It is nice to be on real trails again. But I will miss having a toilet and a shower.

Waiting out the Rain

The forecast kept changing a little bit, but early in the morning the expectation was that it would start raining at 7:00 a.m. and end shortly after 10:00. This would be absolutely perfect for my schedule, as check out time is 10:00.

I woke up and started getting things ready about 6:30. Packing the food bag was the hardest of all. I have so much food that I can’t close the bag properly. I have to leave the food that I will be eating today outside of the bag.

I have eaten on my leftovers, drank all my smoothies and milk, and I have everything packed and ready to go by 9:00. There is nothing left to do but wait out the rain. An hour of television will help that. HBO just happens to be showing Dune so I watch an hour of that.

The entire trip so far I think I’ve only watched about 20 minutes of television. It’s just so horrible these days. But an hour of a movie I can deal with.

At 10 minutes till 10:00, the rain has stopped. Time to make a break for it. There is water dripping from the trees but it is no longer raining.

I go and check out then run by the general store to grab a croissant to go. I am finally leaving the resort.

Road Walk Number One

It takes about a mile to just get off the resort campus and through the main gate.

The next 2 miles will be on the same road. The trail then turns into a managed area for another 2 miles. This will be the last wooded trail I will see for a while today.

Road Walk Number Two

Once the two mile wooded trail ends, this time for the big road walk. I have about five and a half miles to walk on State Road 60. This is a very high speed and heavy traffic Road.

The first half mile is just getting to the bridge that crosses the Kissimmee River for the last time. Luckily there is a pedestrian walkway on the north side of the bridge.

Other than this walkway over the bridge, I will be walking on the grass shoulder for 5 plus miles. It is somewhat sloped but it is not as bad as some others. The grass has been mowed fairly recently, so it is not terribly unpleasant.

It is a little bit cloudy and quite breezy during the walk. I am cool when the sun is covered and I am warm when the sun is shining. It is too windy to use the umbrella and I don’t want anything to block my vision of the cars. The hot and cold cycle is perfect.

It takes about 2 and 1/2 hours to complete the road walk with two small breaks along the way. When the road walk ends another one begins.

Road Walk Number Three

I enter the Wildlife Management area on a dirt road. I have to follow this road for another three or four miles.

When the road comes to a hunting check station, there is a hand pump so I stopped for water and decide to eat lunch. It’s a late lunch as it is about 2:30 in the afternoon.

The trail begins behind the check station. I will be hiking trails that zig zag across this road for the next 40 mi or so. But tonight I am only worried about 10 of them to the campsite.

After doing a little math, I figure out that it’s going to be dark by the time I get to the campsite. Oh boy. There is one campsite just ahead of the trail but it is way too early to stop hiking.

Future Road Walk

There is another really bad road walk that I have coming up in about 3 days. I am timing the next 3 days so that I can camp at the very last campsite before that road walked begins. This will give me the maximum amount of daylight to finish that road walk.

For this reason I can’t stop at the close campsite. If I stop now it will just make tomorrow and the next day worse. I need to try and push on now to see how far I can get.

The trail in this area is very wide open grasslands much like the Kissimmee Preserve State Park was. The difference being that these trails are not flooded like the state park.

The wind is quite strong because there are very few trees. And with the cool temperatures and the cloud cover I am getting a little chilly. The only thing I have convenient is my rain jacket which would absolutely cook me if I put it on. In this case it is better to hike a little cold than to get all sweaty for nothing.

Time to Camp

At about 5:30, I am still more than four miles away from the campsite I am aiming for. In the Wildlife Management areas, you’re supposed to camp only at designated sites during hunting season. It is still hunting season here until January 26th.

But I spot a very thick tree line of oaks and palmettos. This will provide lots of protection from the wind and the dew. This is an ideal place to stop and camp so I decide to go back away from the trail 100 yards and stealth camp.

It is already starting to get dark, so they set the tent up very quickly behind a set of palmettos to block the wind. After that is done I go away from my tent to cook dinner.

By the time I start cooking, it is already dark enough that I need my flashlight. I have one of the OnTrek meals that I decided to try for this trip.

This particular brand requires you to cook the meal in the pot. Most dehydrated meals you just pour water into a bag and eat out of the bag. That is one thing I really don’t like about this brand.

Another thing that I don’t like about this brand is that this particular meal is horrible. It is called Shepherd stew. It is basically just potatoes with some flavoring and vegetables added. I don’t think there is any meat in it at all.

It requires a large volume of water which is really beyond the comfortable limit for my pot. There is a vegetable bag that needs to be boiled for 2 minutes. Then the rest of the ingredients go in the pot.

It is nearly impossible to get everything in without having some spill over the edges. I am careful to capture anything that has spilled. This meal takes up valuable propane for no return. I am never buying this brand again.

Once everything is cleaned up it’s time to crawl into the tent. It is still quite windy and it is starting to get chilly. The forecast says it will get down to 37° tonight. My bag is rated at 40°.

This means I will be wearing the long johns and the down jacket to bed. As I am changing it is quite cold in the tent. But once I get all my layers on I am very toasty. Let’s hope I am still toasty at 6:00 a.m.

Emotion of the Day

Today’s emotion is dread. But it is probably not for the same reason you are thinking of.

I am not a fan of the busy highway road walks. But these three today did not cause me dread.

The temperatures in the 30s for the next four nights are not causing me dread.

What I am really dreading is having to eat five more meals made by the same company. I don’t know how many I have on this stretch until Orlando. I will have others scattered throughout other boxes for the rest of the trip.

Most of my boxes have extra freeze dried meals in them to extend the food I will be buying locally. As I encounter these in the future, I may end up pitching them unless they look really good. Or I may just end up buying additional food as back up.

The thought of having to buy additional food that I may or may not need and carry it causes me dread.

Yesterday, I expected the emotion today to be comatose. But today has been quite busy doing chores literally Into the night.

Breakfast

After waking, the first order of business is coffee. There is a coffee maker in the room and it makes reasonably good coffee. There is a Starbucks at the resort but they don’t open until 8:00 a.m. and that might as well be noon in my books.

I reheat a slice of leftover pizza, then check my laundry to see if everything is dry. Everything is good to go except for one pair of shorts. The water shoes are even bone dry.

I start working on blog posts because I am behind by several days. I actually write them and schedule them to automatically publish about 5 days later. This way I can keep a steady stream of posts even when I don’t have good cell signal.

I am also blogging for another site, https://thetrek.co, but those blogs span regions of the trail and not days of my hike. But they still take a lot of time to prepare and publish. I also scheduled those to publish after several days of delay.

Once 8:00 rolls around, I head over to the general store to grab a croissant and a milk. Back at the room it is more blogging.

Just before noon, I decide it’s warm enough outside to go hit the pool. I swim for about 30 minutes and spend a few minutes in the hot tub stretching my legs. It really feels good and my feet are actually pretty clean now. I love smelling like chlorine.

