Susanne's Adventure Journal

15.7 FT miles The moon was really bright last night. I had to pull my neck gaiter over my eyes in order to go to sleep. It was hard getting to sleep in the first place knowing that today I would be finishing the trail. I was tired and ready for some comforts of civilization again, but it is still going to be a difficult transition. I waited until it got light out to start packing up, which was what I thought Rambler had said the plan would be for today. We needed to start the day following white poles through the dunes and required plenty of daylight to do so. Usually Rambler would be up and gone by now. I hadn't heard him packing up at all. Finally, when I was mostly packed up inside my tent, I heard him shuffling around. I took my tent down, then went over to his campsite to wait for him to finish. He was surprised to see me packed up. I think he had been waiting to hear me packing up in order to start packing up himself. We had probably both been awake for a while.

13.1 FT miles Rambler and I were up and packed for the very beginning of the continental breakfast time at the Best Western.  I toasted myself a bagel and made it into a breakfast sandwich with egg and cheese. I also grabbed a huge biscuit and smothered it with gravy. To add to the fun, I ate 3 danishes. Morning at the Best Western. I went ahead and started hiking for the day while Rambler finished his coffee. I headed to the causeway that would take me out to the barrier islands.  On the way across it, I got great views of the sunrise. Crossing the causeway. Sunrise. At the end of the causeway, I was supposed to turn right, continuing on the bike path across the island. Instead, I kept going forward towards the beach. I missed the beach and this one was so beautiful. I climbed the steps that crossed the dunes, admiring the beach and the pier. Crossing the dunes. Morning on the beach. Navarre Pier. Rambler came and joined me, as he had c

25.5 FT miles Rambler got up before dawn again and packed up to head out. I stuck my head out of my tent and accepted his offer from last night to split a room in Navarre tonight. Originally, I was going to stay at the southernmost campsite on Eglin Air Force Base, but it was only 17 miles away. I figured I would push the miles today and take my time the last two days of my hike, when I am on the beach. I packed up my tent at least an hour after Rambler left and headed down the trail myself. I had about 2 miles of forest before spilling back out onto a roadwalk. The rest of the forest was mostly fine, with some soggy patches here and there that I was mostly able to navigate around. The Florida Trail . I spilled out if the forest into a series of residential roads. Everyone I passed by looked to be in pretty good shape. I figured most of the residents must have been part of the air force base. After several miles, I hit the junction with SR 87, which had a Tom Thumb

24.3 FT miles Waking up early today was hard. Both bed and sheets at Kelley’s house were incredibly soft. I still had a lot of journaling to do, as I had been slacking the past couple days. I wrote a little bit, then reset my alarm and went back to sleep. I slept another 30 minutes, then got up started packing. Kelley was not awake yet. Last night Sean had texted the offer that the three of us and Dan could go out to Cracker Barrel together in the morning. When Kelley emerged for the morning, she had told me that she had gotten a text from Sean that Dan was not up yet. Nor should he be, really. He had said that he did a couple 50 mile days towards the end and on the final night he had gotten only 2-3 hours sleep. I was surprised he was functioning at all. Kelley drove me back to the Tom Thumb at which she had picked me up. We were going to stop at the McDonalds next door to pick up some fatty breakfast, but they were closed for construction, despite several signs saying t

23.6 FT miles This morning I woke up to the sound of shuffling. I figured it must be an animal until I heard mumbling like, “Come on Jim, pull it together.” It was the sound of Rambler packing up. I didn't see him at all last night and felt embarrassed that I had set up my tent without pants last night. Luckily, he had not noticed me since he was surprised to come across my tent as he left. We chatted through the tent wall a little before he left and I started packing up. I wonder if I will ever meet Rambler for real on this trail. I'm running out of days to do so. Last night, when I went to bed, the weather had predicted it to rain pretty hard around the time I had planned to get up. It wasn't raining at all. As I checked it again, the radar was predicting a couple of bands of rain to come through starting in a couple hours. They didn't look bad either. It is amazing how fast the weather changes around here. I packed up and headed down the trail. I stopped