Of course we couldn't end the trip, there was still a list of things to do...

Goodness hiked the Suwannee River section of the Florida Trail alone.

While Zm busted up to Savannah for the final time to visit Shasta and the rest of the Adam Family.

Afterwards, we drove out to Eglin Air Force Base to the spot where Pod and Gnar were so we could see them for the last time, do some trail magic, and put some fake tattoos on.  

We then drove back to our friend Rick's place in White Springs to spend time together, hold baby emus, and finally canoe a piece of the Suwannee River!

Still PDX by early April.

Strange and Wonderful Times of the South

It has been a few weeks since we decided to leave the trail and begin the final stage of our journey. We had only the faintest idea of what we needed to do next; this was the plan:

1. hugs in Savannah   

2. get to our car in Nocatee (about 8 car hours away)

3. do some stuff in Florida for some undetermined chunk of time

4. leave Florida and start heading back to PDX

We have arrived at step 4 today! Hello Mobile, Alabama!

Tomorrow we will spend the day in New Orleans which is a new city for both of us. :)



Step 3 solidified into us mentally transitioning back to civilization from a year of living outdoors as much as we could. We've had motel stays with internet coupled with some car camping. We find that we sleep much better and longer out in the open. In the motel, we tend to stay up late to soak up much internet.

We've had to make many compromises over how to spend our time. Goodness tends to get uncomfortable when there is no plan for the day, while Zm does just fine by the seat of her skirt. We have been inclined to make multi-day commitments to alleviate the stress of figuring out what to do next.

The biggest magic was a nice combination of Goodness' extroversion and Zm's research: Two nights camping on the beach in Canaveral National Seashore. The water was perfect: mildly bracing in the morning, then soothing during the midday heat. Most of the time we relaxed inside our well ventilated tent, keeping out of the intense sunlight. The mornings had mild wind, and a wonderful ocean breeze picked up in the afternoon to help keep us cool. When we weren't in the tent we were probably in the water.





GOODNESS:
"I wanted to end the trip right there. It was such an awesome time, that I wanted to keep that moment frozen in time as the official end of the trip."

3/5: Thru Hike is Done!

We are now on a bus heading to Savannah, GA, where friends are waiting to hug us. Over 500 miles of trail remain ahead of us, but we will not continue forward. We are not injured, nor sad. We are happy, tired, and ready for a shift in pace as our long and fantastic year of travel draws to a close.

We ended our thru at the banks of the Suwanee River in Northern Florida. The trail was just turning West into the panhandle after a long trek north. The last few days saw some dramatic shifts in the hiking.

The first big shift was the decision to hitch ahead. Catching up to our friends was deemed to be more important than connecting our steps. We ended up skipping about 60 miles trail, most of it unremarkable. Our hitches were magical. First road we came to, first car to show up. His name was Michael and his brother had hiked sections of the trail. He took us about 20 miles out of his way to the town of Starke. From there, we didn't even need to raise our thumbs. We were recognized by a local who was on his way North to start the Appalachian Trail and happened to be going in our direction!

The next day, we found out that we were still about 20 miles behind our friends. Big days were needed. But big days were behind us. I think we left them somewhere back near Stehekin.

A strange thing happens when you skip a chunk of trail: you lose a portion of your commitment along with the continuity. Once we decided that we were no longer willing to do big miles, continuing on the trail would push a finish date well into April. Dreams of home are becoming stronger and it will feel good to be back in Portland before a year has passed. Once we had decided that we weren't willing to hike to the terminus, it turned into a discussion of when to jump off. Sooner won out over later. Our maps indicated that jumping out would only become more difficult as time progressed. Couple that with nearby friends and we knew the time had come.

A cold front had moved in on our last day. Preceded by a night of thunderstorms, we woke to a crisp morning. Both of us were fairly solid on leaving by that point. Once we focused on moving off the trail, the details followed naturally. As we walked, we said our goodbyes. Around noon, we took a luxurious break in a fantastic screened shelter next to a stream. Leaving there, we were completely resolved and excited about our decision. We were planning on walking about 7 miles into White Springs but we didn't even get that far. Just 2 miles past the shelter we were adopted by a local named Rick who fed us soul food, gave us an apartment for the night, and took us to the nearest greyhound station at 6 this morning. Rick had no idea what the FT was or that it ran right past his house. He was so excited to see his property on our little FT map.

