January 22
End: Nova Road
Miles: 40.5
Total: 485.4
While I was getting ready to start a long day of walking from camp, Randy said he had been thinking and wanted to give me a ThermaRest. I was stunned. I started the trip with a Big Agnes Air Core which incurred holes due to my inexperience and lack of care after long days in the Keys.
Back in HomeStead Mrs. Jones gave me a cheap pool float to use. It worked at first, but then got holes. I also didn’t realize it, but it wasn’t helping me to stay warm.
Randy also gave me his Tyvek ground cloth, and Kirk gave me a bunch more food. High from these unexpected gifts, I headed for the road, which I walked for a short distance before entering the Forever Florida area, a camp which the Florida Trail traverses.
I opted not to go to the restaurant in the camp, instead resting at the camp. While there a worker pulled up and we talked for awhile about my hike and the camp. I got water there and took pictures of the facilities, including the showers, which I had to pass up due to the waning daylight hours.
Rested, I passed one of many Florida Trail camps with a broken water pump. I continued on and came to an interesting area where I walked between two troughs previously filled by railroad track operated by a Cypress Railroad Company from 1912 to 1932, presumably logging the area.
The afternoon walk took a long time, but finally I arrived at Jane Green Camp, which had a working water pump, which I used to cook up some food, which I carried out of the woods as darkness approached. I hurriedly ate it and looked at the register which the large group of twelve hikers had signed the day before.
I had opted to get to the road by night so that I could cover the long roadwalk at night. This was an ambitious plan, but my feet felt okay and I was looking to cover a lot of ground.
Almost missing my first turn, I rested outside a church, realizing after a few minutes that I was sitting in a fire ant zone. As I finally prepared to leave, people started gathering at the church for an evening service.
I helped a guy try to find a cell phone which had flown off his motorcycle on a turn with no luck. He gave me a glow stick, which was very helpful. The walk went on for a long ways, and by the time I got to Nova Road I was tired in general, having been up for eighteen hours.
I picked a good tree off the road to sleep under, and with the warmth of the ThermaRest and no cars coming down the county road late at night, I slept great.
