Florida Trail - 50 Miles (John Stretch
Park to Buckhead Ridge)
We are back on the trail! Yes, you read that right.
We are back on the trail! Yes, you read that right.
After a whole month, we are so excited to be back on the Florida Trail.
Here's our little experience on this section of the trail.
This time we headed back to our last stop at John Stretch Memorial Park
all the way through the small town Buckhead Ridge, a total of 56-miles.
Like always, before we decide to head out on the trail,
we like to trace our miles and know every pint point location.
This time around we wanted to take it up a notch,
and really hike the long way.
Since we haven't hiked for the past month,
we thought it would be the perfect time to do around 50-56 miles.
The more we hike up north, the more we have drive in the morning,
on Saturday we both Hector and I fell asleep,
and we couldn't make it on time to start hiking at a certain time.
Usually, we were set up to start hiking at an early hour (around 5:00am)
but since we had to drive up north around 2 hours.
We got to John Stretch Park and started hiking around 7:30am,
our first thought was just to hike and enjoy the beautiful Saturday,
we talked about our daily routines, our work environment, and other stuff.
After a couple of hours, we start to take short breaks,
until we reached our first town Clewiston.
Clewiston is a beautiful small town, and even though we just passed through
we were able to spot some bars and cafes around town.
Immediately, we had to get to back on the trail and
start hiking our way close to Lake Okeechobee.
We encountered our first obstacle/fence that was a construction site,
the first thing we spotted on the fence was a "Trail Ends" sign
which it was kind of confusing to us because this was part of the trail,
we noticed the fence was kind of open and thought maybe we should
just go in and keep going on our way,
even though we felt like we were trespassing we were not going to
stop there and head back, we needed to continue no matter what.
After a couple of minutes, we took the decision to surpass the fence,
and start hiking this section of the trail.
After a couple of hours, we started to notice our bodies were acting up,
meaning, we were starting to wear out in extreme pain.
We were taking a lot more of breaks that we are used to,
started hiking at a very slow pace, and other problems.
Most of the trail segments throughout Lake Okeechobee
is through the pavement, and even though we are not fans of hiking
through paved segments, we started noticing this was because of the pavement.
Also, we were planning on camping at C-5 Campsite,
which is approximately the 28-mile mark and passing the second town
Moore Haven, FL on this section of the trail.
What we didn't know is that doing 20+ miles a day would literally kill our bodies.
For that matter, we got to Moore Haven around 7:30pm,
and purchased some snacks and filled our hydrate packs with water,
until we stopped at Moore Haven campground.
To our surprise, the campground was closed,
which it was kind of a bummer because we tried to get there on time,
but I guess it wasn't possible.
Once again, we had to improvise and find the best place to camp for the night,
this time it was kind of weird for us since we had to camp close to a construction site,
and this construction site had a lot of rocks but kind of like a mountain,
for a moment we thought we were camping in Arizona instead of Florida.
The next day we knew it was going to be tough because
we needed to hike around 28-30 miles in just one day.
By the afternoon, our bodies were completed worn out,
we would stop every 20-30 minutes and would literally take our boots off,
relax and take long breaks, which it was not a good sign.
After a couple of discussions, we decided it was time to stop
at the 50-mile mark and be done with this section of the trail.
Even though, our initial thoughts were of total disappointment,
we thought we should be proud of everything that we have accomplished so far,
and if we would have kept hiking it would have been
impossible for us to complete this section of the trail.
At last, we waited for our ride at one of the Water Management Areas,
and head back home to take a fresh shower and a long nap.
Yes, guys, this section of the trail was tough and difficult,
I am currently resting and getting back on my feet after a long hiking weekend.
Follow me:
IG: hectorgrass_
FB: Hector Grass
Twitter: hectorgrass_
Here's our little experience on this section of the trail.
This time we headed back to our last stop at John Stretch Memorial Park
all the way through the small town Buckhead Ridge, a total of 56-miles.
Like always, before we decide to head out on the trail,
we like to trace our miles and know every pint point location.
This time around we wanted to take it up a notch,
and really hike the long way.
Since we haven't hiked for the past month,
we thought it would be the perfect time to do around 50-56 miles.
The more we hike up north, the more we have drive in the morning,
on Saturday we both Hector and I fell asleep,
and we couldn't make it on time to start hiking at a certain time.
Usually, we were set up to start hiking at an early hour (around 5:00am)
but since we had to drive up north around 2 hours.
We got to John Stretch Park and started hiking around 7:30am,
our first thought was just to hike and enjoy the beautiful Saturday,
we talked about our daily routines, our work environment, and other stuff.
After a couple of hours, we start to take short breaks,
until we reached our first town Clewiston.
Clewiston is a beautiful small town, and even though we just passed through
we were able to spot some bars and cafes around town.
Immediately, we had to get to back on the trail and
start hiking our way close to Lake Okeechobee.
We encountered our first obstacle/fence that was a construction site,
the first thing we spotted on the fence was a "Trail Ends" sign
which it was kind of confusing to us because this was part of the trail,
we noticed the fence was kind of open and thought maybe we should
just go in and keep going on our way,
even though we felt like we were trespassing we were not going to
stop there and head back, we needed to continue no matter what.
After a couple of minutes, we took the decision to surpass the fence,
and start hiking this section of the trail.
After a couple of hours, we started to notice our bodies were acting up,
meaning, we were starting to wear out in extreme pain.
We were taking a lot more of breaks that we are used to,
started hiking at a very slow pace, and other problems.
Most of the trail segments throughout Lake Okeechobee
is through the pavement, and even though we are not fans of hiking
through paved segments, we started noticing this was because of the pavement.
Also, we were planning on camping at C-5 Campsite,
which is approximately the 28-mile mark and passing the second town
Moore Haven, FL on this section of the trail.
What we didn't know is that doing 20+ miles a day would literally kill our bodies.
For that matter, we got to Moore Haven around 7:30pm,
and purchased some snacks and filled our hydrate packs with water,
until we stopped at Moore Haven campground.
To our surprise, the campground was closed,
which it was kind of a bummer because we tried to get there on time,
but I guess it wasn't possible.
Once again, we had to improvise and find the best place to camp for the night,
this time it was kind of weird for us since we had to camp close to a construction site,
and this construction site had a lot of rocks but kind of like a mountain,
for a moment we thought we were camping in Arizona instead of Florida.
The next day we knew it was going to be tough because
we needed to hike around 28-30 miles in just one day.
By the afternoon, our bodies were completed worn out,
we would stop every 20-30 minutes and would literally take our boots off,
relax and take long breaks, which it was not a good sign.
After a couple of discussions, we decided it was time to stop
at the 50-mile mark and be done with this section of the trail.
Even though, our initial thoughts were of total disappointment,
we thought we should be proud of everything that we have accomplished so far,
and if we would have kept hiking it would have been
impossible for us to complete this section of the trail.
At last, we waited for our ride at one of the Water Management Areas,
and head back home to take a fresh shower and a long nap.
Yes, guys, this section of the trail was tough and difficult,
I am currently resting and getting back on my feet after a long hiking weekend.
Follow me:
IG: hectorgrass_
FB: Hector Grass
Twitter: hectorgrass_
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