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Now we are in Savannah with hugs, and all is good.

 

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We are not quite done with the FT. Once we get our car, we will cherry pick the best sections of the panhandle, and meet our friends somewhere around there. After that, we will start heading West. Home is calling!

 

Our experience of Florida has been varied but mostly positive. My only real gripes are the long roadwalks, insanely humid weather, and evil evil ticks. Of the people we have met, there are only positive things to say.

 

All is good!

 

2/29 Happy Leap Day

As it happens when blogging gets too far behind, I have to resort to bullet points.

It took four days of rest for Zm's shin to become walkable again. Getting back to the trail was touch and go for a bit. We deliberately took a slow pace to test the injury. The first day got us out of Orlando. The second saw National Forest and the start of the best hiking thus far. Beautiful pine forests with actual hills and decent water.

Cool temperatures have prevailed with some rain as well. Today, it climbed back to the 80s and my shoes finally dried. They have been stinking up the tent every night.

The biggest bummer is that Pod and Gnar are about 3 days ahead of us. They only took one zero in Orlando. As it stands, we won't be able to catch them unless we skip some trail. Many priorities are being weighed right now.

Zm's shin is on its second pain free day. We still need to work on injury avoidance, but once injured, we are very good at healing on the move.

Life is good.

2/20 rest in Orlando

We are in the greater Orlando area staying at a friend's house and taking our first zero after 19 days of continuous walking. Zm has developed shin splints and we will rest for two to three days while our friends will continue forward tomorrow. The injury is most likely the result of expired footwear coupled with the lack of zeros. We are fixing both issues here.

Since I last wrote we have moved from extremely flat terrain to slightly less flat. A few days ago I was surprised to be climbing a noticeable grade taking place over a long distance. Yesterday we were climbing noticeable bluffs following a river. And watercourses are now flowing with perceivable volume. The water looks cleaner and sandy bottoms are starting to show.

2/9 Big Miles

We are rushing to meet Pod's mom tomorrow. She has our next seven days of food and we don't want to keep her waiting and worrying. Therefore: big miles! Today we did 24 miles and it feels like a 30 on the PCT. Most of the difficulty comes from the winter daylight hours. We only have about 11 hours of daylight compared to the PCT's 15. Shorter breaks and faster pace are required.
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Today we finally left road for trail, easing stress on the legs and feet while increasing wildlife sightings. Saw an armadillo for the first time. It slunk off into the bushes. Much of the trail has gone through public land shared by cows. Despite the cow turds it is nice to be under trees. Palms, oak, and pines predominate, with the occasional cypress in the swampier areas.

Today was also the last hot day for a while. A cold front is moving in as I type this. Lightning is flashing in the distance. Tomorrow should be in the low 70's and Sunday won't make it above 65. We are all looking forward to the change.

Another change: tonight is the first night not camped with Pod and Gnar. Big mile days increase the chance of becoming separated as we all have different approaches to the challenge. Another difference is being able to chat on the phone in our tent to our friends two miles back. Much more cell coverage on this trail.

Our bodies are holding up fine. All is good.

2/9: past lake Okeechobee

The Florida Trail is flat, almost unbelievably so. Think Nebraska but even more extreme. Elevation changes are in the tens of feet at gradients nearly undiscernable. The biggest elevation changes are all manmade and tend to be either bridges or dikes. The flatness is surprisingly difficult to adjust to both physically and psychologically. Physically, it means increased repetition where the PCT gave us variation. Psychologically, we are prevented from the rewarding vistas so accustomed to.

We have spent the last few days on a dike skirting he western edge of Lake Okeechobee. Fortunately the dike is ridiculously high, affording views for miles around. We hit small towns several times a day, usually stopping at a restaurant, or grabbing a quick soda. This afternoon, we finally left the lake and headed Northwest along the Kissimee River. Tomorrow we will finally hit trail tread and get it fairly consistently for the next week or so before we must negotiate the Orlando area. Since we left the Everglades a week ago, we have had nothing but roads to walk on. Dirt is the best, pavement is harsh.

Spirits are high and company is good. Every night we have camped with our friends. Usually we cook together and have a campfire when the environment affords one.

