Go Your Own Way (ECT Day 57)

• Hiked Today: 18.9 miles
  • Stevie Beach Alt. (0.2 – 19.1)
• Total Hiked: 1,205.7 miles
• Total Paddled: 99.5 miles

Weather: Sunny, 52-72°F, perfection!

Power Lines Spot to Topsail Hill State Park 

Today would be the first day of my planned alternate route. I take that back, yesterday I cut off from the FT a whopping 0.2 miles… can’t forget that. On trail, there’s never a day when you know what to expect. I suppose that’s true of life in general too, but going off the designated route to go my own way, it feels like there’s another level of unknown. This time especially, it has a feeling of winging it since I’d planned it over just a few hours.

I never did stuff like this on my first thru-hike, the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). I stayed by the books the whole way, covering every accessible and open inch of that trail. On the second journey though, hiking the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) that’s when my eyes were opened to the idea of the alternate.

The CDT trail is in a sense a choose-your-own-adventure route because so often there are splits with more than one option to take. There’s always an “official” red line, but it’s not always the most popular to take. For example, according to the 2024 Halfway Anywhere survey results (a great resource by the way), over 90% percent of hikers took the Gila River Alternate in New Mexico and I was surprised to see that over 78% took the challenging Cirque of the Towers Alternate in Wyoming’s Wind River Range. My experience is that sometimes taking the alternate turns out great and wonderful and worthy of the detour, but other times, not so much. I’ve regretted not staying on the red line a few times. To me, it seems it’s a bit of a coin toss.

There are different reasons folks choose to take a different way… maybe it’s shorter mileage or easier or better maintained, or maybe it’s safer. On the CDT in Colorado, I made the tough call to bypass a lot of the South San Juan Mountains using the “Creede cutoff.” I had really been looking forward to that section hearing that it’s one of the best of the whole trail, but in mid-October, and once again hiking solo, it was getting dangerously frigid in that 12,000-13,000 feet range. I still plan to get back there though!

Generally for me, I want to feel the alternate will offer up supposed better or maybe more unique scenery, and that’s what this “go your own way” thing is about. This time, it’s not so much that the Eglin part isn’t good, I actually hear it’s a really nice section, it’s more that I’m drawn to the ocean! And I’m sacrificing good trail for some road walk to get to it.

This will be the third time I forge my own unique path forward over substantial mileage. On the CDT, I bailed out and road walked around some of New Mexico’s National Forest land after mass fire closures. Earlier on this ECT journey, team Al-Li-Gator took on the Everglades kayaking adventure. And here I go again. It seems as though I’m treating the ECT along the choose-your-own-adventure strategy. It’s important to me to keep a continuous path (if I can help it), but I’ll continue to be loose about it needing to be this trail or that, etc… Each time I go off like this, including now, I have Fleetwood Mac on repeat in my head singing, “You can go your own way (go your own wayayay).” 

A Trip to the Dentist 

 

I continued up the power line corridor and right away sensed potential trouble just out of sight. Big truck noises. I thought I was able to be here, but could also see how it might be some private utility companies land. There hadn’t been any signage like “no trespassing” or “do not enter;” I’d intentionally looked for it.

So, as I crested the hill and found a large construction site with huge excavation equipment, I just kept walking. It appeared they were laying the underground network of pipes for an entire housing development (I think anyways). Nothing was moving yet apart from a few cars and pickup trucks entering the area from the opposite direction. My guess was they were just about to begin for the day… a scheduled 6:00 am start time? It was about ten minutes before. Maybe because it was a cold morning and nobody wanted to get out of their vehicle or even roll down their window, I wasn’t scolded for being there, and strolled right through. Really the whole thing worked out great, it was nice packed-down sand all the way to the roads I was trying to reach!

 

With that first obstacle out of the way, my next task was maneuvering alongside a giant highway. I had a few miles to get to the town of Freeport, FL where I planned to visit a dentist.

This too passed without incident! There was a widely cleared area where I could walk 20-30 feet away from the asphalt edge. A few exceptions existed where I was forced to get on the road shoulder, primarily at bridge crossings.

