Hikertrash Princess

1/30/24

We woke up and started hiking out of the forest. Shortly in the to hike there was a bathroom, which we obviously took advantage of. We crossed a highway and Morpheus decided to take the road while I opted to stay on trail. A large part of the day would be a long roadwalk along that highway. I preferred to stay on the trail while I could, while Morpheus preferred the speed of the road and to just get used to it.

There wasn’t anything too special about the section of trail, but I enjoyed being away from the traffic. It rejoined the road just before a country store, where I rejoined Morpheus. He already had a breakfast sandwich and I went in and ordered a Reuben while we charged our phones. The sandwich was amazing with generous portions. I could barely finish it.

We started on the roadwalk. We met some horses and a donkey along the way. I hate road walks so that wasn’t an enjoyable 7 miles for me.

We turned off onto a dirt trail that crossed burn areas and many forest roads. We ended at a large cistern with a picnic table. It was a surprising amount of amenities for the middle of nowhere. We filtered water and ate dinner. I tried to watch all the stars come out but soon got too cold. I spent half the night trying to warm back up but eventually fell asleep.

1/29/24

Not every day hiking can be exciting, and this was one where we pretty much just hiked.

Uncle Bo dropped us back at the Circle K. We got some food. I enjoyed the hash browns and Italian sausage so much I went back for round 2. We started off with a road walk.

Then we turned down a dirt road and surprisingly we started to see some very small hills. We went along a river and then a paved bike path.

Back on the trail we got some rolling hills! It felt like real hiking!

We set up camp and I horrendously burned my Mac n cheese. I dreamed of being able to cook better.

1/27/24 and 1/28/24

This section contained several rotted bridges which were terrifying to walk over. Morpheus was intelligent and took the road instead. I also saw a herd of wild hogs.

At the end the trail turned onto the freeway which luckily had a massive shoulder. We ended at a Circle K where Morpheus’s uncle Bo picked us up. His grandmother was also there on a visit.

We had a nice weekend visiting with the family, resting, and eating. We took a zero and watched football. Unfortunately both teams we were rooting for lost. Aunt Terry made an amazing meal and we relaxed in the hot tub.

1/26/24

We were honestly not eager to get back to trail. We had a slow morning. Morpheus was catching up on his video editing and uploading so he stayed outside the motel using wifi while I ate at Subway. We met up at Captain D’s. I had an odd walk over there, getting a flyer on programs to help with homelessness. I noticed they didn’t ask me for money or to support the program, so I think they thought I was one of the homeless. We sat in Captain D’s for a while and I had fried okra in honor of my grandpa.

We tried to get a ride and right when we gave up and called an Uber, a guy asked if we needed a ride. He was on his lunch break but did get us 2 miles closer to the trail. We called an Uber from our new location. The driver probably thought we were about to rob her as we tried to direct her to the trailhead. It didn’t have an address so we couldn’t put it in the map. We- and she- made it safely.

Luckily the road the trailhead was on connected with the trail about 2 miles later, so we didn’t have to backtrack. We started walking and did about 10 miles without a break. At the end we took a break at a camp site, then decided to just stay. I didn’t get any water after looking at the dark river that was the water source. I also googled how to avoid alligator attacks and learned the most likely time to be attacked is if you crouch by the water and splash it with your hands- so basically collecting water from the river. No thanks! I had enough water.

1/25/24

I finished packing up before Morpheus and started walking along the highway. I noticed the sheriff go by a couple times. The Florida Trail is not well known and the locals seemed very distrustful of transients coming through. They often acted like we were homeless people trying to set up camp long term. They don’t know thru hikers are always moving. That, and some racist assumptions, means the sheriff is poking around to make sure we were moving on. He didn’t stop, and we were always planning on hiking on anyway.

After only 4 miles of highway, we turned onto a trail. For the first time the day was 90% trail! We decided to take a quiet dirt road instead of the trail. The trail weaved back and forth along and across the road, and we knew the road would be dry. There were a lot of hunters around, and even more abandoned tents set up long term for hunting trips.

We saw one hunter right by the turn in the road. He declared he had just hiked “the whole thing!” We weren’t sure what he was referring to, but he was really proud of himself, so we were proud of him.