Lunch

After changing into dry clothes, I head over to the main restaurant to check it out. It is a limited menu but they have some decent selections. I order a patty melt and fries. I wanted a salad but they don’t have any side salads. They are only full dinner salads. I do not want that much salad.

Back at the room, it is more blogging. I also spend time backing up videos from the cameras to the phone. Videos are definitely harder to deal with than photos on a phone.

At some point I decided it’s time to open the box. And as expected, it is a massive amount of food. Not all of it is going to fit in the food bag. I wonder how heavy the pack is going to be tomorrow.

There is a post office on the resort and I was hoping that I could mail some excess equipment back home. But the post office only mails out letters, not parcels. They don’t ever really open either. It’s just a slot in a wall to drop letters into.

The cell service is almost non-existent here. And the Wi-Fi is so bad did it takes forever to upload just a few images for each blog post. Most of the time they failed to upload and I have to try four or five times before they work.

Dinner

The current blog post I’m working on refuses to upload any images. I need to go to one of the main buildings to try and get a stronger Wi-Fi signal. I might as well grab dinner at the same time.

I go back to the general store to get a sandwich. While I am waiting I walk around the various buildings looking for the strongest Wi-Fi signal. There is a picnic table right behind the general store that has a full signal. I grabbed my sandwich and headed to picnic table to begin uploading.

Even with the stronger signal, one of the images refuses to upload. It takes me nearly 45 minutes to get the one image up to the web. This blogging stuff really is a significant chore. But I enjoy doing it. I just like having a better signal while doing it.

Back at the room it is more blogging. In fact it is now 11:00 p.m. and I’m still blogging. I am starting to become comatose but not in the way I was expecting yesterday.

Emotion of the Day

It is definitely not comatose. I think frustrated is the word for today.

What should been a day of swimming, sleeping, and watching TV, has become a day of fighting with the internet. I’m not sure which is worse – bad internet or bad blisters.

I did manage to swim for 30 minutes and watch TV for an hour. But other than that it has been cleaning, packing, and blogging. With the emphasis on blogging.

It’s more fun being in the woods.

It is always motivating when you’re going to a town. Not only is your pack lighter because you have less food, but the promise of a shower, a soft bed, and laundry puts an extra spring in your step.

Chilly Evening

Last night while I was cooking dinner, I was wearing my rain jacket because it was a little chilly. The forecast said only 42 but it felt a little colder than that.

So I decided to wear my puffy jacket to bed and I’m glad I did. I have been wearing my fleece hat so that I can cover my eyes from the moon while I sleep. But Last night I also wore my gloves. It was the perfect combination and I slept toasty if not a little bit warm.

Since I only have nine miles to go and I can’t check in till 4:00 p.m., there’s no rush this morning. I don’t even start my morning routine until nearly 7:30.

Since I have a leisurely morning, I decide to cook a cup of coffee. Actually, Cafe con leche. The chilly air this morning makes it a perfect antidote for the cold.

It is nearly 8:45 by the time I actually leave camp. This is a full hour and a half past my regular time.

The Road to River Ranch Resort

The trail weaves back and forth across a dirt road for much of the day. This suits me fine because I am wearing my dry shoes.

When I went to get water this morning, it felt like my heels were rubbing a little. So before I left, I put on a second pair of socks to add more cushioning and a little more slip. So far it seems to be doing the trick. I really should switch out to a pair of shoes that I would normally wear for this kind of hike.

The trail passes by three or four very large beehives. They also had some other contraption nearby which I think was just water or some kind of nectar food source for them. There were a million bees everywhere so I did not get too close.

Since this is the road out from the campsite where I stayed last night, there are a few cars coming by throughout the morning. I see the same truck three times. He is in no hurry.

Time for a Little Work

When I glanced down at my phone, I noticed that it is exactly 10:00. This is the time of my normal weekly meeting at work. I checked to see if there is cell service and there seems to be one bar, so let’s give it a try.

I dialed into the morning call and I am delighted to find that the audio and video quality is quite good. I spent the morning chatting with my coworkers and showing them some of the sights and sounds I was going through. I think they all expected me to be eaten by alligators by now.

I also find out that we have a company all-hands at 1:00 this afternoon. That is about the time I expecting to be at the resort, so I might try and dial into that too.

Time to Relax

Since I only have nine miles to hike this morning, I am definitely in no rush. I stopped two or three times throughout the morning to sit and drink and snack.

But when I get to the campground host at the end of the road, I know I am only 1 mile from the resort. It is only noon, so I decide I will take an extended break here. I will see what other food is hidden in my food bag that I can snack on. And I will sit and drink some water for a while.

When 1:00 rolls around, I dial into the meeting and find that I still have good signal. I actually feel like I’m no longer hiking at this moment. And I guess I’m not, since I’ve been sitting at this bench for an hour now.

After the call is over, I pack up and head out. It is much warmer now and I need to get the umbrella out. I can already see the water tower for the resort. And it is so large I can tell I’m already on their property.

Welcome to the River Ranch Resort

This is my first official mail stop. Karen mailed a box full of food to the resort a week ago. It has five days of food and needs to get me to the Orlando area.

Since I have abused my feet pretty badly the last week, I am planning on staying here for two nights. I am only hiking part of the day today. This is considered a nearo, or nearly zero miles. Yes, nine is nearly zero in hiker brains. Tomorrow will be a zero, because I will hike no miles at all.

I will probably spend half the day in the swimming pool and the other half blogging.

I can see the main intersection of the resort is coming up and I notice the Conestoga wagons and teepees on the left. They are very high dollar accommodations. I am just staying in a lodge room.

I turned down the road into the resort facility and start to see more and more buildings appear. There is the primitive camping or rent-a-tent on the left. On the right is the petting zoo. Next on the left is the chapel. Next on the right is the saloon. Are they sure they wanted to put the saloon right across the street from the chapel?

I see signs pointing me to registration so I head that way. It also happens to be the main restaurant, a steakhouse.

I check in even though it is only 2:00 p.m. and they are fine with that. The desk clerk also asks if I need anything and I ask about laundry and Band-Aids. They don’t have laundry but she can give me laundry soap to do my laundry in the sink. And she hands me a giant stack of Band-Aids.

When I ask about the box I had shipped here, that’s when the confusion begins. She calls to maintenance to get the box and they sound like she has three heads. Just happens to be the same clerk that I called two weeks ago before mailing the package to verify that I could mail it here. She says she will find it and call my cell phone when they locate it. Sounds good.

I go to the room and then immediately start washing my feet. The blisters on the tops of the toes have definitely gotten worse. I will lance them after I have cleaned my feet.

I can now see that new blisters are starting to form on my heels. I think the extra socks and extra insoles is actually causing more harm than good at this point.

It is very fortunate that I am not going to be hiking any miles tomorrow. I definitely need some healing time.

After the feet are clean, then it’s full body shower time. Even though I had a shower yesterday, I am amazed at how much filth and slime has accumulated on me in just one day. I guess when you put dirty clothes on a clean body the body isn’t really clean anymore.