Photographs!

Here's some of our pre-trail food prep, Zm outside of the I-75 rest area, one of the largest alligators we saw, and Goodness in the tent about to slumber. 

:-D

5 February ~ Outside of Clewiston on the FT

It was a lovely drive down the backroads with Pod's mom, Carol, at the wheel and us Cardinals with our four backpacks fitting JUST right.  We hit the trail in the early afternoon and had a good short day of seven miles with dry feet to our camp.  Goodness and I continued our tradition of seeing a poisonous snake on the first day of a thru-hike by happening upon a cottonmouth viper. They really are quite considerate to the passersby!

The next day was our first full day out in the swamp and we got to wade through some muck, mud, water, and sand.  It's a grand thing that we've retained so much muscle from the PCT because it is hard work walking with a few extra pounds in your shoes!  We got more of this workout the following day starting in The Black Lagoon. No "Creature" to be seen, however we saw many egrets, tiny fish, vultures, and snail shells.

It took the bulk of the day to pass through and out of the swampiness and out treat at the end was a rest-area right on I-75. There was a hose beside it that we were able to use to spray all of the first few days out of our socks and shoes.  Leaving there with sand-free footwear made us very happy campers! From here we crossed Alligator Alley and stayed next to a canal that provided many alligators large and small for our enjoyment.

That night we heard bedtime stories from Pod about the tenacity of fire ants. They are amazingly fast and very good at what they do!  She explained how they eat their way through most anything, get into noseeum netting, and how they are equally as interested in dirty clothes as they are food.  It is all true.

Saturday we said goodbye to our little alligator friend in the pond beyond our campsite and set out for a very full day of road walking.  Leaving the preserve, we entered into Seminole Indian reservation land which was comprised of a few scattered houses on dirt roads with orange groves.  Just before lunch, the road turned to pavement and we traversed that hard road for about 15 miles.  Yikes!  It finally let up when we turned onto a dirt road again just before dark.  We slept on a dike next-door to another tiny alligator in the canal.

Today was the muggiest yet, the weather has been a summertime treat as we missed that season last year.  Humidity can be relentless though and that was the case today until a large downpour around 4:00.  We have been walking dirt roads all day and got up onto another dike for the second half of the day with a canal to the left and sugarcane fields as far as the eye can see! The landscape has been mostly farms and fields with occasional palms and the cypress domes receding into the distance.  Every evening the lightning bugs dance on long after we have turned in for the night.

Happy Birthday Kirk!

Cardinals hiking the Florida Trail in 3 weeks!

Hi people!  Team Colour has decided to set out on the Florida Trail at the end of this month.  This is an 1,100 mile thru-hike that we will begin in the south at Big Cypress with Racheopod and Gnar.  This year the first seven miles or so are closed because the access road is impassable to all but the more hardcore 4WD vehicles.  We plan to hike the western side of Lake Okeechobee, then the eastern route through the middle of the state, and finally end at Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island.

Hey.  Let's hike South to North on the Florida Trail  :)

Presently we are at the house of our dear friend Andrew.  He has generously shared his home with us as a space to relax, plan, and receive packages of gear, maps, and permits.  The maps are beautiful! They arrived yesterday and we have been studying them ever since.  It is fun to see all of the swamp we will be wading through and scan the maps for potentially difficult areas.

Pittsburgh will continue to care for us until Saturday morning at which time we will take a leap down into North Carolina.  We will continue the drive south to Savannah, Georgia the next day and then drop into Florida for the final stage of preparation.  

Peace, Love, Pacific Crest Trail

Done. Safe. Whole. Happy.

We hit the border on the 28. The next day was our last on the trail. The experience was harrowing and majestic. We got snowed on and rained on. The sun came out and warmed our spirits. We doubled back from the border and received goodbye hugs from most of our loved ones from the last 1000 miles of trail.

Details are too much work and we must rest. We remain in Portland the next few days to begin the transition back to civilization.

We have taken over 5000 pictures. Expect a preliminary posting of them soon.

The Skykomish Split

This morning as we were eating breakfast, we realized that some drastic changes were needed. We planned to stay in Skykomish tonight and get our packages in the morning. Unfortunately that would have made it impossible to get to our next (and final) stop before the PO closed for the weekend. We would need to put miles in tonight to do it. What it meant was that we needed our food drop today,  but it would be nearly impossible to hike the 25 miles and hitch into town before the Post Office closed at 3:45.