We took lunch at a campsite with picnic tables. Roger and Kathy joined us. They were section hikers from North Carolina who had completed the whole AT in sections. They had some good news about the upcoming miles being dry.

We walked on and came to a large puddle. Morpheus coached me through getting across the pond by jumping on logs. I am not agile or very coordinated so I was not very confident. In fact I was pretty confident I would fall in. Balancing on logs hits different when there’s a possibility of an alligator in the water. Miraculously I made it.

We took a short break and at the end another hiker- Professor walked up. We hadn’t seen many hikers since taking the west side. We chatted a bit and all continued on through the palm and oak forests, over bridges, to a river.

We saw the same guy from the morning and we chatted with him again. He warned against bears and wolves in the area and told us to use a half lit log to drive them away. I don’t think it’s likely we will see wolves, but we thanked him for the advice anyway.

There was a large river and all three of us chose different places to get water. When I was done Professor said he saw something large thrashing in the water. Luckily we all survived with all our limbs. Another hiker Speedbump walked up, and we discusssed our strategies for defeating an alligator.

We stopped and ate dinner at the Gator Hole Campsite. Professor and Speedbump were staying there that night, but we had decided to continue on to a trailhead where a local trail angel would pick us up. The water source for the campsite was called “Gator Hole Pond.” I passed on getting any water there.

We started our night hike with an incredible sunset. We saw two owls! The mosquitoes took the fact we were hiking after sunset as a sign that we were walking all-you-can-eat buffets. Overall it was a nice walk though. We finally got to the trailhead two minutes before the trail angel- Canadian Dad- and his wife Janice arrived.

They dropped us off at the motel and took us through the Checkers drive through. We giggled as Morpheus shouted our order from the backseat and wondered what they would think when the driver didn’t match the voice at all.

It’s extremely humid and having AC and a shower was divine.

1/25/24

I finished packing up before Morpheus and started walking along the highway. I noticed the sheriff go by a couple times. The Florida Trail is not well known and the locals seemed very distrustful of transients coming through. They often acted like we were homeless people trying to set up camp long term. They don’t know thru hikers are always moving. That, and some racist assumptions, means the sheriff is poking around to make sure we were moving on. He didn’t stop, and we were always planning on hiking on anyway.

After only 4 miles of highway, we turned onto a trail. For the first time the day was 90% trail! We decided to take a quiet dirt road instead of the trail. The trail weaved back and forth along and across the road, and we knew the road would be dry. There were a lot of hunters around, and even more abandoned tents set up long term for hunting trips.

We saw one hunter right by the turn in the road. He declared he had just hiked “the whole thing!” We weren’t sure what he was referring to, but he was really proud of himself, so we were proud of him.

We took lunch at a campsite with picnic tables. Roger and Kathy joined us. They were section hikers from North Carolina who had completed the whole AT in sections. They had some good news about the upcoming miles being dry.

We walked on and came to a large puddle. Morpheus coached me through getting across the pond by jumping on logs. I am not agile or very coordinated so I was not very confident. In fact I was pretty confident I would fall in. Balancing on logs hits different when there’s a possibility of an alligator in the water. Miraculously I made it.

We took a short break and at the end another hiker- Professor walked up. We hadn’t seen many hikers since taking the west side. We chatted a bit and all continued on through the palm and oak forests, over bridges, to a river.

We saw the same guy from the morning and we chatted with him again. He warned against bears and wolves in the area and told us to use a half lit log to drive them away. I don’t think it’s likely we will see wolves, but we thanked him for the advice anyway.

There was a large river and all three of us chose different places to get water. When I was done Professor said he saw something large thrashing in the water. Luckily we all survived with all our limbs. Another hiker Speedbump walked up, and we discusssed our strategies for defeating an alligator.

We stopped and ate dinner at the Gator Hole Campsite. Professor and Speedbump were staying there that night, but we had decided to continue on to a trailhead where a local trail angel would pick us up. The water source for the campsite was called “Gator Hole Pond.” I passed on getting any water there.

We started our night hike with an incredible sunset. We saw two owls! We also saw the biggest spider in the world. The mosquitoes took the fact we were hiking after sunset as a sign that we were walking all-you-can-eat buffets. Overall it was a nice walk though. We finally got to the trailhead two minutes before the trail angel- Canadian Dad- and his wife Janice arrived.

