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!