FT2018 Day 50: Camel Lake Campground (mile 858.5) to Bristol (mile 873.9)

15.4 FT miles

Yesterday took more out of me, both physically and emotionally, than I had imagined. After I had taken my shower, I couldn't really stay awake. I must have fallen asleep before 7 pm. As a result, I woke up just before 1 am. I was on edge because of the awful time I had yesterday and could not go back to sleep despite my best efforts.

Even though I wasn't asleep, I still got up later than I originally planned. Go figure. I packed up everything, filled up with water, and headed down the road to CR 12. I was taking the forest road and not the trail to CR 12 because the camp hosts had warned that the trail north of the campground was very flooded. I already had enough of an adventure yesterday.

I was in an incredibly bad mood. I had a lack of sleep and I was still angry about being evacuated and having to cut short my continuous steps so close to the end of the trail. I had people suggest that I could go back and pick it up. However, I would have to wait at least another day for it to finish burning, then backtrack 7 miles from the campground. I didn't have enough food to wait another day or two and doing an extra 14 miles through recently charred forest and swamp didn't sound like something that would make me happy at the moment.

So, I miserably walked the forest road to CR 12, choking on thick smoke the whole way. Road walks are brutal as it is, but then add a bad mood and bad air quality. I did my best to move through it as quickly as possible.  

CR 12.

As an added bonus, there were prison workers picking up trash on the side of the road. This was the second prison work crew I have passed on the trail. With the first one, there was a corrections officer out among the inmates. With this crew, he was in the truck slowly moving behind the 4 inmates, hauling a chemical toilet.  I passed them all making minimal acknowledgement. I had one of the guys stare at me for quite a while, but luckily he was one of the ones across the road and not close to me.

Just the sign you want to see on a roadwalk.

As I approached town, the smoke got thicker. I stopped at a convenience store to use the bathroom and pick up a cold drink. Luckily, a sidewalk emerged soon after so that I didn't have to hike the shoulder anymore.

For those who are low on gas but also need fireworks.

While on the sidewalk, I had another hiker (Jeremy) catch me. We walked together until town with him keeping a much faster pace than I normally would. During conversation, I asked him about the fire closure. He had hit the trailhead towards the end of the day and said there were people stationed there to tell him it was closed. I know they sent the helicopter to look for people after encountering me, so I may have helped other hikers stay out of danger after my evacuation yesterday. It would be nice to get something positive out of the situation.

When we hit town,  Jeremy went to a convenience store for resupply and I went to the all-you-can-eat southern buffet at the restaurant, Apalachee. I underestimated hiker hunger vs. Southern cooking. They had deep fried bacon. I repeat, they were serving deep fried bacon. I don't know how anyone not hiking a trail can consume that. One piece filled me up pretty quickly. While eating, I had a curious local come and ask me where I was headed. I chatted about the trail a little and the man ended up picking up my check.

Apalachee Restaurant.

After lunch, I headed to the hotel to check in. On my way there I had someone honk at me loudly. I didn't think much of it, I have people honking at me all the time on towns or busy roads. While I was in the hotel office, I saw who it had been. It was CopperTone, and he was headed to his next trail magic destination, a church about 20 miles down the road. He had stopped to chat with me and I told him about my adventure yesterday.

Vlog

We went our separate way and I headed to the post office to pick up a care package from my mom. The town was really smoky. The smoke level reminded me of all the trail towns I went through in northern California on the PCT, but with fried chicken and churches on every block. The woman working the counter at the post office asked me if I was affected by the smoke at all on the trail. I guess you could say that…

Next, I needed to do laundry. Desperately. I was even annoyed by my stink, and I was fairly accustomed to it. I'm pretty sure people were giving me an uncomfortably wide berth. There were no laundromats in town, so I needed to do sink laundry. I needed some kind of soap for it as well since I had swamp, fire, and over a week of hiker-in-humidity stink on my clothes.

I walked to the Piggly Wiggly for some snacks and some detergent. They did not have a travel sized section, so I bought a laundry soap bar for $1.39, which I assume is mostly used for stain removal. It said it could be used as a laundry “booster" as well, so it was the best thing I could find.

I went back to the hotel, took a shower, and started laundry. It is no wonder my clothes feel lighter after I wash them. I must be carrying pounds of dirt. It took hours of hand washing to get the water even remotely clear. The laundry bar helped a lot, especially with my socks. I'm going to break off a chunk of it to take with me in case more sink laundry is in order.

By now, it was late in the day. I still had about 7 blogs to upload, plus vlogs to not only upload, but finish as well. A lot of time was spent in Facebook discussions as well since Gramps posted today about being caught in a controlled burn with no notification as well. It was a different burn and happened in Eglin Air force Base.  He didn't bump into any crews though, he had to make a run for it.