My shoes are gross. My shoes are riddled with holes. My shoes have taken a beating, as evidenced by the previous pictures. I have more than a thousand miles on my old shoes ... and I really could use a new pair. My grandmother Susan told me to go to Snyderman Shoes, because they were really nice and might like to donate me a pair of new <non-gross and not hole-riddled!> shoes. Well, I went in ... and immediately felt welcomed. Everybody was really nice, even when I told them I'd like to beg :-) I gave them my business card and a cool new CLOV label, and told them about my fundraising hike. They outfitted me with a spiffy new pair of shoes in a jiffy. It was so wierd to have shoes that actually enclosed my foot and gave me good support. :-) If you're ever in the Naples, Florida area and need new shoes, go to Snyderman shoes. They're very nice, and have a wide variety of shoes. The store has done a lot of great things in the past, including giving a new pair of shoes every year to the children of area farm workers. |
I would also like to thank Anna of Anna's Oatcakes. She's been sending me her delicious oatcakes along my hike. I just recieved a box of the yummy date flavored ones. You should try them! They're positively addicting. :-) Creative Labels of Vermont just sent me a HUGE roll of labels for my hike. They're going to come in very handy. I'll use them to sign trail registers, and to give to people along the way. I've already used them .... |
When mom and I drove back to the campground, she made me wash off all off the mud with water from an artesian well nearby. I was planning on keeping it on and showing everybody at the campground my nice mud, but mom refused. Something about cleanliness... I'm now ready to hit the trail again! Right now we're back at my *evil* step-grandmother's (Susan) and have picked up the packages that we were originally waiting for. My web updates will be pretty sporadic now ... it's tough to find a public modem to update the webpage. I would really, really like to thank Brunton, who donated the compass that helped me find my way out of being lost. I would have been in really tough shape had I not had a compass with me. I would urge all of you to get a compass and learn how to use it. |
About 95% of the trail was underwater. The water varied from ankle to mid thigh deep. What wasn't underwater was completely boggy, squishy, and exceedingly muddy. Walking along, I thought I had gotten a rock in my shoes. I pulled them off, and instead found about half a cup of mud and sand in each. Yummy! The green inside are my wicked comfy Superfeet insoles. Walking through the swamps of Florida is an experience not to be missed. The landscape |
January 15th - 23rd We stayed at Susan's for 5 days, during which we caught up on laundry, mail, and waited for several packages to come. Mom and I went shopping for a few things, including a new hat for me to wear in the sun. I bought two hats, one white and one white with flowers, 2 for a dollar at Walmart. Zeke likes wearing the white one. He says it makes him feel suave. Fearing we were becoming pestifierous while waiting for our packages to come, we headed up to Fort Myers for a few days. Our usual campgrounds were stuffed to the gills. Thanks to our nifty Recreation USA campground book, we found a cool campground nearby. Every campground listed in Recreation USA is $10 a night, regardless of what the campground charges regular customers. Pretty darn cool! The campground had a pool, petting zoo, shuffleboard court, and resturant. Zeke had a field day smelling the cows at the petting zoo. He even got licked by two of them. :-) I sleep in a hammock while camping. It's much more comfortable than sleeping in a tent on hard ground. Well, I haven't been sleeping in my hammock this entire trip. All of the places we've stayed at don't allow you to tie things onto trees. I've been sleeping in the van with mom and Zeke instead. On the way back to Susan's, we stopped at a Walmart. Mom bought me a $18.88 combo pack which included a kid tent, chair, and sleeping bag. She then banished me from the van! Apparently I'm a bed hog. Driving back to Susan's, we decided to keep going back to where I had left off hiking. I walked 5 miles that day. Woohooo. :-) The next day I walked from our campsite, back towards where I left off the day before. The third day ..... |
Southern Florida Everglades to Route 41... |
A Manta Ray |
Florida has these signs everywhere. Sobering. |
Where your winter corn comes from |
Our favorite fruit stand! |
Jan 13th Honk and Drools: 38 Drive-by whistles: 5 Hey Sweetheart's: 4 Fake smooches: 1 Ride offers: 4 Miles Walked: 14.3 And a partridge in a pear tree Today I hit a record high of drive-by honk and drools. Why do men feel the urge to honk at women who are walking down the street? You don't drive by an art museum and lay on your horn to show your appreciation. There are a variety of horn sounds from different brands of big trucks. Some sound like Barry White... deep, mellow, complementary. Others remind me of Richard Simmons.....in your face, loud, and very jarring. One trucker who honked at me today made me jump off the ground. His horn was the nastiest of all. Today the scenery was filled with acres upon acres of corn, beans, tomatoes, and cucumbers, with a few banana and papaya plantations thrown in. I saw a huge 18-wheeler go by, absolutely stuffed to the brim with green tomatoes. Here and there by the roadside, there were piles of squished cucumbers