They dropped us off at the motel and took us through the Checkers drive through. We giggled as Morpheus shouted our order from the backseat and wondered what they would think when the driver didn’t match the voice at all.

It’s extremely humid and having AC and a shower was divine.

1/24/24

We were not woken up by anyone asking us to move, but instead by a train three times during the night. We had set up about 12 feet from train tracks. We had been hopeful the tracks were not active but they were. The first train we didn’t know what was going on. I wondered why a truck would be so loud or so close to us, then we both accepted our imminent death as a loud and chaotic train passed us by. The cars did not sound as stable in the dark as they look in the day. We were fine, just terrified. This happened three times over the night.

We woke up early to finish off our stealthy experience and walked along the highway again. I was disappointed we couldn’t take the old highway, which previous hikers had commented had lots of wildlife, including “gators and otters.” It was now blocked off with no trespassing signs and in the dark we wouldn’t be able to tell if the bridges were secure.

We soon turned off the large highway which was a relief. We continued through a neighborhood and even played a little basketball. We passed a school and once again received weird, racist stares.

We stopped at a Circle K and used the bathroom and got coffee. We continued on a large sidewalk for many miles.

I got behind Morpheus when I stopped at a 7-11 to use their bathroom. When we passed a Circle K I looked for his pack outside but didn’t see it, so I continued on to catch up.

It turned out he had stopped, and this was the last store for 60 miles of trail. I felt foolish I called him and asked him to grab me a few snacks, then stopped on a large dirt shoulder to finally eat some food out of my pack. He caught up and we continued on.

It seems this was the most dangerous road in the world for otters because we saw three dead otters on this section. I was devastated. It seems my desire to see otters was granted by the monkey’s paw. I want to see LIVE otters.

We were excited to get to a trail in 5 miles. It was a paved bike trail, but we wouldn’t be dodging cars. We finally arrived and it felt like an oasis. There was a bathroom with running water at the end. I ran out of water so we had to walk the 4 miles of trail. We were both tired. Something about the pavement is a special form of fatigue for your feet.

We made dinner under the pavilion before crashing.

1/23/24

We slept in because you can’t get up early when you have the luxury of a bed. We got ready and checked out. 7 cats were eating from a bowl outside the hotel! This was an obvious sign this was going to be a good day.

We had decided to walk back to trail on a direct path. On my other hikes I’ve been more of a purist, insisting on seeing every official mile or maintaining a continuous footpath. This trail is a bit unusual though. We are walking through the suburbs of Orlando along sidewalks. Walking directly down the street we were on would take us back to trail at mile 289. We had taken the Uber from mile 285. The direct walk would be 3 miles. It wasn’t worth paying for an Uber to get one extra mile of sidewalk walking, and we weren’t about to miss anything- in terms of views or experience. Ironically the spot where we rejoined the trail was also a Publix. We got a box of hot food and subs to go. The employee was super nice and had grown up in Southern California so we chatted about that.

We ate on a bench outside and quickly acquired a large audience of boat tailed grackles, a black bird. Then we got started back out on the trail.

There was a large sidewalk for most of the day, which was a treat. Once we got out of St Cloud there was a nice stretch with more green areas and less traffic. That ended at a large park overlooking Lake Tohopekaliga. I spotted a tiny alligator there and it was so cute! It was a lovely break. The next mile continued along the lake. We passed a lot of couples and families out walking around the lake. We must have looked extremely over prepared for our nice stroll in the park. We saw another cat!

We turned off the lake and decided to take the route that went along a major highway but had more sidewalks. The highway was backed up with tons of traffic, but the sidewalk was really nice. I was grateful when we came upon a Racetrack (a huge gas station store.) I rushed in to use the bathroom and got us both ice creams. We continued on, a confused UPS man slowing down to ask us what’s going on and why he’d been seeing so many backpackers. We saw more cats along the way.

Another man asked why he’d seen so many backpackers, and we got to pet a dog! We stopped at a final 7/11 as it got dark. We had planned to hike later so that we could stealth camp. Unfortunately just as it got dark the sidewalk ended. It was a bit scary walking along the shoulder, but we made it. We found a spot by the railroad tracks that wasn’t behind a fence but blocked from the road by trees. We set up there, hoping not to be woken up and asked to move.