Our plan: split up. I took a side trail down to Hwy 2, while Zm carried the torch on the PCT. I was able to get to the highway around 1, and was in town before 2. Got the package, grabbed some food, and now I am at Stevens Pass waiting for Zm to show up. I will cook her dinner as she takes a much needed break, and then we hike on.

It looks like we will hit the border around the 28th, and most likely we will be done on Oct 1 or shortly before. We are looking forward to being done.

9/18 Rain and clouds

Once again, chores have allowed me to squeeze out a blog entry. Zm is sealing the seams on our tent, something we should have done before starting this trip.

This morning we climbed into a cloud. The trail climbs up high with extensive alpine views. Unfortunately the views were obscured for most of the day. Being on high ridgelines in clouds and rain takes its toll. It is similar to night hiking in that you have no frame of reference. Lacking is the sense of forward progress that fuels our hike.

This was also the first time to really test out our rain panchos. They mostly kept us dry. When we took breaks we would drape them over ourselves to hide from the rain completely. As the day progressed, the rain relented and our spirits were raised.  We should have nice weather for the next several days.

Roo and Marmot caught up at Snoqualmie and there are now six of us including Seahorse and Chillidog. We all have the same tent.

It just started raining again, but Zm is already done. Time to sleep once again. As the days get shorter, sleep time gets longer.

Halfway thru WA

We have been at Snoqualmie Pass since noon yesterday. Many hikers are here and the motel has taken on a dorm atmosphere.

The weather is terrible but we are going to roll out this morning anyway.

250 miles left!

9/13 Thirteen miles past White Pass in Washington

Amazingly, we have time for a blog entry from the trail. Several rips and tears on various pieces of gear are being repaired by Zm as I write this. We stopped about 45 minutes early at 7:00 to facilitate the necessary repair and enjoy the bottle of wine that I carried out of White Pass.

The weather has been phenomenal and unseasonably warm. The inevitable rain is still farther out than the forecasters can predict. The hot weather has a downside, which is fire and bugs. The nearby fires have been limiting our long distance views in a way similar to LA pollution. This morning the high pressure system relented enough to allow wind and clearer views for the first time in at least a week.

So far the Washington highlight has been the Goat Rocks Wilderness. This section was clouds, rain, and snow in 2006. Yesterday it was hot and gorgeous. Zm took the appropriately excessive amount of pictures.

Another big change has been the consistency of people. Washington has no choice of resupply points, therefore everybody seems to get in lockstep with other hikers. Also people's paces are aligning because we all know we are going to make it to the border. The difference between a 25 and 30 mile pace is a paltry 2 days at the finish. We are all dialing back to the easier 25 days to enjoy the end of this experience as well as the spectacular scenery that Washington has to offer.

Within 5 miles of us tonight are many hikers. There is a good chance that most of them will be equally as close when we finish this trail. Today we got to enjoy Seahorse, Chillidog, Han Solo, Bubbles, Boots and Pepe Lopez at White Pass. Some left earlier, some later, all knowing that we will encounter each other again in the next few days.

We are in good health and excellent spirits and in near disbelief that less than 340 miles of trail remain. Good night from mile 2317 of the PCT.

Oregon Is Complete

First, an apology for the lack of posts. We have been enjoying our experience to the fullest and blogging cuts directly into sleep time.

We are in Cascade Locks, OR, right next to the Colombia River and the border of WA. Since our last pathetic post in Ashland we have traveled over 400 miles and the entire length of Oregon. The travel has been easy compared to other sections but the days have still been long and focused.

We have seen Crater Lake, the Three Sisters, Hood, Jefferson and tons of other volcanos. We have swum in warm mountain lakes and feasted on huckleberries.

For several days the mosquitoes were really bad. We slathered on deet to ward them off. The late snow melt has delayed their peak for at least a month.

One of the big highlights was our trip to Bend. Our friends Kirk and Anthony were going to meet us at McKenzie pass to take us into Sisters but they weren't there when we got there. After getting in touch we discovered they were in Bend with a busted head gasket. However they had borrowed a car from a friend and ended up meeting us anyway. We ended up going back to Bend with them and staying with the aforementioned friend for two nights of fantastic and unexpected trail magic.

