Old Jennings Backpacking Trip

April 17-19 2026

A couple of weekends ago, I took Jarek and Arya on a trip through the Old Jennings State Forest. This was a fairly aggressive trip planned, it had a 9 mile leg in it. I wanted to see if we were ready to take on a more aggressive longer multi-day trip that would have us doing ~10 miles a day or so. Spoiler – we were not!

Day 1

Here we are with all of our gear loaded up and ready to go!

How it started!

Day 1 Garmin trace is here.

The first day was chosen to be deliberately easy, a short walk to the first camp site. The interesting thing here was that the campsites were first come, first serve, so I was a little concerned about other people being there. But, as it turned out, I need not have worried so much. We didn’t see anyone else camping. We did encounter a few trail hikers/runners.

Jarek stops to read an informational sign on the trail

Arya follows Jarek through the “palmetto desert” as she dubbed it. The forest was recently logged and burned in this area, and there was not much shade to be had.

A little while later, we got to the campsite and met up with a couple other members of our party. They had arrived earlier and were all set up by the time we got there. Jarek had fun beating them at chess! Jarek had asked if he could bring his chess set. I told him he could, as long as he carried it.

A couple games of exploding kittens as well to pass the time…

I got to try out my solar panel that I got for backpacking to charge up my light/battery. I was also field testing the Garmin Inreach I got specifically for trips like this with the kids and Scouts, as we sometimes find ourselves outside of cell service. More on that later.

Arya chose to pass her time by reading.

A little while later, we were joined by the rest of our party, my friend Mr. C and his daughter. She and Arya had a great time catching up.

Setting up tents and making dinner.

Chris gives Jarek some pointers on winding rope as they prepare to hoist their bear bags.

Up and out of reach!

Winding down in the evening.

Day 2.

Day 2 started off well enough, but it took us a little longer to get going than I would have liked. It’s Florida in the spring, and the day quickly warms up.

You can see the Garmin trace here.

I have a little bonus distance that the others didn’t have, but it was pretty close overall.

A couple hours in, we stopped at a spot along the Black Creek to make water. This turned into a longer than planned stop (about 2 hours) and lunch.

Mr. C got a nice picture of Jarek and myself at lunch as we were wrapping up.

Pausing at an overlook by Black Creek.

Back on the trail, we pressed on. And there was a lot of pressing. Around mile 8 or so the kids started to have had enough.

Snack break trail side. Arya is pretty much done. Jarek is getting there as well.

There was a point where I notice Jarek getting a little overheated, so I took some weight from his pack (sleeping bag, and something else) from him until he did better.

That nice deep blue on the shirt – it’s all sweat.

Mr. C keeping moving!

We finally made it to the campground. I also had to carry some of Arya’s pack and Mr. C’s pack. Mr. C had some old injuries that decided they had had enough, but we got everyone there!

Mr. C is using my Garmin Inreach to send a text to his wife. Who then promptly deleted it because she didn’t recognize the number it came from. So, that was a good lesson to see – having prior coordination with potential recipients to be on the lookout for odd messages. Also, we could have set up everyone with the Garmin Messenger app, which could have facilitated better communication. Fortunately, we were at the edge of cell service and Mr. C was able to get a message out to his wife to coordinate a pick up for the next day.

Arya and her friend rest by the creek after making it to camp.

Day 3

Day 3 dawned and I was greeted by this on my watch. I agree, I needed recovery, but that wasn’t happening today.

Garmin trace.

Mr C. and his daughter made it to the near by parking lot, about .8 miles from the campsite and were picked up by his wife. One of the advantages of this trail system is that there are a number of bail out points spaced throughout, so if one has had enough, help can be had.

Jarek, Arya, and myself elected to hike back to the truck. We adjusted from the original plan which had a couple extra miles for more distance and took the shortest path back, except for the part where we missed the turn off and took an extra quarter to half mile getting back on the trail.

Everyone was tired, and needed some rests, and load sharing, but we got there.

I am very proud of both of them for finishing the hike, even with all the challenges. They both learned to not carry any unnecessary gear. There was a little grumbling about not wanting to go back packing any more, but that changed to ‘let’s do shorter legs’ and I agree. It seems 6 miles or so was a good number that they liked.

Looking at the calendar, it probably won’t be until the fall when we do more, but we’ll make the legs a bit shorter and that should help things.

The Garmin Inreach was good learn and experiment with, as well as the solar and water making equipment we got. The Sawyer filters did a good job, but didn’t remove the tannins (hence the name, Black Creek) from the water like the carbon filter did, but they were lighter and more compact than the carbon filter.

I hiked in my Xero shoes, and my feet did surprisingly well, although sour, my neuroma never got pissed off so I was able to keep going!

Taking in everything, we have quite a bit of ways to go before we are ready for the longer trip of 35 miles that we were considering. We haven’t given up on it, but it will be a little bit yet.

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#hiking #backpacking #adventure #outdoors #forest #camping #outdoors