 

I guess I was a little overeager to get this taken care of and put behind me because I was an hour early getting to the dentist. Things had warmed up some, but it was still chilly as I sat next to the building perusing on my phone. At 8:00 am precisely, I went in and got checked in. This place was pretty nice, I thought, allowing me to just walk up and get seen like this. When I called yesterday, they told me this was my best option. Hopefully I don’t pay for it later as some sort of emergency visit or something. It was in my insurance network though, so hopefully that helps.

 

After all the schemes to get to the dentist, I didn’t really find out much. They took X-rays and poked around inside my mouth with the bright lights shining, but didn’t see anything too immediate. I was told I have two deep fillings in that area and one is located directly on top of a nerve. This seemed to fit to me. They wanted to refer me to an endodontist, root canal specialist, down the road, but I declined not sure how long it’d take to be seen… days? Its not hurting currently and I still haven’t tried just switching to sensitive toothpaste, so figured I’d try that first. Their general referral would come in handy later on if needed. So yeah, onward I walk and the tooth saga continues.

The Big Road Walk

 

On my way out of town I got some McDonald’s and dried out my tent. There had been a ton of condensation last night. Once filled up with, coffee in hand, I hit the big highway again. Luckily this side of town traffic was slightly slower moving. I won’t sugarcoat it though, this wasn’t scenic walking by any means; this was more of a “just get to my beach destination” kind of walking for about 10 miles.

There was a big bridge over Choctawhatchee Bay. It was maybe three miles in length and right away reminded me of my bridge walking experiences in the Keys. Like then, I didn’t mind it. It’s an odd feeling; watching all these folks in cars going about their lives. What I was doing was strange, but it sort of felt like a reminder of how fortunate I am to be out here, temporarily separated from the day to day grind of work and responsibilities and such. On second thought though, maybe all these folks are on stress-free vacation!

On the other side of the bridge, there was a gas station where I found some lunch sustenance. I’m pretty low on rations at this point, but it works out because I can just fill up along the way with there being so many convenience and grocery stores.

Nature is Neat 

After the break, I walked across the road and found a two track that led into Point Washington State Forest. This would be my nature section for the day, a few miles through what has now become quite the familiar forest setting to me…

Beaching It

That was just two hours or less, but it was a great to be off the road! It led me to a little touristy spot in the “town” of Santa Rosa. After a few short, narrow, no traffic roads, I found a public beach access area and popped out here…

On the phone with my brother at the time, he could easily sense my excitement. I was pumped to have made it to the beach and to have it be so stunningly beautiful. Wow!

This was exactly what I’d hoped for by going off the FT, a chance to get to the ocean! Despite not seeing a single person in the water, it didn’t take me long to jump right in…

Amazing! Just amazing. I was surprised the water was such a nice temperature too. I expected some taking away of the breath, a quick plunge and then retreat, but I comfortably just stayed right out there. 

After drying off, I started my walk right along the shore. My destination was still a few miles down the beach, Topsail Hill State Park. For the most part I was beaching it the whole way. The exception to this was a quick bop up to the street to use the restroom and grab some snacks for the rest of the day. I had dinner stuff still, but need to supplement what I had.

The shorebirds were fun.

Now, you may have been thinking, like I’d been hoping, that I might just be able to tent right on the beach. Nope. Instead, a few days ago when concocting this scheme, I’d booked the last available tent spot in the campground. Thus, I still had to go check in with the reservation office. So off the beach I went in search of it.

It was nearing 5:00 pm at this point and I was really hoping to get to the beach for sunset. Because of this, after getting checked in and shown where my spot is, rather than go set up, I pounced away like a gazelle back towards the beach again. I didn’t even have to use my animalistic prowess however, there was a free tram leaving right at that exact time heading to the beach!

The timing was working out perfectly. Since I had my pack with me I figured I’d find a spot, set out my sleeping pad, and watch it all go down as I dined on a ramen bomb and dranketh a Corona…

What a scene, am I right?

This afternoon was a special part of the journey and one that I’ll remember fondly as I continue onward! I stayed out on the beach well past when the other campers left (the last tram ride was fifteen minutes after sunset), but eventually turned away to go find my site. When I did, I was happy to find I was close to a heated bathroom and my site was secluded, yet also had a power outlet to charge my phone with. Perfect!

Album of the Day:

“21 (2011)” by Adele

Podcast of the Day:

“Alternate Realities: Down the Rabbit Hole” – Embedded