The final count of cats was 17! Surely the most cats I’ve seen in a day! They were in yards and parks along the way, even two strays living in the ditches along the roads. A new record for most cats seen on a hike!

1/22/24

We decided to take the road instead of the trail for the first part of the day. We kept our feet dry, and the trail went on and off of the road anyway. On the last split we decided to take the trail because of a “lengthy board walk.”

There was a cool fire tower and I even backtracked to see if I could climb it. It was blocked off so I ended up bushwhacking back to the trail. The “lengthy” boardwalk was quite short and also ended in a knee deep puddle.

At the end Dirty Mike was waiting with pancakes! The back of his van had “west or die” written in the dust- a reference to the split around Orlando, where we could choose to go east or west. He was waiting at the junction. A friendly rivalry had developed between the groups choosing the different directions.

We left first and chose West. This would put us closer to Morpheus’s uncle. We also heard rumors of manatees and monkeys along the west trail.

We continued on the same road for like 30 miles. It started with a long road walk with no shoulder. There wasn’t too much traffic, so we were able to walk on the asphalt 90% of the time. When there was a car we had to get off onto the grass, which was not mowed and extremely hard to walk on. It was also quite boring, but we found some entertainment singing for cows. They seemed to enjoy Morpheus’s rendition of a country song the best.

We mostly walked along sod farms. I saw a new animal which was a small, mustelid-like critter, bigger than a squirrel but smaller than an otter. It stood up in a cute meerkat pose and was black and white. Google suggested either a spotted skunk or fox squirrel, but it’s hard to know for sure.

Towards the end of the day it got less rural and we started passing houses. One in particular was massive and styled like a plantation. It had the longest driveway in the world. It looked like an American Downton Abbey.

Finally we arrived at a Circle K. It seemed like a paradise to me, and I got a coke and an ice cream. It turned out we would pass Circle K and full on restaurants almost continuously for the next 60 miles, but at the time the thought of a cold drink at Circle K was sustaining me.

I went to the Dollar General next door at got a pair of leggings. I had sent mine home after it got hot. This was a mistake. I’ve been cold since.

We continued walking. Our plan was to continue till it was dark and stealth camp. We went by a Publix and I went in to get soup. We ran into Reboot, who was a bit alarmed at the lack of camping options. We finally decided we’d all get an Uber to a nearby hotel.

The Uber driver announced he was listening to some 80’s tunes and then immediately said, “I’ll crank it.” We enjoyed the 80’s tunes to the hotel. We booked a room after some initial confusion over there being three hikers and who would get what room. The hotel manager was excited to hear about the FT and disappeared for a moment to come back with electrolyte drinks for us.

The room was huge- more like an apartment. The TV didn’t work but the shower was lava hot. It was an unexpected treat to be inside.

1/21/24

We forced ourselves to get up despite it being very cold outside. We both hiked in all our layers. Our feet only got slightly damp as we walked along the resort’s private airstrip and then a canal.

We ran into Tank, who was considering going to urgent care after a bad fall when a car nearly hit him while the trail followed the road.

We got onto the highway, which wasn’t exactly fun after hearing that story, and turned on the jets to get past it.

It was freezing the first hour on the highway. All the big trucks were very nice, moving over and even sometimes turning on their flashers to pass the hikers. I noticed the Publix trucks were particularly nice.

We caught Flo, Wildflower, Hamilton and Highlander just before/as the trail turned off the highway. Just then a car pulled up and Tank jumped out. Apparently someone had just offered him a ride through the highway section, and he was eager to take it after the bad car experience the day before.

We started walking down a quiet dirt road. Morpheus took off practically at a run when he discovered there was a toilet 2 miles away. We all rejoined outside the toilets at a very creepy hunting campground. Morpheus and I left and decided to take the road rather than the trail to keep our feet dry. We could see it on the map so we were confident we weren’t headed for another Ranger Steve situation. The morning walk was pleasant, except for the wind which continued to badger us. We passed a cool set of bones but I was devastated to discover it was possibly a dead otter. RIP.

We stopped for lunch and a bald eagle glided overhead as we ate.

We saw the rest of the crew shortly after and we all decided to take the trail to see the grove of ancient Palmettos. Our guide said they grow a tenth of an inch per year, and these were 20 feet tall. I can’t do math but I know that’s pretty old.

