FT2018 Day 56: Red Deer Campsite (mile 1001.8) to Tom Thumb (mile 1025.2)

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 at the nearby Red Deer Creek to filter water for the morning. Like all the creeks so far, it was nice and clear. As I was filtering, the wind shifted and I felt some droplets of water.

At first, I thought it was water being blown off the vegetation. Then, it came down.  The rain drops were big and fat,  and they immediately soaked whatever they touched. I rapidly put on my rain jacket and pack cover, then finished filtering my liter of water. So much for weather predictions.

Technical difficulties during the rainstorm.

I continued to walk in the rain for the next couple hours. None of it was as heavy as that first shower, but the dampness was chilling me a little, so I had to walk at a steady pace. I made great time until I got to my first boardwalk.

The boardwalks can be kind of slick, even on a sunny day. They tend to build up a thin layer of algae. The trail maintainers in this section appear to regularly scrape it off but there is some still there. It gets incredibly slick when wet. I had to take the boardwalks comically slow, like walking on ice.

Slippery boardwalk.

By lunchtime I made it to a campground by a lake that had picnic tables. I took a nice easy lunch. I was going to be picked up tonight by a trail angel, Kelley, so I texted her an update on my position. When I got a text back she had told me that the agreed upon time might not work out today.

There was a hiker attempting an FKT (fastest known time) of the Florida Trail and apparently he was going to finish today. I don't know when this guy must have passed me. Kelley was meeting him at Ft. Pickens, so she said I could be picked up early or late. I decided to be picked up later. The more miles I did today meant the less miles I had to do tomorrow.

I then slowly made my way through the rest of Eglin, not in any rush. In the meantime, the sunlight appeared. There were definitely some storms, but otherwise the weather was way different than originally predicted.

The Florida Trail .

Are those blue skies?

The Florida Trail later in the day. 

I finally exited Eglin and came out onto the highway. It was a high-traffic, busy highway and it was rush hour. I walked past the interstate junction which had a jumble of hotels and restaurants. Rambler going to staying in one of them tonight.

Welcome to Crestview.

Vlog

Then, I made it to the old downtown area of Crestview. The main street area was long and expansive, with small, independent shops. This was just the type of area that should have a great relationship with the trail, advertising for hikers to stop in the shops. However, there was none of that. Instead, as I sat on a bench, I had a man stop and ask both if I was OK and if I needed anything. I gave my normal reply about the trail and he admitted that he thought I was homeless. The FTA could do a much better job on community outreach in the town's the trail passes through.

I made it to the Tom Thumb at which I had told Kelley I would wait for her. I grabbed a lot of snacks to eat in the meantime. The cashier made a comment on the number of snacks I was getting and I responded very loudly, and pretty much to the rest of the store, that I was hiking the Florida Trail. I pretty much was making the announcement that I wasn't homeless. The people in the store and working it were very curious and impressed, and had lots of questions for me.

I waited outside the Tom Thumb and devoured my snacks. When Kelley and her boyfriend, Sean, had showed up they had Dan (Chopsticks) in tow. He had just finished the trail on his 25th day. I was on schedule to finish it on my 60th. He was very nice and was able to make a little conversation, despite being exhausted. He said that he had two 50 mile days towards the end of his hike. I couldn't believe he was still coherent.

We dropped Sean and Dan off at Sean’s house, and I went with Kelley to her house.  I had an entire bedroom to myself that she had set up for hikers. I had a king sized bed and my own attached bathroom. I took a long shower and did laundry. I was very happy to do laundry. Hopefully my shirt won't stretch my skin off anymore. I chatted with Kelley as long as I could but I was crashing pretty hard and went to bed as soon as my laundry was done. Both the bed and the sheets were very