and zucchini. Almost everybody I saw today was a migrant farm worker. It's quite the change from the Keys, where almost everybody was white and well-to-do. When mom picked me up for the night, we stopped in at a local hostel to check it out. The lady there warned me about a recent python outbreak in the backwoods of Florida. I didn't quite believe her, so when we came back to the Everglades to camp for the night, I asked a ranger if she knew anything about it. She says it's true! There was even a newspaper article on it, posted up on the bulletin board. According to the article, Burmese pythons are not only thriving, but breeding here in Florida. About 1,000 pythons are estimated to have escaped after hurricane Andrew swept through, destroying their owners homes. More are said to have been released into the wild by their owners, who found them unruly and unmanageable. Burmese pythons commonly reach 20 feet in length, and weigh around 200 pounds. Length usually tops out at 26 feet. They have been known to swallow children and small adults in their native Asia. They can't choke down an average size adult, but do kill them. Florida gets more interesting by the day. |
January 14th Honk and drools: 24 Miles Walked: 7 The day started out normally enough. Mom dropped me off where I had left off last night, and I started hiking under overcast skies. I walked by acres of corn, beans, and tomatoes. I glared at over-eager truckers who would lay on their horns and then break their necks when they went by. I am so sick of perverts honking at me. If I had a dollar per honking vehicle, I would have made $126 so far. The 20th person to beep at me today was an especially creepy looking one. He drove by in his 18-wheeler, honking and staring. As soon as he went by me, he crossed over a lane of busy traffic to pull off on the side of the road. He almost grazed my Mom's van, which she had parked in an abandoned driveway to wait for me. They were both about 100 yards away. The creepy trucker then hopped out, and tried to busy himself with checking over his truck. He opened the little door in the back, looked around.Then he checked the tires very thoroughly, but only the tires that allowed him to stare at me while he did so. He never checked the tires that were on the right side of the truck. He would stand and stare at his truck, then turn to stare at me. He pretended to be busy checking his truck the 5 minutes or so it took me to get close. He kept an eye on me the entire time. The creepy trucker just gave out icky creepy serial killer rapist vibes. He was wearing silk pajama bottoms, and the kind of leather slippers you wear with your smoking jacket. This was at one in the afternoon. Luckily Mom was parked closer to me than he was. I hopped into our van and waited for him to leave. He kept staring at his truck, then staring at me. It took him a good 15 more minutes before finally giving up and leaving. I think he heard me ask my mom what his licence plate number was. The abandoned driveway mom was parked in led a short distance to a dozen concrete barriers placed multiple layers thick and to a high fence slathered with "No Trespassing, US Government Property" signs. It was the site of a Naval Airbase that blew away when Hurricane Andrew came to town. It's now abandoned. I had just hopped out of the van to continue hiking, when a sedan pulled up and 4 boys jumped out. They were all wearing school uniform shirts and ties. They headed for the fence. One of them was waving around a gun. Mom told me to scoot, and that she'd drive up the road as soon as she couldn't see me anymore. What follows is what she saw... I was hiking real fast down the road at the time. :-) The kid with the gun took off his tie, and pulled on a black watch cap. The other kids took off their ties too, and tried to find a way through the fence. They fooled around with the lock, and tried to climb up the fence. Two of the kids got spooked and got back into the car. They honked and yelled for the other two to get in. One kid though, was determined to get in. He climbed the fence and was almost at the top, when a white panel van swerved into the driveway, missing my Mom's van by about an inch. They parked so they were blocking her in. Men in red jackets jumped out and ran over to the kids. They showed the kids their badges and guns. The kids looked VERY spooked. After the men in red jackets gave them a talking to, the kids jumped into their car and sped away. The red jackets stayed around for a few minutes, then pulled away. By this time, my mom was a little freaked out. She hadn't been able to see me walking on the road, and was scared that the same creepy trucker had been waiting ahead to abduct me. She had been about to pull out after me when the white panel van swooped in and blocked her way. After the red jackets left, she was finally able to get out and drove on ahead of me. I met her about a mile up the road at a gas station. She unlocked the door, I got in, and we said "Let's go to Susan's!" Susan is my grandmother, and lives in Naples. We were planning to come back to her house next week to pick up mail and what-not, but decided to come a little earlier. We had had enough harassment for the week. So, we'll be here for a few days, and then I'll get back on the road. On the way up here, we drove past the start of the Florida Trail. It looks more like a creek than it does a trail. Should be fun! Especially with that recent python outbreak. |
Alligator Piles |