The next order of business is laundry. Since I don’t have an actual dryer, I need to do them quickly so they have time to dry out for using tomorrow. It takes over an hour and a half to wash just 10 articles of clothing. I am glad she gave me two bags of laundry soap.

While I am in the middle of doing laundry, a knock on the door is one of the maintenance guys bringing me my box. Now all the critical items are in place.

Explore the Ranch

After a shower, laundry, and a quick call to home, it is time to find some grub. I have not been eating any of the remaining snacks I have on hand. I have not opened the box yet, but expect to find that I have too much food for the next section. Since the prices at the resort here are very expensive, I don’t want to be forced to buy anything I don’t need to.

I check out the list of restaurants and I’m sad to find out that the main smokehouse is only open on Friday and Saturday but today is Wednesday. The general store has a deli or the main steakhouse is open. I think I will scope out the deli. I hear they have good pizza.

On my way out, I head towards the pool first to check it out. There are only three people in it and it is a pretty large pool. I will definitely be back tomorrow.

I then head in the direction of the general store. It is situated in a little u-shaped arrangement of small stores. Most of the stores are closed, but the general store and the Western Wear store are still open. There is a post office that is only open a few hours a day. I might try and mail a few heavier things back home tomorrow.

I head into the general store and indeed they do serve pizza. So I order a pepperoni pizza and browse around to do some shopping.

All of the laundry rooms are kitchenettes. The food selection at the general store reflects that. It is mostly canned goods, bread, cold cuts, and what I call a car camping food.

My eye spots of fruit smoothie and a bottle of milk. My other eye spots a jar of olives. I miss olives so I grab a jar. I also noticed they have Boar’s Head hot dogs and fresh hot dog buns. I think that might end up being a staple of tomorrow’s lunch time menu.

When the pizza is ready, I head back to the room. It takes only 5 or 6 minutes. When I began eating, the pizza it is still scalding hot. It is also dripping with grease. A New Yorker would be proud, but it is not New York quality. It will suffice for a hiker.

Emotion of the Day

Relax I think is today’s emotion even though I think tomorrow will be absolutely flooded with it.

I felt relaxed when I woke up this morning and just vegged out in my tent. I felt relaxed when I was walking down the road stopping frequently to drink and snack. I felt relaxed when I called in to my morning work meeting. I felt relaxed while I sat at the picnic table for an hour at the camp host.

And I definitely feel relaxed after a hot shower and a big soft bed.

Even though I was just as hot, just as smelly, just as sore, and just as thirsty as any other day, none of it seemed to matter today.

Perhaps tomorrow’s emotion will be comatose.

I could use a little less mud and water.

I Feel Like I Have the Park All to Myself

Even though I am camping near someone else, the park is remote. I pack up and leave before Max is even stirring.

The ground is very wet so I am wearing my water shoes. My feet felt pretty good when I woke up, but they don’t feel great walking in the water shoes. The ground is uneven because it has been torn up by wild hogs. The uneven ground twists my feet in odd positions that are uncomfortable.

I have six or seven miles to the park headquarters. And the only thing I can see for miles is grass and palmettos. The tree line has to be at least three miles away.

When I am only two miles from the campground, I passed by a walker coming the other way with the dog. I decide it is a good time to switch to the dry shoes. I am walking on a road in the grass is not very thick at all even though it is still slightly wet.

Get Cleaned Up

As soon as I am within eyesight of the campground, I start scouting out the buildings. The first one I spot is the bathroom complex.

As I am headed that way, the campground host tells me where the office is and also tells me that the back left shower has the best water pressure. That is where I must go.

Best or not, the water pressure was fine. And the temperature was just perfect.

It took at least 30 minutes to get everything clean. I washed a pair of socks and a pair of underwear in the shower because they don’t have a laundry facility. These two items were in desperate need of cleaning.

I put on a clean set of clothes and I feel like a million dollars. It seems like forever that I have not felt slimy and dirty. I wonder how long is feeling will last.

I sat outside the shower room to eat first lunch as it was now about 11:00. After I finished eating, I took inventory of the food I had remaining to get me to the River Ranch Resort. It looks like I packed exactly the right amount. It is very rare that I show up to a spot without having too much food left over. I rate myself five out of five stars.

Campground Office

I make my way to the campground office to pay my camping fee for the previous night and the entrance fee to the park. A $2 entrance fee and $5.50 to camp.

When I go to pay my fee, I find out that the camping fee includes the entrance fee so it is only $5.50. Score!

While I am in the office, I also glance at the photos they have of birds and plants. I’ve seen a million birds on this trip that I have not been able to identify. One of them is tan and brown with a very dark flat top haircut and a prominent yellow beak.

I spot a huge painting of him and another photograph that identifies and as a Caracara. What a really cool looking bird. Too bad I don’t have the equipment to get a really good photograph of one. I’ve been seeing them ever since the sugarcane fields.

Time to Head Out

I still have 14 miles to get to the campsite I am planning on staying at tonight. And only a half a mile from the headquarters, I can see a water crossing. There is no way around this one, so let’s pull the shoes off and walk across barefoot.

This crossing is very wide and very deep. It is at least 150 yards long. And I find that about 2/3 across it is also very deep. The water here is even deeper than in the Everglades and gets my pants wet. But I make it across in one piece, just a little wetter than planned.

It turns out that for the next ten miles this scenario is going to repeat itself every half mile. I am really losing time having to stop and take my shoes off.

For short periods I put on the water shoes knowing that another one will come up soon. But the water shoes are wearing my feet out. They’re definitely not as comfortable as the dry shoes are.

When I am only about three miles from my campsite and it is well after 5: 00, I come across a bicyclist heading towards me. He is from Quebec and his English is not great. Is hard to communicate with him but I understand the trail ahead is very bumpy and there is more water. Yay water.

Sure enough, there are several more water areas that I have to wade through. About half of the water areas had a trail where you could bypass it. But the other half you had no choice but to go straight through.

Crossing the Kissimmee River

Once I make it out to the dirt road, I know there is no more water for many miles. About a half a mile away is another lock across the Kissimmee River. This one we get to walk across.

It is less than 30 minutes to sunset and the view of the lake is quite nice. But walking straight into the sun makes it hard to see things.

I finally make it to the campsite and there are many vehicles camped here. I thought there was a pitcher pump here, but when I check the information I find that the river is the water source.

As I begin collecting water from the river, one of the campers comes out and offers me a bottle of water. He is interested in my water filtration system. As we are talking, another camper comes up with a Great Dane. This dog is huge and is still a puppy, so he is very playful.

I leave them talking to go set up camp, which I make under the cover of a tree. I get things set up quickly and then grab my food to go borrow the picnic table of the camper who offered me the water.

We begin talking again as I am cooking dinner, and the other camper comes back with a different Great Dane this time. The first camper is from Cincinnati and escaping the snow.

The second camper is from the space coast and worked at the space Center for 33 years. I worked there for a 5-year period that overlapped his 33 years so we have a lot in common and chat about it a bit.

After dinner, I went back to my tent and set up my bed quickly. It is actually pretty chilly. It’s supposed to get down to 42° tonight. I may have to wear extra layers.

