January 21

Start: Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area
End: Three Lakes Camp
Miles: 21.5
Total: 444.9

I woke up for my last day hiking with Stinger. He was taking the Western Corridor towards the Green Swamp, and I the Eastern Corridor towards Northeast Orlando. I walked through the Gut Pit a couple more times in order to use the restroom (!), and we walked out past the hunters and their dogs, hoping not to be stuffed and mounted.

We went off through more of the Florida palm forests that have been abundant in this region, occasionally taking a dirt road. There were a couple of observation towers off of the trail, but we couldn’t see them from the trail and we didn’t go out looking for them. I think we were both ready to be done with the Kissimmee region of the Florida Trail.

Finally after several breaks we made it to the split and said farewell. I still had six miles to do before I made my camp, so I didn’t rest. On the way I passed a couple of guys with huge packs going about half my speed. They seemed to be from the big group that started the Florida Trail about five days before me.

Continuing on, I made Three Lakes Camp with time to spare, and met a couple of weekend campers, Kirk and Randy. They were pretty friendly, with Kirk letting me sit in his hammock and giving me some food.