FT2018 Day 7: Campsite on dike (mile 91.1) to Clewiston (mile 103.7)

3.6 FT miles, 8.4 miles roadwalk detour, 2-2.5 miles backtracking

I got another pre-dawn start again today. I was awake anyway. I was more tired than I realized last night and I had passed out not long after setting up my tent. I'm pretty sure I was asleep by 6 pm. I, of course, woke up again later in the night, but I was pretty rested when I woke up this morning. Or, so I thought.

I walked the short distance to the end of the dike and turned north onto Miami Canal Road. I was out of the vegetation and onto a solid surface again. I knew it would eventually make my feet hurt, but I was moving much faster.

I was watching the sun start to rise over the canal and started to wonder if I should take a picture now or wait until it rose a little further. That's when I realized that my camera, usually bungeed to my shoulder for quick access, was not there.

I knew exactly where it was. It was laying in the vegetation next to where my bag had been. It was part of my pack-up routine to put my backpack on, then attach the camera. I had failed to do the later this morning.

There was no other option but to retrace that mile+ back to my campsite to retrieve my DSLR. I wasn't even that mad about it. I just resigned myself to the fact that it needed to be done.

I found my camera with ease and decided just to sit back down and have breakfast. Then, I started back to the road again. Take 2.

I went back to my campsite for a sunrise breakfast. 

I walked the 3 miles of Miami Canal Road and turned onto the road walk detour into Clewiston (the normal route along the dike was closed for construction). I was warned that the road walk featured high speed traffic, but it turned out to be a sparsely used road that paralleled the major highway.

Miami Canal Road 

Early morning on Miami Canal Road. 

The people I passed by were very friendly and seemed to know about the trail, wishing me luck. A man stepped out of his house and handed me two sealed bottles of water, which was incredibly lucky since I was low on clean drinking water. I even had a woman who was walking her dog sneak a cell phone pic of me. She didn't sneak it very well as the flash went off. I just hope when it is inevitably posted to social media it is captioned something like “Hiker spotting" and less like “Smelly, dirty people invading our town.”

Early on in the road detour. Passing an aloe farm and canal with a train in the background.

As I got closer to Clewiston itself, people got less friendly and stopped returning my greeting. I was also honked at more. I stopped at a Marathon station to grab a sports drink. The woman at the register had noticed that a lot of people “walking" had stopped by, but she didn't seem to know about the trail. I chatted with her about it, drank my sports drink, then continued deeper into town.

Vlog

The laundromat was on the way, so I decided to get my laundry chore out of the way. I had noticed many buildings seemed to still have bad hurricane damage when I entered town, and the laundromat was one of them.

I didn't think it was operational when I walked in. Parts of the ceiling were broken off. There were exposed walls and debris. The roof was a large tarp. I saw a man sitting at the folding table and wasn't sure what was going on.

The man turned out to be the owner. He was still operating the laundromat in the shell of his building, but was working it 7 days/week because he couldn't hire an employee.

He helped select which washers were working best and let me change in his damaged, out-of-order bathroom. Then, because there was no operational change or vending machine, he helped change quarters for me and provided complimentary detergent.

I talked to him about the trail as well, since he was unfamiliar with it. He was very nice and also had a parent-like concern for my safety, which was a very sweet sentiment from a stranger.

When my clothes had dried, I thanked him and headed further into town. I was aiming for the Clewiston Inn, a historic sugar-cane era hotel in the middle of town. I talked to the desk clerk about a Florida Trail Hiker discount and he offered me a room for $10 less than I saw online.

The Clewiston Inn.

Lobby of The Clewiston Inn. 

After I had settled in, I ran next door to the quick service Cuban restaurant where I gorged on a Cuban sandwich, fries, and a Coke.

I also hit up the nearby Walgreens for some resupply items and showered twice. After being fed and cleaned I had to resist to urge to fall asleep.

I started working on uploading my journals and pictures, but also spent way too much time trying to figure out how to upload and share the vlogs I had been filming.

Finally, I went to bed...in an actual bed.