More than 100 members of the Florida Trail Association gathered in northwestern Palm Beach County last weekend for a regional conference that featured historical and environmental lectures, plus seminars on fire building, wilderness navigation, backpacking, sign making, water purification and first aid.

The session was at the Everglades Youth Camp within the sprawling, 60,000-acre Corbett Wildlife Management Area.

Although hunting season was in full force, about 25 members went on a scenic, six-plus-mile hike along a portion of the association’s designated “ocean-to-lake” trail located mostly outside Corbett and its scores of deer stands.

The hikers, led by FTA member Beth Burger, walked east and north through the Hungryman Slough Natural Area and returned to camp via a dirt road along the west leg of the C-18 canal.

It was an easily navigated flat hike on grass, sand and mud trails where trees bore orange blazes painted by FTA volunteers.

During the three-hour walk, the trekkers passed through pine flat woods and cypress sloughs, though the trail itself was mostly dry. A stiff northeasterly breeze counteracted the midday heat.

Probably owing to the size of the group, the hikers didn’t encounter a lot of wildlife. However, ibis, wood stork and vultures made fly-bys, and they could hear a barred owl and woodpecker in the nearby forest.

About half of the hikers turned back midway through the route in order not to miss late afternoon seminars back at camp. But those who stuck it out encountered a lone ring-necked snake sunning itself beside the trail. Instead of being frightened, several of the group inched closer to take photos of the nonvenomous reptile. But it quickly grew tired of the human attention and slithered into the brush.

All along the trail, distinct in the mud and sand, were the tracks of various animals: rabbits, wild turkey, wading birds, deer and wild hogs. Portions of the path looked like someone had lined them with a disking machine. But the turned-up clods of mud and grass had been made by the sturdy snouts of wild hogs digging for grubs and plants. And sure enough, late in the hike, the group rounded a bend and encountered a large, black porker poking along, oblivious to its presence.

The hikers hung back and watched it for a while; then it slowly ambled off into the woods and disappeared. But as they continued down the path, one hog, then another shot across the trail in front of them and bounded deep into the forest. Some grabbed for their cameras while others expressed relief that the animals — much maligned and vilified on reality TV programs — didn’t come after them.

The free wildlife show was over for the most part as the group crossed out of the woods and onto the dirt road running along the C-18. Returning to Corbett, they encountered several hunters and their dogs on swamp buggies. But none of the buggies held any harvested deer; perhaps the hunters were prepping for a late-afternoon stakeout in the woods.

Several of the returning hikers headed to the camp’s main pavilion to see if their silent auction bids had been successful. The prizes: tents, axes, lanterns, topo maps and portable stoves, among other items.

All very handy for continuing the nonprofit organization’s mission: constructing and maintaining more than 1,500 miles of national scenic hiking trail stretching from the Loop Road in the Big Cypress National Preserve to Gulf Islands National Seashore in the Panhandle.

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