Subj: [ParanormalFlorida] Last Night's Investigation Report! 
Date: 2/3/2007 4:27:27 P.M. Eastern Standard Time
From:LordOfThyNight@aol.com
To: ParanormalBuffalo@yahoogroups.com, Paranormalflorida@yahoogroups.com, ParanormalGhostSociety@googlegroups.com, paranormalghostsociety@yahoogroups.com, ParanormalGhostSocietyConnections@yahoogroups.com, ParanormalGhostSociety@groups.msn.com, TheParanormalGhostSociety@yahoogroups.com, pgsociety@groups.aol.com, SupernaturalFlorida@yahoogroups.com
CC:wolfe420@tmail.com

Lake Eaton Forest & Sinkhole
 
I saved the best for last however we missed our turn off to get here and went all the way around the national forest to get here almost an extra 20 miles out of the way. I was not upset by it cause it probably saved us from going down a dirt road for miles and hitting all the bumps that come with it. This area was much cooler we could feel it which would be nice rather then deal with humidity.
 
Eventually we went around the woods and cut into the forest taking a very quiet secluded road leading us up to a dirt right off to our right. We also met a very lucky rabbit which ran out in front of my truck and I ran it over completely missing it with my tired but you know that rabbit crapped himself lol. Why do animals have such a need to run out in front of moving vehicles when this rabbit does die I would sure love to have the rabbits foot lol.
 
 It was obvious that this was an area we would not want to get stuck at or break down. Ocala forest is over 400,000 acres and Lake Eaton was just a small part of this forest.
 
The dirt road we took was hilly and very dry so the bumps were very rough their were a few dirt roads going off to the left and right. Some roads looked like they gone on forever. Eventually we found this rolling wide dirt road and took a right hand turn. It was an eerie area we were in the heart of the national forest nobody was here just us and things that go bump in the night.
 
I pulled off in this area which had the Lake Eaton Sinkhole Trail and across the street the Lake Eaton Trail Loop. So we were all set for the night. Andrew was getting super excited he liked the idea we did not have to deal with crazy rednecks, cops, nosy people etc and I cannot say I blame him we were out in serenity it was beautiful back here.
 
We got geared up I was pretty tired I am still pretty sick so my lungs are very soar and I knew this would be a challenge. We started off hiking down the sink hole loop which went a couple miles.
 
The moon was so bright at times we did not even use any lights at all. The trail meandered like crazy in the woods it was a tunnel of brush we had to walk through. You will see the photos and understand. If you have been to Ocala this forest is so heavily overgrown that the trails are so narrow that it gives you this eerie feeling cause you cannot see what is up ahead or around each corner. Many of the trees had vines growing on them, broken trees, thick brush, blanketing the trail. We could not see much of anything but the moon did light up the trail in light of things.
 
We took an unmarked trail for awhile then I had us head back cause it just went on forever and was taking us away from the sink hole. It added to the eeriness but nobody had been back on this in years you could tell so if something happened nobody would find us back here.
 
Eventually we arrived at sinkhole and this is the second largest one in the state of Florida Devil's Millhopper being the first largest which we visited weeks ago. I took a break the guys made their descent down into the sinkhole. Then I followed them down it was amazing we were in a giant crater this sink hole had cliffs unlike the Millhopper which had steep hills.
 
When we arrived at the bottom the observation deck was as tall as one of the palm trees. Below us was a jungle and some of the trees growing in the sinkhole were very large but dead trees. I did hear something move around in the sinkhole probably an animal or something. But for the most part the area was very peaceful and relaxing.
 
The sinkhole is 80 feet deep and 450 feet wide so basically we were just ants inside of it looking up. You could see some littering in the sinkhole it was obvious people visit here just to drink. I liked it here and our trip up to the top was not to rough. We took another trail which cut through the center of the loop back to the truck. We heard a few loud bangs in the woods like something was hitting the trees with something cannot figure out what it was but their was a few of them then it ceased.
 
