festival

Tomorrow is Earth Day, and there can't be any more beautiful places to celebrate than Spring Park in Green Cove Springs.  Fortunately, some folks have put together a celebration for you and all you have to do is show up between 1 and 5 p.m.

Take a frisbee or a good book and enjoy the spring and the maginificent view of the St. Johns River. Pack a picnic or buy some food - hot dogs, hamburgers, funnel cakes and a bake sale - from the Clay High School Band while you're there. And, since the band's gonna be there, you can probably figure out that music is going to be part of the fun.

It's a beautiful time of year for hiking, and I've been busy - managed to visit 7 trails this weekend while attending a couple of special events in North Florida. I'll post details soon. But in the meantime, I wanted to remind you of Florida's biggest annual gathering of hikers, coming up on March 16-18 in Umatilla: The Florida Trail Annual Conference.

Why go? You'll meet hundreds (yes, hundreds!) of hikers from around the state and have a chance to chat about gear and trails. There are more than 20 seminars and workshops led by pros, ranging from Nature Photography and Beginning Birding to Tracking the Florida Black Bear and Plein Air Painting, as well as Family Adventures for the kids. If you own a tourism-related business, the workshop on the "Sustainable Green Dollar" may be of special interest to you. And lots of us will be clamoring to go out on the guided hikes and paddling trips.