I also start researching the resort that I will go to tomorrow. Seeing that I now have blisters on my other foot, I decide I will try and book two nights and take a day off.

I need some time to recover before I push again. But I will say that between yesterday and today, I am starting to feel like I am properly conditioned for hiking again. It’s only my feet that don’t agree.

So for tomorrow I only have nine miles to the resort. Check-in time is not until 4:00 p.m. and seeing that it’s going to be cold tonight, I will probably sleep in a little bit tomorrow. But the swimming pool and hot tub at the resort are definitely calling my name.

Emotion of the Day

Refreshed is the best word I can think of for today.

Just having that shower and clean clothes on made me feel like a completely new person.

I ended up putting dirty clothes on to actually hike after I left the office. But even with dirty clothes on I still felt refreshed for many hours.

A shower is powerful medicine.

There is a reason they call ibuprofen vitamin I. Sometimes it essential nutrition. And it works.

Start the Day in Water Shoes

I know the grass will be wet with dew this morning. I know I have a water crossing in the first 200 yards or trail today. Two reasons to put on wet shoes and socks this morning.

Putting on cold shoes and socks is never fun. It is doubly not fun when you have blisters. But at least they are not soaking wet.

I don’t get rolling until about 7:30 today. I have been avoiding that first plunge of the day. It is deep enough that the shoes get a full dunking. They are loaded with mud, too.

The dew from the grass is actually cleaning the shoes as I walk. The blister is not hurting at all. The tendon is still a little better but the cool water makes it stiffer.

After an hour, I exit this section of water management district land and begin another road walk. I stop to switch to the dry shoes. By now the tendon is warmed up and actually feels pretty good.

The road walk is on a small road and only lasts a few miles. Now I am entering a larger section which will take me to a new section – the Kissimmee Preserve State Park. This park requires an admission fee and paid backcountry camping sites. I have to pay tomorrow as I hike past the park office.

Dry Shoes

The land here is dryer, and I can stay in my dry shoes most of the time. I think I switched to the water shoes or went barefoot only five or six times today. This is progress.

The tendon is a little bit sore still, but much better than yesterday. As long as I don’t flex it more than 90 degrees, it is good. This means more careful foot placement is required.

One of the highlights for today was walking past a spring that had been capped off and a hole drilled in the cap. It made a water fountain that looks like it is coming out of a tree. There are also some sour citrus trees around.

Another Hiker at Last

The final highlight of the day was running across another they hiker today. He started the day before me and is probably the same hiker I almost met on the dikes around lake Okeechobee. Small world.

He just finished the PCT three months ago. He plans to finish the Florida Trail and then jump out and do the Arizona Trail. Quite ambitious I am a little jealous.

We are both heading to the park office tomorrow. He is going to camp there. I will probably only take a shower then move on.

We both make camp at a campsite about six or eight miles from the office. There is a hand pump at this site. It is the first functioning hand pump I have found yet on the trail. I filter the water out of habit but it looks like it would be good to drink straight.

Emotion of the Day

Today is definitely relieved.

I am relieved that the blister is under control. I am relieved that the tendon is much improved today. I am relieved that ibuprofen is working. I am relieved to be able to hike a full day today. I am relieved that I am not the only one hiking this trail.

I love hiking, but some days are just tough. Today was one of those days.

A Cool Evening

I Don’t know what the temperature was last night but it got pretty chilly. This morning was still brisk, but didn’t seem quite as cold.

I have 24 miles to the campsite I have reserved for tonight, so I need to get up fairly early. I managed to get packed and leaving at 7:15 which is a little later than I wanted.

The ground is dewey and the grass is well cut, but my shoes still get a little bit damp. I am wearing my dry shoes now, but I know I have some roadwalks ahead so I keep the dry shoes on. I think tomorrow I need to start out with the water shoes.

Road Walking

The road walk doesn’t last very long before the trail dips into the woods again. After just a few miles it pops out to the same road again. luckily, this road has very little traffic.

I am getting a little tired in my feet or so I stop at the exit of the trail onto the road walk. My blister is a bit sore and when I look at it I can see it’s swollen pretty well. I decide it’s best to lance it and let it drain, so that it doesn’t spread any further. The sewing kit comes in handy once again. I also have a smaller blister on the top of the big toe and put a band-aid on that one.

When I begin walking on the road again I can feel the pressure on the blister forcing out more fluid. After about a half a mile it actually feels pretty good. I think all the pressure has been relieved. But it also probably means I have a gooey sock. The Achilles tendon is pretty sore, but I will manage.

When I get to the end of this road, it intersects with a very busy and high-speed road. There is a wide shoulder and the grassy area is well mowed and easy to walk on.

There is a church across the street that supposedly has water, but I got one liter from the water cache a few miles back.

About a mile down this road walk and on coming car stops to talk to me. It turns out it’s local trail maintainers. They offered me an apple and a Gatorade. The apple I eagerly accept, because fresh fruit is so hard to get. Eventually, I accept the Gatorade as well, because I know I’m going to have a long hot walk today.

I talked with them about the trail conditions ahead. From the maps it looks like it’s going to be pretty wet. There is an alternate high water route for a portion of the next two sections.

The maintainer says the first high water route should be taken to avoid some wading. But the rest of the first section is just a few little mud puddles. The second section she said is dry enough you don’t need to take the alternate high water route.

Wading and Mud

The high water round on the first section basically just hugs the fence line of the property. But even then there are some moody spots that get my shoes a little wet.

But just as soon as the two trails meet again, I can see within a hundred feet that the mud is several inches deep. There’s no way I can walk through this with my dry shoes.

So I stopped and put on my wet shoes, which are actually bone dry right now. They actually feel comfortable since they are well worn to my feet.

After taking the first few steps into the mud, I am surprised to see it is actually cool water and not hot. With black mud and only a few inches of water, I expected it to be very hot. The coolness of the water is actually refreshing.

The mud wading only lasts about 100 yards, maybe less. But then a few tenths of a mile further, there is more mud.

After about a half of mile with no more mud, I decided it’s time to put the dry shoes back on. But in less than a 10th of a mile it turns to mud again. This would be a repeating theme for the rest of the afternoon.

After the 4th or 5th time of putting the water shoes on, I stopped bothering you to even put shoes on at all and walked through the mud barefoot. It saved a lot of time.

The trail on the second section hugged the fence line most of the time, but I went ahead and took the high water route. Oddly, it went through the middle of the park on a road instead of the fence line. I don’t think it made a difference either way.

Not Going to Make it

This was supposed to be a very long 24 mile day. But on the road walk, I could not do my normal 3 plus miles per hour. Because of my achilles tendon, it was more like two and a half. Going fast just put too much pressure on it.

On the trails, I was even slower. I could barely do two miles an hour. And every time I stopped to change shoes, I would lose another 15 minutes.

By the afternoon, it was obvious that 7:30 was about the most optimistic arrival time at the campsite. I was running low on water, so my first priority was finding a decent water source.