After leaving Bend we were two days behind and behind people we knew. The last part of Oregon has been great because we have finally started to hike with people again. There were a chunk of us determined to make it to Timberline Lodge in time for the breakfast buffet.

We made it but then discovered that the trail had just closed ahead due to a huge fire. The detour was way off to the East and consisted of lots of road walking. But due to the camaraderie of five other hikers the detour was actually fun and not just bearable.

So now we are waiting for the right people to show up. We want good folks around for the final leg of this trek. Either that or we get bored and go in to Washington anyway.

Just 500 miles left!

8/18 ~ Ashland, Oregon

Hello dear readers. Team Colour has made it to the state of Oregon! We have gathered all of our foods for the drops for this state and will be sending them out in the morning. Phew! It is hard work to go shopping in so many stores after only seeing open spaces for so long. This journey is moving more quickly now - under 1,000 miles to go! There is more to tell, as always, but the time to rest is upon me. <3

8/13 Etna ~ Land of the Small Town

This morning Goodness and I hitched into Etna, CA. This town here welcomed us with a space called The Hiker Hut which is a bunk-filled space with a kitchenette, shower, laundry and the wonderful pile of clothing to wear while everything gets clean. There is also a television set for VHS movies... a flick entitled Transylvania 6-5000 buzzes in my present background. :) It is quite hilarious actually and definitely from 1985.

This Hut is next to a small Bed & Breakfast run by a lovely woman named Vicki. She greeted us this morning and gave us the lowdown on the space and the local eateries. After tiding ourselves up and adorning some fun loner clothing, we rode bikes down to breakfast with HappyMeal and Overload. It was so wonderful to finally get to talk to other hikers again as we have been in a lull since the Hat Creek Rim. This place had other magic in store for us this evening when we went out to the Etna Brewing Co. for dinner.. We met Holden there and he had his girlfriend along with three other friends coming in from the east. It turns out that Holden and his gal, Loni, lived one town over in NJ from my hometown and he took his SATs years ago at my High School! I love the small world occurrences! It was wonderful to talk of all the places we knew in common, the roads and 'secret' routes to get somewhere, the small reverse theater, and the best spots for seasonal pumpkin ice cream. These unexpected visitors were a wonderful breath and amazing people with which to spend the evening. I hope to see them out in civilization again sometime.

The last few days of trail have been nothing short of wonderful. It has helped that the trail conditions have moderated and that things have become smoother. Last night we hiked until 10PM to reach the trailhead for a true zero day today. This allowed us to be atop a saddle at a time of night we would otherwise already be in camp. In one direction was the rising of the nearly full moon and on the other, the fluorescent sherbert sunset. Words will not aid me here, so please use your imaginations as you await post-hike photographs. :)

We have secured a ride back to the trailhead tomorrow morning at 9AM and will be further celebrating DAY 100!!!! Yes, that's right, Day 100. Only 1,000 miles and a day to go. Our next real stop is Ashland, Oregon which means also that ALL of California will be walked in about 5 days time. Love it! It is our hope that our Cardinals will catch us there as we got a message from Pod revealing that they should be within a day of us! It is wonderful always whether on this trail or across the world to miss and be missed. Now please, what are YOU up to? Only two states left to write letters! ;)

8/9 Castella and cell service!

Listening to the roar of trucks on I-5 as we pack in calories and deal with our resupply packages. The last few days were brushy with lots of poison oak hanging out over the trail waiting to catch the unwary hiker. It is annoying because you can't go on autopilot whenever it is around, much like snow travel.

We have been traversing high ridges south of Mt Shasta. Gorgeous views of the volcano persist into the next section. In fact it will be in view for the next two weeks of walking as we do a big half circle around it.

Our bodies are strong. The midday heat slows us down, but we make up for it by vigorous travel in the evening. Yesterday we did a 2000 foot climb from 6-8 PM. We did a similar climb around midday and it took an extra hour.

In a few days we will be at Etna and will take our first zero day since we left Tahoe weeks ago. Hopefully we will have service there. I would advise all potential thru-hikers to not go with T-Mobile as their service providers!

~ Goodness