January 20
End: Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area
Miles: 18.9
Total: 423.4
I survived a cold and wet night, and saw the Kissimmee steaming in the morning. Pretty early into our walk we were on a dirt road headed for River Ranch Resort, where I was anticipating some much-needed food. Stinger and I split up temporarily while I stopped to change, and I had a hard time trying to catch up to him, as the winding road hid whether or not we were even close.
At one point I saw orange blazes away from the road, and I followed them until they started going the completely wrong direction, and I saw a competing blaze back on the road. Confused, I checked the map and saw that the road went to the resort, so I stuck with that.
The trail did later split from the winding road to go through a typical Florida palm jungle. I powered through that, hungry for some food. Eventually I got out to a road but couldn’t tell which buildings were the resort.
After getting directions, I arrived at a General Store, which had plenty of good hiker food. I got some snacks, then went in search of Stinger, thinking he would be around.
While sitting outside the resort restaurant, I spotted him just arriving at the resort, and we went to the store to rest for what I hoped would be an eternity. We ordered a pizza and sat outside, rating and appreciating the resort.
This place was nice, but not too out of our league. While there I mailed a few postcards and we charged our iPhones/iPod Touches. Finally we left for another road walk, which we sped through before dark, arriving at another Wildlife Management Area. We walked to a good sleeping spot, and I investigated a hunt check station on the other side of what a sign described as a “gut pit.” I watched the sun set from my sleeping bag while enjoying candy bought at the resort.