Just outside the park boundary is cattle country. Any water source shared on both sides is disgusting. And many of the water sources on the prairie side are not great either.

But I see a post in the comments of the hiking app about an unmarked site where a bridge goes over a creek. The commenter says the water is pretty good. I decided that would be my destination to refill on water. Then I will stop at the next decent campsite.

Once I get to the bridge, there is a good amount of water and it’s easy to get to because of the bridge. One side is covered with surface scum and looks disgusting. The other side looks pretty decent. So I stopped and filtered two liters of water. I collect some extra unfiltered water for cleaning my feet at camp.

Only 2/10 of a mile past where I filtered water, the trail goes through mud that requires taking shoes off again. Rather than deal with that tonight I decided I will turn around and go back to an area that looked like it would have decent camping.

I don’t want to have to deal with wet and muddy feet tonight. Because the area is very grassy I will be starting out in my water shoes in the morning. I may as well make that mud crossing the first part of my day.

Cold Soaked Dinner

When you have a long day or a lot of road walks, sometimes it’s easier to eat things that don’t require cooking. So at my stop in the morning, I put ramen noodles in my cold soak jar and then ate them for lunch several hours later. Ramen noodles taste pretty good this way if you only use half of the seasoning packet.

So at lunch I decided I would try it with the cheddar and broccoli rice that I intended to eat tonight. Many people on other long trails cold soak those dinners and say they taste fine. I am here to tell you that they’re disgusting.

I am not against cold soaking. I think it’s a wonderful idea to rehydrate something without having to boil it. But this evening’s rice and noodle dinner is intended to be cooked to thicken. When they are not cooked, you feel like you just eating flavored dirt. Think of trying to make gravy without heat. Yuck

I only have one more of those rice dinners and might eat it tomorrow. But you can bet your ass I’m going to cook it.

Emotion of the day

Disappointment is the first word that comes to mind.

Disappointed that my Achilles tendon is slowing me down as much as it is. Disappointment that the trail today slowed me down because all of the mud. Disappointment at the inaccuracy of the report from the locals.

But that is what hiking is all about. It’s not all fun and games. Most days are actually quite hard. This just happened to be one of those.

When I woke up, my foot felt much better but was still very tender to walk on. I also noticed some swelling in my left Achilles tendon.

Shopping is a Pleasure

I can go get the hotel breakfast now, but I have to wait an hour for Publix to open to go shopping. I head out 10 minutes early so that I can get there right as they are opening their doors.

I only have a few items I need to buy other than first aid for the feet. I was supposed to resupply at a gas station about a day and a half in, but their deli is not open on Sunday and that’s when I will be there. Plus it is a road walk to get to it and I think I need to try and avoid as many road walks as possible with my foot.

In the foot department I can find soft insoles, some sheets of moleskin, and a tiny pair of scissors. This will have to do.

Back at the hotel, I cut two big sheets of moleskin for my foot. I am basically covering the entire ball of my foot except for the spot that is blistering. The hope is that by raising the pressure around the blister that it will relieve the pressure on the blister. Either that or it will make my entire foot blister up.

I put on the thickest socks I have which are wool and not my favorite material for socks. Wool tends to be hot and captures moisture. I don’t have a single pair of the Thorlo socks that I normally wear. Who planned this trip?

Uber

I am packed up and ready to roll by 8:00 so I call for an Uber. It takes over 10 minutes to confirm a driver and when I get the driver I find out it’s the same one I got last night.

Once she picks me up, she says I’m the third hiker of the morning. She had just dropped a couple off at the end of the road and they are going to be hiking to where I’m starting. That means they took the Eastern route around lake Okeechobee and they have six more miles to finish at the same park I’m being dropped off at.

It would be nice if they could catch up to me. And as slow as I’ll probably go today, they probably will. I still have not actually seen any other hikers.

The trail from the park is another double track dike along the Kissimmee River. It is crushed shells for most of the way, so hopefully this will be easier on my feet.

Lock Tender

Right at noon I reach the lock where the trail moves away from the river. The lock tender is sitting outside in the lawn chair relaxing in the sun. Before I even have my pack off he is offering me a cold bottle of water.

We chat for a while and he encouraged me to eat my lunch in his office that has air conditioning and even better – shade. This is better than the back of the building where I was planning on earing. He even has a bathroom in his building. Luxury accommodations.

While I am eating, two boats approach and I get to watch him operate the lock. It’s basically open doors, let both enter, close doors, open other doors slowly to let the levels equalize, then open the other doors.

More Road Walking

I leave the lock at about 1:00 and begin an eight mile road walk. It is mostly on pavement but it is on a very low traffic back country road. But that doesn’t mean it’s not hot and hard on my feet.

Early on there is enough traffic that I have to find driveways to get off the road to find shade to rest. But the last two miles there are no driveways and I just pull off on the shoulder because there is much less traffic on this end.

The road eventually turns to dirt the last half mile. Then it is a half a mile to the campsite I have reserved.

The campsite has a pitcher pump but it is broken. There is a small pond right after the campsite, but it supposedly has giant alligators in it. I think the next reliable water is a church eight miles ahead.

After cooking, I will have about 1 liter left. It is probably not enough to get me to the church. The water situation will be interesting tomorrow.

The campsite itself has lots of oak trees. There are many good branches to hang a bear bag. There are also open views to the prairie all around. But most importantly, there are two good picnic tables.

I select my tent site as soon as I get there and immediately set up the tent. It is still early, only about 4:30, but I am not sure if and when the mosquitoes will arrive.

The next order of business is to take off the shoes and socks and inspect the damage. I took off my shoes many times during the day but left my socks on to help my body heat dry out the socks.

One of my fears is that I won’t be able to get the most skin off without damaging the blistered skin. I am relieved to find that it is still well adhered but very easy to pull off my skin. The blister looks a little more swollen and maybe it’s a tiny bit larger but it doesn’t look terribly bad. It is quite painful though.

I begin cooking dinner and then begin to do chores while I wait for it to rehydrate. As soon as the dinner and chores are done I plan to basically just hide out in the tent until I go to sleep.

My intentions were to catch up on blogging, but I am tired enough that I quickly fall asleep. It is going to be chilly tonight so I have more layers out ready to put on if I get cold.

Emotion of the day

I will choose pain as the emotion for today. While I think I might have a good handle on my blister treatment, that doesn’t mean it is not painful. Nearly every step today had some degree of pain associated with it.

And the sad part is when I actually got off the road and back on to the trail it seemed to be the worse. The uneven ground pressed the blister in unusual ways and caused pretty intense pain. It was also the end of the day when it was at it’s most tender. Let’s hope that starting out on the trail tomorrow, the pain is not as bad.

Cooler temperatures make the final day on the Herbert Hoover Dike very pleasant. But a worsening blister on my right foot is becoming very unpleasant.

Cool Weather

I pack up and leave well before anyone else in the park is even awake. It is late by my standards at nearly 7:30. But apparently early for the RV Resort crowd.

I have to hike nearly half a mile back to the trail. But this time there is far less traffic on the road. I can also take the time to see the things that I missed in the dark last night.

