I’d done everything that I came to do on the Florida Trail. Maybe I’d skipped some miles, but I intended on hiking those miles in the opposite direction in order to catch a flight to Las Vegas. A little flip-flop instead of hiking straight through. Because of the rain, I said goodbye to the bayview […]
Panama City Beach, Florida
It didn’t take us long to reach Navarre Beach once we realized that we couldn’t cut across the beach from Okaloosa Island. We had a few cocktails at Juana’s Pagodas, chased by several shots of tequila before we pressed on. Though it was a road walk, this was the part of the trail I’d been […]
Waffle House, Jacksonville, Florida
Long before sunrise I sat in a Waffle House just outside of the Jacksonville airport, feeling like I had just been released from a pressurized capsule, the hatch swinging open to reveal the vast expanse of the cosmos beyond. I was drifting into the cold vacuum of deep, black space, weightless and untethered… alone. I’d […]
Florida Trail Flip-Flop
My end-to-end hike of the Florida Trail turned into a flip-flop soon after St Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge. I caught a boat ride across the river, where I found Longshot, Nana Man, and Gas Monkey trying to win prize money by playing Cornhole against locals. The first place cash prize was suggested as going towards […]
Jr’s Aucilla Store, Perry, Florida
I hike every day until I pass out. I haven’t done any writing in over a month. The words for social media posts escape me. I was pushing hard because I didn’t have enough time to finish the Florida Trail, and that kept weighing on my mind. I split from the group after we’d gotten […]
Keystone Heights, Florida
We were on an abandoned forest road, drying out gear from the overnight condensation, listening to the whisper of the wind through the trees, when I realized that I hadn’t posted anything to social media in a while. Usually that meant that I wasn’t having fun, that I had zero desire to share the boring […]
Rodman Dam, Palatka, Florida
My plan had been to go into the town of Palatka to resupply, but everyone else had a mail drop at Rodman Dam, and they had more than they could eat. I ended up with some hand me down peanut butter and Pop Tarts, more than enough to make it two days to the next […]
Billy Goat Day, Chuluota, Florida
More and more people are choosing the Florida Trail as their first thru hike. Something that was unheard of only a few years ago. And it’s easy to see why. Not only is the trail becoming more popular due to groups like FTThruhike being there for the hikers, but the timing works better for a […]
Christmas, Florida
Christmas was a cold walk in the morning sun. The buff covering my face from the frigid wind looked like a Rorschach test from the condensation in my breath. Merlot, another hiker, mentioned craving eggs and bacon, and I began thinking about it too much. A side effect of hiker hunger, burning more calories than […]
Road Walk to Christmas, Florida
It was Christmas Eve and I’d failed to get a nap in at Hurky Huffman/Bull Creek WMA. I couldn’t fall asleep because I kept watching the traffic on on US 192. The idea was that we’d night hike the road walk into Christmas, and doing it overnight instead of sleeping would mean less traffic. Only […]