FT2018 Day 23: Old River Rd (mile 361.8) to Lake Mary (mile 380.1)

18.3 FT miles, plus 1.6 miles round trip to laundromat, 1 mile round trip to post office, and 2 miles to hotel

I was going to have a big, busy day. I was headed through the Orlando-metro area, the northeast suburbs. I was going to get a hotel for the night, not only because there were no camping spots in a 30 mile stretch, but because I was badly in need of some personal hygiene.

I don't know how long it had been since I last showered and bathed. 8 days, maybe. Not only have I been hiking through mud, but I have been sweating all day in humidity. My clothes were itchy and starting to give me rashes. My socks smelled worse than they have ever smelled. My hair felt like I had put wax on my scalp. Needless to say, a shower and laundry were priorities today.

I had done some research last night and the cheapest hotel in the area (although I would not consider it cheap) I would be walking did not have laundry facilities. The closest laundromat that I could scout out on the way was 0.8 miles off trail. I needed both time to make the detour and to do the laundry itself. Then, in Lake Mary, I needed to make another detour to the post office and make my way to the area hotels.

Since I had so much extra walking to do today, I started hiking before dawn. Luckily, the trail was easy to follow. It was a sandy path through the trees that was mostly clear of debris. It started to get light as I crossed a long boardwalk over a soggy section, something that would have been hell to go through without. Then, I spilled out into civilization.

Morning boardwalk crossing.

I was conscious of how dirty and smelly I was as cars speeded down the road, having no patience at intersections or pedestrian crossings since whatever was happening to them at the moment was the most important thing in the world.

I made my way through the town of Oviedo. It was a little confusing at first, since the trail seemed to connect grassy areas and random streets. I walked a beautiful boardwalk around a lake, but was then sent through a back alley. The trail was then supposed to cut through a wooded corridor. There were “No Trespassing” signs flanking the trail on this corridor. It was blazed, so I went through anyway.

Boardwalk around Round Lake.

Round Lake in the morning.

Reflections in Round Lake.

That corridor was fine until I reached a section that was very marshy. I was able to avoid the water at first, but had to go through it in the end. When I emerged onto the next suburban street, I was wet, muddy, and covered in burrs.

Ugh, thanks Florida Trail. 

I kept my head down and marched to downtown Oviedo and to the 0.8 mile detour to the laundromat. I immediately went into the bathroom to removed my very dirty clothes. The floor of the bathroom was spotless when I went in. It was very dirty when I came out. I did my laundry, put my hiking clothes back on and headed out again.

When I rejoined the trail, it was on a nice bike path that I would follow most of the rest of the day. I definitely felt out of place. It was full of retirees and moms enjoying a lazy stroll. I was busting through with a giant backpack, dressed for the wilderness, complete with gaitors covering my feet/ankles.

The bike path.

Cute bridge on the bike path.

I imagined what that would look like on any residential bike path I would have normally taken. I concluded that it would look weird. I tried to greet everyone brightly and with a smile, hoping to counter the opinions that I was a dangerous vagrant. You know, bringing the criminal element into their quiet suburb. Some people made a tiny remarks/questions after judgingly staring at me for a while. I used that opportunity to break into a little blurb about being on the Florida Trail, one of the country’s National Scenic Trails.

As I approached the next suburb over, Winter Springs, I came upon a huge construction project. The bike path itself was closed down in sections with detours in place. The ground was ripped up all the way to the bike path, so I was no longer enjoying a shaded corridor.

I  don't know what the development could be. It almost looked too big to be housing or a strip mall. I still could be, but it was like they were building a small city or theme park or something.

At one corner of the bike path there was supposed to be a path that led to a McDonalds. I was looking forward to a fatty, greasy, calorie-fest the rest of the day. I got to that corner and saw the McDonalds. I wasn’t  far away. Unfortunately, that path was fenced off as part of the construction project. Anything that keeps a thru-hiker from her calories is the worst thing in the world. That project went from a curiosity to evil corporate greed in my mind. I was hungry!!!

I ended up sadly (and maybe angrily) eating a bag of couscous for lunch, along with the small remnants of snacks I had remaining. Then, I kept walking, and walking, and walking.

There was nothing exciting about the last 8 miles to Lake Mary. I saw a turtle cross the bike path, so there was that. Otherwise, I just gritted my teeth and got through it.

Blazed utility pole.

I hit the junction where I was going to exit the bike path and headed towards the post office. My mom had sent me a care package and my Trail Angel had ordered me an item from Amazon. The care package was there, the Amazon order was not.

The sun was starting to go down, so I repacked my bag to include the package, and headed the two miles to the hotels that were by the highway. The highway led into Orlando and the area was full of business parks. This meant all the hotels in the area were expensive.

The cheapest option was the La Quinta, so I headed there, silently groaning when I handed over my credit card. If the other through hikers knew what I just paid for a hotel...oh, boy.

When I got to my room, it was hard to decide what to do first. I ended up ripping open the care package, and taking a quick look at the contents. I then grabbed a package of cookies and headed towards the bathroom, where I could multitask by rinsing the thru-hiking off in the tub and eating at the same time.

It was admittedly hard to get out of that warm bathtub. When I did, I was embarrassed by the color of the water. It was a lot if dirt. The bath felt so good that I could have passed out on the bed immediately. However, that was not an option, since I needed more food.

I walked the 15 minutes to the local, high end grocery store and picked up some items for dinner. I came back, ate dinner, and used the hot tub. This one had nice, strong jets to work out the knots.

After that, I did some uploading and was happy to find that the “high speed internet" did, in fact, seem to be high speed. Then, I crashed hard on the comfortable bed. 

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