As I get back up to the trail, the wind picks up because I’m at the top of the dike now. The Dyke acts like a funnel making the wind much stronger than down on flat ground.

And it is more noticeable today because the temperature is much cooler. I knew what was going to be cooler but I decided to wear my shorts anyway. I do not regret the decision.

There isn’t a cloud in the sky so the sun will be strong. At some point soon I’m going to have to stop and apply sunscreen. But for now I just like a long basking in nature.

More Road Walks

Within just a few miles I can see construction up ahead. I start to get a thinking feeling that I’m going to be stopped and have to turn around and road walk.

I consult the app at the structure that is ahead of me. And indeed the dike is closed for construction at this point. But the good news is there is a bridge right nearby so I won’t have to backtrack.

It takes a while to find a place where I can descend from the dike down to the road. It is a very weedy slope, but there is a section that has been mowed for a pipe to go down the slope to the canal.

This road walk looks like it’s on a small road and not the highway. That would be very nice. The road winds through a series of RV parks and trailer parks. It ends at a convenience store right on the highway. Then a bridge on the highway takes me back to the trail.

I am already hungry by the time I reach the convenience store, so I stop and grab an egg salad sandwich and an ice cream cone sandwich. I doubled them both down while I’m walking.

More Dike Walking

The dike here is not paved on the top. He is just double track lime rock. But it is still easy hiking.

The area surrounding the dike here seems more remote than further south. There is far more marsh between the dike and the actual lake. And there seems to be far more land between the dike and the highway that I can see off into the distance but barely hear.

I stopped for a quick break to adjust things in the pack, and I noticed that there is a hiker about a mile behind me. Oh my goodness another hiker finally.

I keep going but I turn around frequently to make sure they are still there. Oddly, I seem to be pulling away from them instead of letting them catch up.

Within an hour I can no longer see them. Maybe they were just a local person out for a walk and not a hiker. What a letdown.

There are many boaters on the canal bass fishing. I can probably see one or two boats the entire time I am on this section of dykes. Just as one boat leaves, I can see another one approaching.

Blisters

I definitely have a blister on my right foot. It is warm and hot and painful while I’m walking. It is on my right foot. And it hurts exactly where my foot hurt as I was exiting the Everglades heading to the rest area on I-75.

I think this blister started to form way back then. I can see a white section where I know the skin is delaminating. But it is very deep and not likely to burst the roof of the skin.

But that doesn’t mean it’s not painful and that doesn’t mean it’s not going to get worse. I have been using socks that I don’t normally hike in so I am guessing that is also one of the contributing factors. I switched to an older pair before setting out this morning hoping that will improve things.

I have been wearing thinner socks but I think I need to switch to a thicker sock tomorrow. I will give this older sock more time for the rest of today. But I do try and stop and dry my feet out at least every 2 hours.

Blister is right under the center of the ball of my foot. All of the blister treatments I have with me right now are ineffective for this kind of blister. It is also the first time I have ever gotten this type of blister. I am used to blisters on the toes and heel.

these shoes also have an odd opening. Instead of the really thick padding at the top of most shoes, this one is just thin stretchy material. They are comfortable but it also means they are a magnet for rocks. I really wish I had my gaiters now that I am walking on lime rock.

Head to Another Town

The campsite I was planning on staying at is only a mile from the end of this section of trail. When I get there, it is one of the best campsites I have seen on the dikes. It has a very large camping area about the size of a football field. A covered picnic table is at the edge.

I am beginning to worry about the blister so I think I need to go into town to see what I can get for treatment. It would be nice to get some alcohol to dry out my feet. And some padded insoles might actually help relieve the pressure.

The shoes I brought for this trip are also shoes that I do not normally hike in. These are slightly lighter in weight but also have less cushioning in the soles. At some point I might want to trade out shoes again. But the main reason I brought these shoes is that they are white. Gilligan wears white shoes.

I still have plenty of daylight so I go ahead and hike the extra mile to the boat ramp where I can call an Uber to get into Okeechobee. There are a dozen hotels in town so I should not have a hard time finding one.

The main stores in town are Walmart, Publix, and Winn-Dixie. The Best Western is right next to Publix so I decide to pick that one.

It is dark by the time the Uber driver arrived and she has a little bit of trouble finding me in the very large park. I found out after I start riding with her that she doesn’t use the Uber navigation but uses Google maps instead. The Uber navigation shows me as a blue dot and would have prevented her confusion.

I check in, take a shower, and immediately head out for dinner. I am actually going to check out the Publix deli first to see if I can grab something simple. But when I get there there’s a huge line in the deli.

Next up is a Mexican restaurant right next door. It looks good, so I go ahead and stop in there. I ordered fish tacos which actually smell like fish. They were not the best tacos I have had. The refried beans were also not very good. For me to not eat refried beans is a rare thing. The yellow rice was good, however.

The third option was a Chinese restaurant a few doors further down. I go ahead and peek at it just to see what I missed. It was one of those giant buffet places and actually looked pretty good. I wish I had eaten there instead. Oh well, at least I am full.

Emotion of the Day

Today I think I need to pick concern. This blister is not really slowing me down, but it is causing quite a bit of pain.

If I keep hiking on it without changing anything, it is not likely to get any better. I am concerned that it might actually get worse.

The next few days are in pretty remote country isolated from any major towns. If the blister gets worse fast enough, I may not be able to get any assistance. There will definitely be no Ubers where I am going. There aren’t even gas stations.

So I will spend the morning going to Publix or any other store in town to see if I can get something that might help. I will probably buy a combination of things, just so that I have options once I am out on the trail. That might alleviate my concern.

I might as well not carry food around lake Okeechobee. So far every 12 miles has been a town with great food. I am just carrying dead weight.

Leaving Clewiston

The traffic was not as loud last night, so I slept better than the night before. Either that or I was more tired or more used to it.

It did not take long to pack everything up and head out to breakfast. I ate at common grounds again because it is on the way out of town and I enjoyed the coffee. I had an omelet and an Americano this morning, both delicious.

The walk back to the trail was cool and breezy. I am not sure I saw a single blaze within the town of Clewiston. Having an app with GPS coordinates definitely makes it easier to navigate.

Back in the day when all I had was a description via words and an out-of-date map, I was always getting lost. That problem has taken care of itself with technology.

Back the Trail

Back up on the embankment, the fog was obscuring many things that I would have liked to have seen. For instance I could hear the sugar Mill but I couldn’t see it. I like seeing things like that.

There were a few people walking on the trail on their morning walks. But still no other hikers yet.

It took several hours for the fog of to finally break. It was a fairly cloudy day so the sun was obscured somewhat, but I was wearing my long pants just in case. As it approached the noon hour I began to regret that decision. I was getting hot but the sun was still not terribly strong.

I did learn one thing today. I was unsure as to the proper nomenclature for what I was walking on. Is this a dike, a levee, a dam, or just an embankment? Since it is called the Herbert Hoover dike, the official term must be dike. It makes sense to me now, because I can see that the lake level and canal levels are about 8 ft different.