At the end Dirty Mike was waiting with hot dogs. We learned they are also called “glizzies,” although I’m still not sure by whom. We all enjoyed glizzies and beers.

We finished up the day with 3.6 miles through a cool jungle-like forest. There was even a cool bridge. We ended up at Jackson Lake Campground. I made a beeline for the bathroom and we ended up setting up camp right next to it.

We met a couple who wanted to know all about the Florida Trail. They owned horses and drove them across the FT.

I went to collect water from the lake and returned with all my limbs. Even the guide said “although water is plentiful it can be dangerous to collect because of the prevalence of gators in the area.”

We ate dinner, watched an Avatar, and went to sleep.

1/20/24

We woke up and got slightly chastised for putting our tent in the wrong area. We packed up and headed to the ranger station to see if we could find a ride. We talked with Susan for a while. She had a few ideas but suggested we talk to Ranger Steve after he finished his phone conversation. When he came in he was so sorry about the previous day’s misadventure. We weren’t too torn up about it- in the end we came to hike in Florida, and we spent a day hiking in Florida. He gave us a list of the people leaving that day and suggested we ask around for a ride. He said he’d give us a ride later that day if we hadn’t found a ride by the time he finished the buggy tour.

We asked around, but although people were very friendly, everyone had packed their cars so full they didn’t have room for hikers.

Finally we went inside the ranger station because it was extremely windy which made it very cold. Ranger Steve came back and said another ranger would give us a ride because “he owed him.” A few minutes later we got in the car with Ranger Luke.

He even stopped at a Racetrack (a gas station store) to get a resupply. As I was paying I heard a commotion. One of the employees was telling a man “those are for the ice cream and you can’t just take those!” He didn’t speak English very well and just kinda walked away. What was odd was when I got closer I realized he had a black coffee and then left with an entire cup of maraschino cherries from the sundae bar.

We continued in our journey and finally arrived at River Ranch, which was guarded by a man in a cowboy hat and a gate. Ranger Luke was not sure he could drive in, so we got out and thanked him for the ride.

We went into River Ranch, which was a very large resort for rich people to pretend they’re cowboys, and also happens to have the Florida Trail run through it. It also had hoards of children running around unsupervised and a bunch of very expensive stuff.

What was cool was there were bison, llamas, and ponies along the street.

We found the area where the hikers had congregated. We went to get hot chocolate, which was overpriced and only half full. We hung out with Hamilton and Highlander, moving around to follow the sun in an attempt to stay warm.

Finally we moved inside and hung out with Flo, Wildflower, Reboot, Hamilton, and Highlander.

We got a pizza and headed out. On the way we saw many bachelorette parties. It also seemed like the resort must have a bunch of golf cart accidents since almost everyone was driving their golf carts to the saloon.

We walked along the road, which was a big scary, until the trail turned off the road. We walked for a while and turned back immediately when it became marshy. We set up camp and went to sleep. Hamilton and Highlander went back shortly after, and set up camp somewhere nearby.

1/19/24

We got up and walked the 2 miles to the official campground, still a bit upset that we didn’t just do that yesterday. We went into the ranger station and they were so nice! They had like 15 hiker boxes they could out for us. We paid for laundry and showers and Ranger Steve showed us an alternate route on the map that would keep us dry and out of the knee to chest deep alligator water.

We got our showers and did our laundry. We chatted with some of the campers. Morpheus saw an otter but I tragically missed it.

We got on the road and were ecstatic to be staying dry. Off to the side of the trail we saw some huge alligators. 8-10 feet probably. We were obviously glad we were walking on a raised railroad bed. We met a woman named Julie and her dog.

We accidentally chased some cows down the trail. I hate when animals look at you terrified and then run straight down the trail, just to do it again. I wish I could explain that I am not chasing them, just following the trail.

We had to go through a lot of cattle gates, which we carefully closed behind us. We also saw a wild hog! We made one turn, and continued along a cattle fence line on something called the North Boundary Trail. This was still great as we walked along with dry feet. We reached a final cattle gate which was covered with vines and had a snake living inside it. We opened it but slowly started to get the feeling that it had been years since someone had been there.

