ICL: Outdoors & Hiking in Northern Florida

Description

Outdoors & Hiking in Northern Florida 

Course Instructor George Owen 

Course fee $25. (Requires ICL membership - $30 annually if not already a member). 

This shorter eight-hour course over four Mondays in later January and early February will feature the outdoor, more natural northern Florida - beyond the crowded cities, glitz, and Disney World. We take to the woods in Florida, a state that is one-third in public land, much of it heavily forested with lakes, large springs, and rivers. This course will concentrate on woods, streams, and trails from the Ocala/Gainesville area through the Florida panhandle, including more remote Gulf beaches. You will get to know a good bit about the Florida National Scenic Trail which spans most of the state. Many other trails are included. The instructor gives out various pamphlets and brochures on Florida outdoors during the course, and tells you of places, where and when, to go to see everything from plenty of alligators to manatees. Come join us to prepare for more time in Florida outdoors, especially in winter. Here we talk about "the real Florida." Then you should be prepared to take off to enjoy the "wilds" of the "Sunshine State" in later February or March, or even the next year. 

George Owen was born and raised in central Florida, where from early elementary school on to adulthood he hunted, fished, and explored the middle Florida woods. While in college over some summers he was the director of the outdoor program and nature instructor for one of the largest youth camps near Leesburg, FL. When he moved to Georgia with his wife Sandy while starting their family of two sons, he soon was deeply involved on weekends and spare time with trail clubs and trails, twice teaching a course at ICL on hiking and the outdoors in the southern Appalachians. He has held many positions with North GA trail clubs, including the presidency of three of them and maintenance and construction director also for two. He is a co-founder of the Benton MacKaye Trail Association in 1980. He has laid out and supervised construction of over 125 miles of hiking trails in the Chattahoochee National Forest over a half-century. After retirement from his regular occupation, he was a guide for ten years part-summers in the Swiss Alps. He is currently starting his fourth term as president of the area Mountain High Hikers. And...he goes back to Florida some days most winters to hike and explore. This year he has again a group of about 15 he is leading in northern Florida for a week of hiking and exploring in the wilds during late February (post-ICL course).