Arriving in Moore Haven

All of these towns are situated on outflows from lake Okeechobee. When you come to a town the trail breaks away from the lake and goes into town to a bridge across the outflow then back around to the trail again.

Approaching Moore Haven, there is a park which is essentially a boat ramp and bathrooms. I decide to duck in to refill water and switch to my shorts. Just having shade is so nice. I guess I am getting hotter than I think. This is not a good sign because I have a long road walk ahead of me.

The bridge over this river is a very long and elevated bridge. It has to be well over a half mile long. Which means that we have to hike a quarter mile to get onto it and another quarter mile to get off of it as well.

I was hoping to get good views once I hit the top of the bridge. But it was a little disappointing.

What was not disappointing was the Mexican grocery and grill the other side of the bridge. I didn’t need any supplies but I definitely needed some tacos. I ate behind the building in the cool shade and they were delicious. I felt rejuvenated now.

A Long Road Walk to Bypass Construction

The trail around the lake has been undergoing construction for the last several years. Road walking has been a common theme.

As best I can tell the next four miles is the only section that I will go through that is still under construction. It is replaced with a five mile road walk. The first two miles around a back road next to a sugarcane field.

The last 3 miles are on a high-speed 60 MPH highway. This part sucks. There is a guardrail on the side facing traffic which means I only have about 8 ft to the high-speed traffic. The good part is that the entire shoulder is paved.

I always walk facing traffic so that I can look at the drivers in their eyes to see if they are paying attention or not. These drivers are all good girls and boys. But some of them are going 80 plus.

I am getting pretty tired on this section, so I look for entrances sugar cane fields where I can get further away from the road and take quick breaks.

Walking on asphalt all the time it’s hard on your feet. The trailer around the lake is asphalt, so it’s not like the roadblock is any worse. But for some reason my feet are really bugging me today. I am wearing a different pair of socks so I think I’m going to switch to my usual pair tomorrow.

Once I make it back onto the trail, I feel great relief. Relief of not having to walk next to you crazy drivers. Relief of knowing I can stop and rest whenever I want. Relief of knowing I have an endless water supply 100 yd from me.

Let’s Make Camp

It is now about 4:30 when I get back on the trail. There is a campsite right nearby, but it is too early to stop. The campsite looks decent.

There is another one 3 mi ahead near a boat ramp. I should be able to get there in an hour. That would be a good time to stop.

I do take one break to take my shoes off and lay directly on the asphalt. It is not hot at all and in fact slightly cool so it feels good. I take my shoes off to let my feet air out somewhat.

An hour later when I get to the next campsite, I can see it from the trail. I can also see a ton of boaters. This looks more like a party spot than a campsite. There is also a no camping sign right out front.

The register in the app indicates that people have been camping here but it does not look very inviting to me. Let’s look further down the trail on the app. Only 3 miles away is another hotel. Let’s give them a ring.

I find out that they do have a room available for one night, so this is my new destination. It is an hour away and I have 30 minutes of daylight left. I can deal with 30 minutes of night hiking.

My pace is good. I use my watch to check and I’m doing 16 to 17 minutes per mile. Air conditioning motivation can make you hike quite quickly.

The only thing that makes section of trail unpleasant, is it every time it crosses a bridge the trail ends. You are basically just having to walk on the shoulder of the highway across these little creeks. It reminds me of the road walk.

In daylight, the bridges are not too bad, but after dark, it’s a little sketchy. I don’t need to hike with a light but I get it out anyway. Every time I come to a bridge, I shine it on the ground in a waving motion so that I am visible to the drivers. I also have reflective strips on both my pack and my hat.

There must have been at least a dozen of these little bridges on this last three mile stretch. When I get to the last one where the trail turns right at the hotel is straight, I can see that this is a long one.

It is now past 6:30 and fully dark. On the map, the place I am going looks like it’s just across the creek. But in reality I have to go well over a quarter mile along a guardrail to get to an opening that brings me back to the creek where the motel is. This is an extra half mile I was not expecting.

Air Conditioning

The place I am going to is actually an RV Resort that has a few hotel rooms. The Aruba RV Resort. They have a restaurant on site too. Sounds like a perfect stop.

After I check in take a shower I head over to the restaurant. It seems to be a combination of Mexican and Cuban. I like them both. I get a quesadilla with black beans and rice and plantains. A perfect combination.

A quick check of the map shows that I am 20 plus miles from the end of the Okeechobee Trail. This means that tomorrow night I am likely to be staying in a motel again. Am I hiking or touring? Both, I guess.

I was worn down coming into Moore Haven, and run down on the road walk. But other than that, I am in pretty good spirits.

But I keep eating food that I encounter along the way instead of eating the food that I am carrying. That is a love-hate relationship. I love fresh food. But I hate that I have been carrying extra food this far and will continue to carry it even further. One positive is that this restaurant is not open for breakfast. I think I will have a feast of my own just to eliminate food weight.

Emotion of the Day

Relief would definitely be today’s emotion.

Relief that I am out of Clewiston. Relief that I have air conditioning in the shower tonight. Relief that I have had three great meals today. Relief that I shouldn’t have any more road walks coming up soon. Relief that I will probably have a hotel tomorrow again. And relief that the clouds kept the Sun from grilling me like the past few days.

This should have been an easy day. And it was. But now I have more chores to do. I broke my umbrella.

Uber Loves Me

There is a coffee shop two blocks down the road that I wanted to try this morning. I had an Americano, two fried eggs, rye toast, and the first grits I’ve had in the last 2 years.

I have no way of weighing the pack, but I am guessing it weighed about 15 lb. I wish it could be this light all the time. But I always seem to fill it up with too much food, too much water, and too many cameras.

I called for an Uber and it said he was only 4 minutes away. 8 minutes later I see him drive right past the hotel and pull into the next one. The driver last night did the same thing. Maybe that’s a sign that I stayed at the wrong hotel.

It’s only a 10 minute ride out to the park where I was picked up last night, but road construction and traffic slowed us down a little bit. His English was not great, so there wasn’t much chit chat.

I wanted him to drop me off at the same picnic table where I was picked up yesterday, but he kept driving to the restroom areas. So technically I have now missed about a hundred feet of Trail. If the grass was not wet, I actually would have walked back to the picnic table just to pick up from the same spot. But I am not that much of a purist.

Get up to the Trail

They have been doing construction on the earthworks for the last five maybe even ten years. There are still no trespassing signs all over the place. But everyone in the app says that the workers say it’s fine.

I spot a worker at the top of the embankment just down from the park so I make a beeline straight for him so I can ask him for myself. He looked at me like I was an alien. He said the trail was open all the way to the Army Corps of Engineers headquarters which is where I am headed today.

I was exhilarated to be walking on a 12-ft wide paved path high above the lake and high above the highway. The wind was very strong and it was only about 8:30 in the morning so the sun was not yet hot. It was a magical morning.

The worker was driving a car the same direction I was, but I was moving twice as fast as he was. Within 30 minutes, I couldn’t even see him anymore.