We had to go through a grove of palmettos, which was alarming because we both felt like an alligator or any dangerous critter could be lurking unseen in the dense vegetation.

We finally reach a swampy area and had to get our feet wet. Then we came to a large canal. It was about 10 ft wide and looked to be about 10 feet deep. As we approached, an 8 ft gator jumped into the water. We spent a while pondering what to do. Getting into the water didn’t seem like an option, between the gators and the depth. We walked back and forth along the bank looking for a crossing. We even tried to construct a bridge with a loose board from the fence. In the end, we were stuck. We even called the ranger station thinking that Ranger Steve would surely have a solution for us. Ranger Alex answered and seemed to think we were quite silly for being where we were.

We spent a while talking over what to do. I wanted to bushwhack along the edge of the canal back to the trail, where there would be a more safe crossing. Morpheus was reluctant to follow a gator infested river through long tall grass you couldn’t see through as the sun was setting. I was determined to make this work, and we even split up to try our different methods.

About three steps into the tall grass I realized I really didn’t want to do this bushwhack either. I turned around and we continued our journey back to the ranger station together. As we approached the grove of palmettos again, a wild hog ran into the leaves. Now we definitely didn’t want to try to sneak through, so we went through the water. Which of course is dark so we can’t see if anything dangerous is lurking there either.

We stopped and made dinner at sunset. We continued on as it got dark. Alligators eyes glowed bright yellow in the light of our headlamps so we kept moving quickly. We even heard an alligator growl. The bugs were delighted by our headlamps and divebombed the light and every orifice on our heads. The combination of barely being able to see as insects swarmed the light and catching bugs in your eyes, up your nose, in your mouth, and in your ears was deeply unpleasant. We finally got out of the tree and alligator lined section and shut off our headlamps to stroll along the road.

The Kissimmee Prairie Preserve is a designated dark sky area, so we enjoyed the stars and a half moon. The moon was pretty bright and we were surprised how light the dark sky was.

The lights of the campground seemed to never grow larger even though every footstep should be bringing us closer. Finally we made it back and set up behind the bathrooms.

1/18/24

We woke up under the magical oak. I ran to the “bathroom,” which was not as hidden as normal because it was still dark. To my surprise Blue and DSquared walked by just at that moment and I had to crouch down in the bushes hoping they wouldn’t see me. They either didn’t or didn’t say anything.

We got going and saw them again shortly after. They asked me about my trail name and Morpheus about maintaining weight on trail.

We continued on until we came to a camp with picnic tables. We took a long break. There were plastic tubs lining the trail asking hikers to help combat the invasive Caesar weed. I spent 10 minutes trying to gather up the seeds and place them in the tub. I figured I had done my part. We all agreed to was doing very little to combat the weed.

We continued on and Morpheus had a spiritual moment with some horses. They came right up and asked for pets over the fence. It was very cute.

He got ahead and we continued hiking through oak, cypress, and palmetto forest. It was really cool to see the waterline on the trees. The whole thing would be a swamp in the wet season. The section ended with a really cool boardwalk and then a road walk on white sand. We stopped at a camp to take a break, but ended up just sitting down halfway to it when we realized how long the side trail was. DSquared and Blue passed us to set up there.

We continued on to a primitive campground in Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park. First of all it was an extremely long side trail to a flooded campground. We were really not pleased with our decision. But once we were there we set up, and it was really nice to be able to get water from the pump there. The bugs were really bad. We kept them at bay by burning palm fronds, but they burned so quickly we ate dinner and ran into the tent.

1/17/24

We started on a long highway walk. It went alongside a awesome swamp. It was even more awesome that we got to walk beside it instead of through it.

We got to a water cache and the junction to turn off onto the trail. Morpheus had decided to continue on the road to a small store. I initially had decided to continue on trail, but was swayed by the idea of hot food.

We got to the store and two hikers we’d already there, one of whom had all his stuff spread out over a 40 foot long expanse. I went in and got the shepherd’s pie. It was not very good. Morpheus got pulled pork and that wasn’t very good either. We hung around and did some charging, eating, and resting. There were two friendly cats hanging around the patio!

We left and continued the road for a while before turning off into a slough. We quickly had to give up the idea of having dry feet. Most of the trail continued through a very cool forest, lush with moss and fern covered branches, vines, and even wild citrus! We stopped to try what we thought was an orange but it tasted like a lemon.

