FT2018 Day 54: Ebro (mile 944.8) to Steephead Campsite (mile 969.5)

24.7 FT miles

I just can't get a break at night, even at motels. Last night I crashed a little on the early side, since I was so exhausted from how hard I pushed my body.

I was in and out of my room yesterday evening and happened to pass a group of people staying a few doors down from me. There was a man that greeted me. I politely greeted him back the first time. The second time, they were talking about partying and as I walked past he said something like, “I want to party with her.” I ignored this and kept walking. He irritably yelled out,  “Yo!” I ignored this as well and went into my room.

At 2:20 am, I had a knock at my door. I was disoriented from being fast asleep and yelled out, “Yeah?” When I realized it was a knock at the door, I  got up to look out the peephole. It was the dude. As I was looking out, he turned to my door and, again, irritably yelled, “Yo!”

That was a nope. I made sure my deadbolt was fastened and backed away. There were people shouting in the breezeway, which I assumed were his friends yelling at him. Whatever it was, it made him go away. But, sleep was difficult after that.

Because of this, when my alarm went off I could not get my body up. I was too exhausted. I ended up sleeping about 2 hours past when I had wanted to get up. I still had some miscellaneous things to do before I got back on trail including repacking my resupply.

I was already late packing up when I remembered that, in about 2 days, I would be entering Eglin Airforce Base. I needed to check their Public Access Maps for sections that would be closed for various exercises.  I also needed to finish my permit process for the base now that I knew the dates that I would be there.

I tried to access the maps but couldn't get them to load on my phone. I started to worry that they were incompatible with my phone for some reason and I wouldn't be able to access important closure information. I texted Sugar Rush. She said she had previously been able to see the maps but couldn't access them today. It wasn't my phone after all.

Then, I tried logging into my account to finish the base access permit. It wouldn't let me log in. It said it didn't recognize my user name or email. I couldn't create a new profile because my typical user name was “already taken.” I broke down and called the base. They gave the a new password and I was able to log in and get my permit.

By now, it was much later in the morning than I had anticipated. I needed to do a lot of miles today and I was hoping to sneak out of the motel before anyone in the group a few doors down was awake. I moved out quickly and there was a woman sitting outside their room, but luckily not the dude.

I walked down SR 20 to where the trail went back into the woods. There was a sign about the “new" trail. Apparently this section had been acquired 2 years prior, cutting off 8.8 miles of road walking. After coming off two very long road sections, that would have been awful.

SR 20.

I wasn't in a good mood on the trail. I was hot, tired, and irritable. That first section of trail was soggy. There were a couple of boardwalks over some clear steams, but it was still pretty soggy in other sections. There were also the most mosquitos I have seen so far on the trail. They were some of the biggest mosquitos I have ever seen too. I stopped for a second to take a picture of a toad. Before I could open my camera app I received a “fiery kiss" on my cheek and had another two mosquitos land on my arm.

Nice boardwalk!

No boardwalk.

Vlog 1

I put on some music and tried to clear my head. I walked through forest, dipping down the cross streams. I passed a boy scout group on a hike. Finally, I made it to a pine forest area that had a campsite for lunch. While taking a long lunch, I heard someone setting off explosions of some kind. Between this and all the target practice I hear regularly,  if Florida was actually under attack, I would never know. It would sound like a normal day.

The Florida Trail. 

I spent the rest of the afternoon walking through a pine plantation with neat rows of pine trees. It was fairly repetitive, but I was happy to be moving through easy terrain.

Pine plantation.

I hit a couple more clear streams, then headed towards Lafayette WMA. It got dark by the time I got there, but the trail was pretty easy to follow for once.

Vlog 2

I hit my campsite and was surprised to find a tent already set up. I tried to set mine up as quietly as possible, but the other person woke up and called out ,”Hello?” It turned out to be Rambler, a hiker who I have never met but who I thought was behind me. He is one of the older generation of hikers who puts the rest of us to shame.

I finished setting up my tent, ducked inside it, and tried to smash the 3 mosquitos that followed me in. Then, I went to bed.