Everything Is Wet

Like consistently, for the past 70 miles, everything has just been wet. Mostly from condensation. Anyway though, since I last checked in a lot has happened. The next morning I woke up to hear that a tornado had passed over close by overnight! I had been kept up by the wind and lighting most of the night, but I had no idea how bad it really was. A few of my stakes were even bent! Although the tent held up amazingly, I still ended up with a puddle on one side, luckily I still had enough room to stay dry.

January 25th

I packed up slowly that morning, trying to give everything time to dry. That morning was still pretty warm so it didn’t take too long. There was a long walk through the sand afterwords. About ten miles of dunes and beach walking. Every step was beautiful and I really loved it, but it did take a toll on my knee. After that came a 9 mile or so road walk, the campsites are so spaced out that it’s hard to do low mile days, unless I would wanna camp in town somewhere.

After a short stop at Burger King, and family dollar, where I was stopped by someone who had questions about the trail. I was back on trail in eglin Air Force base. I love when people stop me to talk to me about what I’m doing. Explaining it and seeing their reaction is always a great experience, I even had someone ask for my instagram! In eglin air force base, I hit my first forested area. There was a beautiful campsite tucked away in here that I came into just after dark, exhausted, I laid down for the night.

January 26th

Beautiful day hiking in the forest through Eglin Air Force base, lots of walking in the woods until I eventually crossed a busy highway and walked across a bridge to a gas station to grab some resupply food, mostly snacks. Met a nice guy at the gas station who gave me a ride to the trailhead, I realized I left my poles in his car and had a minor breakdown and had to hitch back to his house, he was nice enough to let me camp in his yard though.

January 27th

Woke up to a hen outside my tent, hearing them in the morning was a bit annoying but also really cool. Once I realized how many animals this guy had, I had to look around at the animals on the property. He has rare dogs, hens, tortoises, and birds. I can’t completely remember all the specific breeds or anything, but they were all a treat to experience, I’ll throw some pictures up here, but I’ll have more on toy other social medias soon. Walking to trail I got charged by two dogs. They barked and chased me to the opposite side of the road, until I passed the property. They backed off east enough, and then once I got on trail a random German Shepard ran up on me, barked at me and then ran away. I’ve seen more dogs on this trail than any I’ve been on, I absolutely love them. But I don’t like being ran at this often when owners are nowhere in sight. I hiked to a beautiful campsite and dryed out my gear, then continued on to camp for the night on an old road bed.