FT2018 Day 19: Jane Green Campground (mile 292.8) to treeline on Nova Rd. (mile 319.7)

20.9 FT miles

This was the day I had been dreading for a while now. I was starting a long roadwalk section that had no camping breaks. There was further worry of a road closure that would turn a 16 mile section into a 38.5 mile detour. Luckily, this closure was scouted out a month ago by some locals and, even though there were “road closed" signs, the road was open along the route.

I had also originally thought that I would have to make a very long detour to camp for the night. If I pushed 22/23 miles today, I would have the opportunity of reaching a campground a further 4 miles off trail. Luckily, when I checked some of the features on the map, there were unofficial suggestions of where to camp along the road. It looked like that is what other thru-hikers had previously done as well.

As I was heading out of Bull Creek in the morning light, there was a car pulling into the trailhead area. There were two men inside and they asked me if I was a Florida Trail thru-hiker.  It is nice to hear when locals know about the trail. Most seem surprised to hear about it. They wished me luck and I continued on my way.

I walked down US 129, which thankfully had a flat, grassy area that allowed me to avoid hiking on the highway itself. I took the highway for a couple miles until I got Deer Creek Rd.

Morning on the highway.

The junction for Deer Park Rd. Everyone seems to take a picture of this sign, so I did too.

Deer Creek Rd. was supposedly closed. Officially on the FTA website,  the road is listed as closed, and the official recommendation was to get a shuttle around or do a 38.5 mile roadwalk detour around the closed roadwalk.  What?

Despite the “road closed" signs, traffic was still going in and out. The reason it was supposed to be closed was because of two bridges that had been damaged. Apparently the bridges weren't damaged too badly as one lane of traffic was open on each bridge. It is an easy cross for a hiker.

Road "closed."

For the most part, the walk was uneventful.  I had plenty of cows on either side of me and was passed by not only vehicular traffic, but bicyclists as well. One of the cyclists stopped to chat and knew about the Florida Trail. Another man in a truck also stopped and has hiked the entire trail itself, both northbound and southbound.

Cattle.

My big entertainment of the day came when I passed a large creek. I hadn't seen many alligators at this point. At least, not like the other hikers had. It is possible that I hadn't been looking hard enough. It is surprisingly easy to mistake an alligator for a log, or even some random trash.

I stopped and looked at the water for a minute. There were several shapes that could have been alligators, so I took pictures of them and zoomed in on the images. Yep, they were alligators. There were quite a few of them. As I was standing there, I noticed a small one right off the bridge.

Alligator. 

Swimming alligator.

Three alligators. 

I kept walking until I got to Nova Rd., the next stage in the long roadwalk. This was a busier road with a speed limit of 60 mph. Luckily,  there was a broad strip of land between the highway and the ranch properties, so I was mostly able to stay away from the highway itself.

I had chosen a spot towards the end of Nova Rd as my stopping point for the day. The Florida Trail app had several suggestions for where to camp out of view of the road. The descriptions of these sites was pretty amusing as the first thing they stated was that there was no official tenting sites along this road walk. However, this road walk is long enough that almost no one can do it in one day, so these are more like “wink, wink" camping spots.

Last stretch of the day along Nova Rd.

I reached my chosen spot, which was behind a long, thick stretch of trees. However, it was right next to a pasture of noisy cows. Oh well, between the traffic and the cows, we will see how much sleep I can get tonight.

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