Sunset in Naples |
Start of the Florida Trail |
Zeke wants camera attention, too |
January 15th - 23rd We stayed at Susan's for 5 days, during which we caught up on laundry, mail, and waited for several packages to come. Mom and I went shopping for a few things, including a new hat for me to wear in the sun. I bought two hats, one white and one white with flowers, 2 for a dollar at Walmart. Zeke likes wearing the white one. He says it makes him feel suave. Fearing we were becoming pestifierous while waiting for our packages to come, we headed up to Fort Myers for a few days. Our usual campgrounds were stuffed to the gills. Thanks to our nifty Recreation USA campground book, we found a cool campground nearby. Every campground listed in Recreation USA is $10 a night, regardless of what the campground charges regular customers. Pretty darn cool! The campground had a pool, petting zoo, shuffleboard court, and resturant. Zeke had a field day smelling the cows at the petting zoo. He even got licked by two of them. :-) I sleep in a hammock while camping. It's much more comfortable than sleeping in a tent on hard ground. Well, I haven't been sleeping in my hammock this entire trip. All of the places we've stayed at don't allow you to tie things onto trees. I've been sleeping in the van with mom and Zeke instead. On the way back to Susan's, we stopped at a Walmart. Mom bought me a $18.88 combo pack which included a kid tent, chair, and sleeping bag. She then banished me from the van! Apparently I'm a bed hog. Driving back to Susan's, we decided to keep going back to where I had left off hiking. I walked 5 miles that day. Woohooo. :-) The next day I walked from our campsite, back towards where I left off the day before. The third day ..... |
Heather at the start of the Florida Trail |
Out in the middle of nowhere on the FT |
January 24th Miles Walked: 16 I was so excited this morning! Real trail up ahead! I finally get to hike on the Florida Trail! Woohoooooooo!!!! Only have to hike 8 miles to get to the start. Run to the start! Can't wait to get there! Hmmm, maybe not run... but you get the idea. This is exciting! I woke up at the crack of dawn and packed everything I needed. Packed up my little kiddie tent, and strapped the kiddie chair to my backpack. The sun rose over the cypress and the cabbage palms, breaking up the cloud cover into polka dots and stripes. The orange sunrise quickly gave way to brilliant blue in between the cloud crackles. Dozens of wood storks, ibises, egrets, blue herons, and buzzards lined the roadsides. I passed one half of a snake, and surprisingly, no alligators. The last time mom and I drove on the loop road, there were dozens of alligators. I hiked the 8 miles to the start of the Florida Trail in two and a half hours. The beginning of the trail had dried up since mom and I drove past it more than a week ago. You could actually see ground poking above the water. I propped my camera on the backcountry permit kiosk, waded in, and snapped a picture for posterity. |
About 95% of the trail was underwater. The water varied from ankle to mid thigh deep. What wasn't underwater was completely boggy, squishy, and exceedingly muddy. Walking along, I thought I had gotten a rock in my shoes. I pulled them off, and instead found about half a cup of mud and sand in each. Yummy! The green inside are my wicked comfy Superfeet insoles. Walking through the swamps of Florida is an experience not to be missed. The landscape |
is absolutely gorgeous. Fields of undulating grasses are mingled with dwarf cypress and zillions of little yellow flowers. Hammocks break up the watery world, providing drier ground and differing vegetation. Never before have I seen pond lilies growing in the middle of a hiking trail. Or rather, the hiking creek. Even the dry ground of the hammocks is a tad soggy, making a good place to sit hard to find. When the local chapter of the Florida Trail Association goes out on trailwork trips, they bring folding stools to sit on. There is no true "dry" ground around. I made good use of my folding kiddie chair. |
Walking through the swamp is also an eerie experience. The trail goes right through prime gator habitat. If you step too far off the trail, you could find yourself wading in a gator hole - a place in the water an alligator has dug out to make a bigger pool. Gator holes concentrate a body of water and a fish population, allowing an alligator to live comfortably in a drought when the surrounding water dries up. Wading through thigh deep water in the middle of nowhere with nobody else around for miles is a little disconcerting. It was also very peaceful. No more honking semis, all of the fresh air I wanted, and a gentle breeze wafting through the cypress. The water felt wonderfully cool against my skin on such a warm day. (I send my sympathies to you snowed in northerners.) I called mom on my cell phone to let her know I expected to be out in about 3 miles, or approximately 2 hours. I then proceeded to get totally and completely lost. I had been walking along blissfully, when I noticed a double blaze made with flagging tape. When hiking, a double blaze means you make a sharp turn. I dutifully turned and followed the blazes through the woods. It was well marked, but the trail seemed a little overgrown. |