I also heard a branch break on one occasion no big deal probably an animal but its also good to keep an open mind this is a forest that has had some bigfoot sightings so you have to take it with intelligence. We arrived back at the car and I grabbed my 10 million candle light power for our lake loop trail across the dirt road.
 
Our investigation was halfway done then we headed on off to lake Eaton on foot. We walked down this hill and the trail split off we took the right path. Their was a sign stating out Hurricane Francis and Jeanne damaged the area. It also stated that because of it a trail was created and how some areas were completely devastated along the trail such as fallen trees and open fields.
 
We made our way down the trail and they were right we had some pretty wide open areas with no forest at all just many fallen trees. Eventually we made our way to a very old forest the trail was fairly wide but covered in leaves and pine needles. We saw many large oaks, pines etc and even Andrew said this is the only place he has ever seen in Ocala that did not look like a jungle. We came across a few spiders and webs along the way.
 
Eventually the trail led us to three separate boardwalks which were almost easy to miss cause they were overgrown. Each boardwalk let us to Lake Eaton where we could sit down take a break overlooking the water. The water did not look very friendly it was gator territory marshy, roots growing out of the trees in the water, plants growing all over and although clear hard see if any gator's were hiding in it all.
 
We did visit each of the board walks to be thorough on the investigation. The trail for us was fun but it was a long hike over 2 miles in the forest, along the lake and hurricane ravaged lands. I really did not sense a lot of activity but thought of bigfoot crossed my mind the whole hike in my own vision I wanted so bad to see one sitting on the trail.
 
The trail had its obstacles like this one area we had to crawl under a tree and a few times climb over a few but it was a world of its own. We could hear in the distance the frogs and wind howling but for the most part it was just us in nature.
 
I spent some of the trip talking to Andrew about this movie called The Descent its about these girls who go caving in this cave nobody has explored. Well they get lost and get so deep down into these caverns that an evolved race of creatures are living in the bowels of course they are sort of human but more like humans that have evolved or adapted to live in this cave so they were blind but had good hearing and well they were very hungry so the girls become the pray its a great movie. The girls ran their own adventure group but they got in so deep they could not get back out so the place became their final resting place with these creatures hunting them down.
 
I told Andrew think of our investigations like this we explore all these places some of them known some of them unknown but either way you look at it you never know what you might find or see. So here I am walking around these trails talking loud about this horror movie Andrew probably was thrilled lol.
 
Eventually we made our way back to the truck I can say this part of Ocala Forest was much less active then other areas perhaps cause only certain parts of Ocala are known for its bigfoot activity, Indian spirits and ghost town sites while other parts are just straight up wildnerness.The sink hole, lake and full moon really made the night worthwhile. The Lake Eaton Forest loop really was something you could see in a horror movie the moss hanging off the trees all over, broken dead trees, a dimly lit path etc. The one thing I thought was odd is my spotlight was not working at times this has never happened the light would not turn on in certain areas I thought this was odd probably explainable but nonetheless when we needed it...... it just would not kick in.
 
After our woods trip we made our way down the truck route I stopped at subway got a nice roast beef sub for the road trip home. Good thing I got it cause I was half dead so it helped me for the 50 mile ride back home. We arrived back into town where near my home tornadoes and that storm damaged a lot of my area and cops still had blockades on certain roads. I ended up going through a red light and the cops did not even pull me over lol everybody here in town has pretty much gone off the edge.
 
The damage around here of homes, trees down, buildings destroyed etc is fairly high but it was nice to be home. I did wake up this morning to a bad thunderstorm I was like oh here we go again. But surprisingly on our investigation we did not seen any damage it seems my town faced most of the worst of damage from the various tornadoes that touched down.
 
All in all it was a wild night we took a lot of risk for our fans I don't think your going to see fancy ghost photos from the trip it was straight up hardcore adventuring as we tried to uncover these secret behind these places. We were deterred the whole night and still came through with a few places. It gets harder and harder to journey into and around Florida its people that ruin it for other people not the ghost, bigfoot or the paranormal.
Founder
Lord Rick