that now and you'd burn down half
the county.....or more. Anyway, I think I've had too much red wine,
(but its a very nice Cabernet from BC) as I sit here and imagine what
it would be like to ride my ponies in such a different environment.
Maybe in a few years traveling will be a possibility. I think I would
very much like to come to Florida and ride. Unless you really do
see alligators on the trails as Howard says. If so, don't tell me
about it until after I get there. : )
abigail
Chico, CA
-- "It is necessary to be noble, and yet take humility as a basis
"It
is necessary to be noble, and yet
take humility as a basis.
It is necessary
to be exalted, and yet take modesty as a foundation."