The worst parts were calf-deep mud. It went on and off as we followed the fence line of someone’s property.

We stopped for dinner at a picnic table and talked with Blue and DSquared, who amazingly are still hiking at 60 and 75.

We went on and a car camper named Rick gave us water and let us pet his adorable dog.

We turned the corner and decided to set up camp under a huge majestic oak.

1/16/24

We needed to get the new tent at the post office only 1.2 miles away. It didn’t open till 9. We could hear the lock workers showing up in the morning and discussing the tent. Although they didn’t seem mad, we started packing up.

It was quick hike to the road. As we tried to get a hitch, a woman pulled up and rolled down her window. Morpheus asked if she was going into town and she shouted “no!” and sped away, terrified. She saw two hikers and wanted to help but made assumptions when she saw a large black man.

Once it opened I continued waiting outside while Morpheus got the package, and the people going into the post office gave me dirty looks. One woman came out and asked me if I was okay, and pointedly ignored Morpheus. She pretty clearly only wanted to help the white lady, and either assumed the black man was part of the problem or didn’t deserve help.

Another lady came out and exclaimed, “we were so glad to discover you guys are backpackers and not homeless!” One thing I hate about thru hiking is experiencing the disdain people have for people experiencing homelessness, and it’s even worse when that completely goes away when they discover what you’re doing. If we were homeless and needed to use the post office, I don’t know what else we would do or what we were doing wrong. We were eager to get out of the town after these experiences.

We got an Uber back and he offered us water after finding out what we were doing. We walked about 5 miles on a road while it rained. A mailbox had been set up with some trail magic, and we had lunch there since the rain had stopped. We also met Whiskey who was zeroing nearby with his girlfriend.

The trail then turned into a marsh area that was beautiful. Best section of trail we had seen so far. Beautiful hanging moss adorned half the trees. It looked like a jungle. I hiked slowly taking photos of almost every plant. It finally felt like the kind of nature experience a hike should be.

We set up camp before another long road walk section. The new tent kept us dry through another rainstorm. We ate dinner and enjoyed another Avatar.

1/15/23

We met LT’s parents for breakfast and it was lovely. Playlist was excellent here too. Waffles and strawberries for me. We all left stuffed and it was great company.

We had to say goodbye to them and then packed our packs and made a quick stop at Walmart. I was so excited to get insoles, hopeful they will make any more time on pavement less painful, and even more hopeful there wouldn’t be more time on pavement.

LT dropped us off. What an amazing stay!!! He was so helpful and fun to be around, and it really couldn’t have come at a better time. It allowed both our feet to recover and got us out of the rain.

The area we pulled up to said Manatee Area which was so exciting but also a lie.

I spent some time looking for manatees before the nearby lightening convinced me to get off the metal dock.

We waited out the worst of the storm under the awning of the bathroom, catching up on Avatar the Last Airbender.

We made our move and got some light sprinkling, but were fine with our umbrellas. We saw an armadillo and an unknown critter- a fox or bobcat maybe.

The tent had broken seam seal so we watched the radar carefully to avoid setting up before any heavy rain. This led to our first night hike.

We passed some cows in the dark. While they are harmless, the large crowd of glowing eyes was horrifying. Morpheus also said he saw wild boars. I continued sweeping my head around, unable to decide if seeing them or not seeing them was more terrifying.

Finally we got to a lock and we took shelter under the awning of the building. We hung out for a couple hours, and a man (maybe a fisherman?) came over to ask if we were alright.

The storm passed and we set up a few feet away, and he even came back to offer us a pack of hot dogs. It was a kind offer even if we didn’t want to take him up on it.

1/13/24 and 1/14/24

This was a double zero! We stayed with LT who was an amazing host. Both mornings he made us delicious bacon, egg, and cheese bagels. We got to see the beach and two free concerts. We nearly saw a rocket launch. We saw his parents and had such an amazing dinner with them that we went out for breakfast the next day. We played a lot of video games. I even won Mario Kart once, and we all gained a new character in Morton (although we never figured out who he is). We got a lot of much needed rest. Lots of AT stories were told, then we started on an AT puzzle, and even watched A Walk in the Woods. We fixed our broken gear and broken feet.