I had walked for about 5-10 mintutes when the blazing abruptly ended. No blaze ahead or to either side. Only a huge, swampy, most likely alligator filled lagoon. I tried to walk through it a little to see if there was a blaze ahead I was missing. The water quickly came mid-thigh. Whoa! I backed up an tried to retrace the blazes back to the real trail. Tramping back, it started to look unfamiliar. I was still following the plentiful flagging, but something looked wrong. Then, the blazing suddenly stopped. I was left surrounded by a little circle of cypress trees, upon which somebody had tacked about 5 homemade signs. Each sign was ragged and torn, and very, very creepy. On each sign was a circle, which looked like there had been something, perhaps a head, glued to it. |
One of the signs was constructed out of newspaper headline clippings, some of which mentioned a baby kidnapper. It was extremely creepy. I snapped a couple quick pictures, turned around, and tried to find my way back out. The only orange blazes I could find led me back to the previous dead-end. I was scared. I had never been lost before. Here I was, alone, in the middle of a swamp, nowhere near the real trail, no idea how to get back, and had been lead down a false trail by some malicious person who had tacked up a bunch of creepy signs. I called up mom. Told her I was lost. Then I got out my guidebook and compass, and tried to figure out where in the world I was. Slight detail, I had never used a compass to navigate before. Since Florida is so darn flat and I was walking north between two east-west roads, I set my compass to a 360/0 bearing and headed straight north. I had to make a few detours around lagoons that looked to be over my head in water. I crashed through thickets, tall grass, and pathless swamps, heading straight north. Up, over, and through. I started to hear cars! I caught a glimpse of a shiny metal semi zipping by! I was so happy I almost cried. I called mom. Told her what color the semi was. Asked if it had gone by already, or if it was coming towards her. When I got closer, I laughed at my own question. Rising out of the grass prairie, was the several story visitor center. Kind of hard to miss! I had been a few hundred yards west of where the trail actually came out. I popped out from the wilderness, and onto asphalt. My legs were wicked scratched up, and I was totally coated in mud. I was happy, though. I couldn't have picked a better time to get lost. It was daylight, warm, I had a cellphone, a compass, a map, and I was only about 3 miles away from other people. Thank goodness! |
When mom and I drove back to the campground, she made me wash off all off the mud with water from an artesian well nearby. I was planning on keeping it on and showing everybody at the campground my nice mud, but mom refused. Something about cleanliness... I'm now ready to hit the trail again! Right now we're back at my *evil* step-grandmother's (Susan) and have picked up the packages that we were originally waiting for. My web updates will be pretty sporadic now ... it's tough to find a public modem to update the webpage. I would really, really like to thank Brunton, who donated the compass that helped me find my way out of being lost. I would have been in really tough shape had I not had a compass with me. I would urge all of you to get a compass and learn how to use it. |
I would also like to thank Anna of Anna's Oatcakes. She's been sending me her delicious oatcakes along my hike. I just recieved a box of the yummy date flavored ones. You should try them! They're positively addicting. :-) Creative Labels of Vermont just sent me a HUGE roll of labels for my hike. They're going to come in very handy. I'll use them to sign trail registers, and to give to people along the way. I've already used them .... |
...When I went to Snyderman shoes. |
My shoes are gross. My shoes are riddled with holes. My shoes have taken a beating, as evidenced by the previous pictures. I have more than a thousand miles on my old shoes ... and I really could use a new pair. My grandmother Susan told me to go to Snyderman Shoes, because they were really nice and might like to donate me a pair of new <non-gross and not hole-riddled!> shoes. Well, I went in ... and immediately felt welcomed. Everybody was really nice, even when I told them I'd like to beg :-) I gave them my business card and a cool new CLOV label, and told them about my fundraising hike. They outfitted me with a spiffy new pair of shoes in a jiffy. It was so wierd to have shoes that actually enclosed my foot and gave me good support. :-) If you're ever in the Naples, Florida area and need new shoes, go to Snyderman shoes. They're very nice, and have a wide variety of shoes. The store has done a lot of great things in the past, including giving a new pair of shoes every year to the children of area farm workers. |
My new shoes, courtesy of Snyderman's Shoes |
January 25th Last night, my mother got up in the middle of the night to use the Porta-Potty in our van. She opened the lid, and heard something fall. She felt all around the toilet rim, but couldn't find anything. She figured whatever it was had hit the floor, and went ahead and peed. She opened the little trap door to flush, and the handle wouldn't go back. She searched around for a light to figure out how to fix it. And there was the digital camera, half in and half out of the toilet tank. OOOPS!!! Digital equipment doesn't take kindly to being peed on. My camera is now very dead. I need a new one!!! I wonder who will be kind enough to donate a new one? I guess it's time to ask camera companies. I wonder how I should phrase the reason why I need a new camera? |
