January 24
End: Oviedo
Miles: 31.3
Total: 543.8
The roosters and dogs found in a rural town woke me up before sunrise. I always thought roosters sounded off at dawn; far from it. They make lots of noise at regular intervals before and after dawn.
I rewalked St. Nicholas Avenue and went out to the woods again. With not much food, I was looking forward to getting to Oviedo, but that proved to be farther away than I thought. I walked in the woods, hit a register where hikers were pointing out some Florida tradition called turpentining(?). There was no pen though, so who knows if the big group had already passed through.
I was able to get water from a house where a woman said her three sons had plans to walk the Appalachian Trail, and a younger girl asked me how long it would take to get to Canada.
For those of you out there in reader land, everyone knows someone who knows a guy who wants to walk part of the AT, or has walked a small portion of the AT, etc. What is more difficult is finding someone who has walked an entire trail.
I reentered the woods, looking to do the last few hours before hitting Oviedo. I was surprised to go up and down some small hills along the river which the trail paralleled. Though I was not worried about running out of daylight, I was glad to get out onto the road and start walking into town.
I found a library where I could charge my starving iPhone, and some fast food, where I could charge my starving stomach. I checked the map, got my bearings, and walked along the Cross Seminole Trail until I found a suitable spot to lie down for the night.