I have been eagerly awaiting being able to get some drone footage along the lake. But just as I got far enough ahead of the worker, another crop duster showed up and started dusting a field right across the highway.

His turnaround maneuvers were right over my head. He was probably only 200 yards above me. I could see he was wearing a t-shirt and sunglasses.

The aeronautical engineer in me was excited to see his high G maneuvers and how the plane seemed to just squish through the air. The direction a plane is pointing isn’t always the direction it’s actually moving. And I could observe this as he was flying with his wings almost completely vertical over my head. He must get tired of doing that all day long.

I had to hike at least 2 miles before I was out of range of the plane. I then set up the drone to go through the sequence of maneuvers similar to the ones I have done in previous days.

It is much windier today than previous days, but the drone has no problem keeping a steady position. This truly is an amazing drone for so little money.

I begin to wonder about the nomenclature for the earthworks I am walking on. It is not a dike because there are not differing water levels on each side. I don’t think it’s a levee, because I don’t think it’s purpose is to prevent flooding of the city of Clewiston.

The level of lake Okeechobee does go up and down as they divert water into or out of it. So I am thinking technically it’s an earthen dam. But without knowing it’s true purpose, I will still just call it an embankment. Did I just put you to sleep?

The Miles Roll by

With so little weight on my back I am walking at least 3 miles an hour. My feet don’t hurt, my back doesn’t ache, and I am barely sweating because of the strong breeze. I still need the umbrella because the sun is still quite hot.

I come to the campsite that I was considering stopping at last night. It did indeed take me a full hour and a half even at my brisk pace. It would have been 7:45 or later if I had tried this last night.

I stopped at the picnic table to have a snack and check out the campsite. It is fairly level but does have a gentle slope towards the water. The shoreline has rocks piled against it which makes collecting water easy. I am assuming the other campsites around the lake will be nearly identical to this one.

After I leave the campsite, I have only five more miles back to town. The sun is getting even hotter so I have to be careful with orienting the umbrella to block it fully. The breeze is still keeping me cool but I can feel a little sunburned on the back of my arms.

About halfway back to town disaster strikes. I hear a loud crack and then the umbrella flops around my face like an octopus trying to eat me. Crap I have broken my umbrella.

The umbrella is a very important piece of gear. It not only serves as rain protection along with a jacket. But it is my primary means of sun protection. All of the sunscreens that I could find were large 8 oz bottles. Why don’t they sell it in one ounce bottles.

Without complete body coverings and sunscreen the umbrella is my primary sun protection. I inspect the umbrella and one of the main ribs has snapped in half. Luckily it is broken in the middle of the rib and not at the joint. It is possibly repairable.

I have two or three miles left to go on my walk back to town so I begin thinking of all the different ways I could repair the umbrella. Coat hanger is the first thing I think of. But a coat hanger will bend too easily. I have some tent pigs that are 90° bends of aluminum. They may be too big to securely hold the thin ribs of the umbrella.

But I also have the thin shepherds hook stakes which are about the same diameter as the ribs of the umbrella. Maybe one of those with some KT tape will be strong enough. Then I begin thinking is KT tape even strong enough. I miss not having gorilla tape with me on this trip.

On the way back I am looking for new places to eat breakfast. It is 1 mi from where the trail goes back to the lake to my hotel. I will probably just walk this again tomorrow instead of taking an Uber a whopping one mile. It might be nice to stop and eat along the way.

I don’t really find anything appealing but I do stop off again at the same Cuban restaurant I had dinner at yesterday. I grabbed a cuban and maduros to go. And I cannot resist getting a Cafe Con leche.

MacGyver Gets to Work

Once I get back to the hotel, priority One is another shower. I am hot and stinky.

After that, priority two is repairing the umbrella. I try the angled steak and it is indeed way too big to be effective. I start pulling off pieces of KT tape and taping up one of the stakes to the broken section. I just open and close it a few times and it looks like it is going to last quite a long time. I am relieved.

Now that I have figured out that the umbrella is serviceable but probably not as durable, I contact the manufacturer to see about repairs or replacement parts. It is the same manufacturer as my pack which has the broken sternum strap. So I might as well inquire about both pieces at the same time.

I need to know how long the lead time is to figure out where I would be as a mailing address for replacements. If it is just a few days I could get it as soon as River Ranch Resort. If it is longer than a week then I will have to wait till the Ocala National Forest unless I want to make another post office stop not on my schedule.

After several emails back and forth with the manufacturer, we find out what parts I need and they tell me the lead time is at least seven business days. Boo. It will be several weeks to my next box pickup location after River Ranch Resort. Let’s hope the tape holds.

More Chores

I still have to mail excess gear back to Karen, so I need to make another trip to the Walmart area where the post office is. I take inventory of my food and also make a shopping list for Walmart.

I am probably mailing back close to 1 lb of gear, so I am looking forward to a slightly lighter pack although not as light as today. At the Walmart I find all kinds of interesting things I’ve never had before, so I probably buy too much food.

But one thing I am excited about is finding a single stick of butter. It is Kerrygold garlic and Chive. The only problem is my peanut butter jar is now my cold soak jar. And I have several things that I have just bought that need to cold soak.

I go back to the peanut butter aisle to look for the smallest peanut butter I can find. What I end up finding is cinnamon toast spread. It is a 6 oz jar instead of an 8 oz jar so that is a win. But I am paying $3 for a product that I will immediately scoop out and throw away just to get the jar. Hiker problems.

Back at the hotel there are still more chores. I still have to do laundry. The machines have digital readouts to the remaining time so it makes it easy to run back and forth across the street and know exactly when my laundry will be finished.

But I have several blog posts I still need to write. And I still want to try to process some of the video I have been taking to post during the trip.

I end up wasting an hour trying to get the 360° videos to transfer. But it is such a pain that I just give up. I only managed to get two 5 second clips of some of the water video of the Everglades. That will have to do. The big videos will have to wait until after the trip.

KFC earns my business as the dining establishment for dinner tonight. A chicken pot pie and coleslaw is all I need tonight. I still have half the Cuban from lunch.

I am too tired too pack up the backpack tonight. I have everything thrown on the bed and the dresser. I will pack up in the morning and figure out where I’m going to eat breakfast. I don’t need to leave at sunrise, but I also don’t want to leave when it’s already getting hot.

Emotion of the Day

Disbelief has to be the word for today. After a record setting day yesterday losing things on the trail, I end up breaking one of the most important pieces of gear that I have. The only thing worse would be to have catastrophically broken the pack itself.

I tried alternate methods of sun protection on the last few miles back this morning. The handkerchief under the hat works fine for the neck. The buff around the arm did not work very well. So I really need the umbrella.

I have used umbrellas like this one thousands of miles on the AT and the PCT without a single failure. This new umbrella is the one I selected because it is an ounce later than the others. I guess an ounce lighter also means an ounce weaker.

I miss my old beat up umbrella. I still have a hard time believing that a 20 mile an hour wind is enough to completely snap an umbrella. The PCT was way worse.