Mega Hills and Armadillo Alley (ECT 29)

  • Hiked Today: 24.4 miles (The Florida Trail – 337.7 – 362.1)
  • Total Hiked: 542.8 miles
  • Total Paddled: 99.5 miles
The Second Breakfast Routine 

I started the Pacific Crest Trail early April in 2019. Prior to that, I had little backpacking experience. The few longer trips (3+ day) I’d done had been over ten years prior, so it’s safe to say I was pretty fresh. The neat thing was, I didn’t start alone. For the first 110 miles or so, from the trail’s southern terminus to Warner Springs, my dad also hiked.

Together, the two of us figured this thru-hiking thing out as we went. Sure, we’d done a deep dive into the YouTube video rabbit hole and generally done quite a bit of research. Even with all that though, once you’re there on trail, you still have to figure out what works for you personally. Not everyone hikes the same way.

One of the habits we started up in those early days and which I still like to keep is a little second breakfast break. Our itinerary was to break camp early and just get hiking. Now, I need food right away, so I pack something to get me going that I can eat while on the move (first breakfast). Typically this is a Pop Tart or something similar in the 400-500 calorie range 🙂

After a few hours of hiking, we’d find a break spot, sit down, and boil water for coffee and oatmeal. If feeling really relaxed, might even take the shoes off. I find this routine spreads things out nicely. On this ECT journey I haven’t really kept the tradition alive… until today.

Mott Hammock Campsite to High Bluff Campsite 

Weather: foggy + overcast in morning, sunny and nice in afternoon, 50-75 F, little wind.

I got moving at 7:00 am, which today was about when it got light enough to see without a headlamp. It was foggy and kind of overcast, so took a while longer for the sun to show itself.

The trail was nice and it was a very pleasant morning walk. Big oaks and pines, tunnels of palms, and some calm and reflective swamp waters.

I think they went a little overboard with the blazes in this section… I counted 10 I could see from one spot here.

I hiked about 6 miles before stopping for second breakfast. It was a lovely spot and I sat right against the bridge over the Withlacoochee River. The break was very pleasant and reminded me why I like to do it this way.

Some “peach” flavored oatmeal today. Mmmmm.

Trip passed me by while I was packing up. We would end up leap frogging a few times throughout the day.

Late Morning Views

The trail offered up some variety today in the form of small elevation changes. I say small I’m comparison to say elsewhere in the country where there are mountains and such, but for here these ups and downs were quite noticably different. How exciting!

Ok, so it was still mostly flat 🙂

The Florida Mega Hills

I took a sit down break for lunch around 12:30 pm and Trip caught me there. We moved on together walking and talking for a while.

Pretty soon we started rolling through some mega hills! Mega is a special descriptive word that my trail family adopted on the PCT. It all began when Kool-Aid bought the “MEGA” Mike and Ike’s box and somehow that started us deeming many a thing as, “Mega!”

I can hear y’all saying, “Where’s the hill?” Well it’s there and it’s giant, ok… just imagine you have the perspective of a Floridian.

Armadillo Alley

Later in the day, the trail started getting overgrown with some downed trees. Mostly there was an identifiable route other hikers had created to go around, but it was slower going and a bit exhausting towards the end of the day. Thankfully this whole day was pretty scenery and I got some interesting sightings!

Animals seem to be the most out and about in the hour or so nearing dark. As I was walking a two track through a kind of dark shady oak forest, I kept hearing some unknown creature scurrying about in the leaves low on the ground. It took me a few minutes before I spotted the first one and discovered that it was an armadillo! They looked to be scouring the undergrowth and dead leaves for something, maybe bugs or nuts?

This friendly critter crossed the two track about 5 feet in front of me!

The wildlife were out and I was trying to be sneaky so as to spot them before they spotted me. I got lucky at this pond where there were more pigs or boars or warthogs. Ok, I know they’re not warthogs, but they certainly made me think of Pumba hanging at the watering hole. Not my greatest cinematography (I startled them with my trekking pole clacking… amateur mistake), but there were two big ones and a whole mess of little ones…

Making It to the High Bluff Camp

Just before camp, I filled up water once again from the Withlacoochee River. I feel I’ve really connected with this river over the past few days meetings. Here, there was a steep bank to get down to the waters edge. Once down there, I started seeing floating masses of plants coming my way. Was I about to be attacked by camouflaged alligators! I remembered seeing the canal gators with plants on their backs as they sunned themselves.

Turns out no. I don’t know why there were mats of greenery floating down the river, but they were not gators hiding. Thank goodness! It was pretty strange and they just kept coming down the river too.

Trip caught up at the water and we walked together the remaining short distance to the campsite. We’d both been eyeing the same one, which turned out to be one of my fav spots yet. It was close to and up above the river and had nice flat spots of course.

It was nice to have someone to talk to for a change. Trip is from Dallas, Texas, is currently sporting Crocs as his main hiking footwear, and has hiked a slew of trails I’m interested in (Appalachian Trail, Arizona Trail, two different caminos, etc…). So, plenty to chat about, although we were both in our tents pretty early still. I was particularly tired after today.

Album the Day: “Starcatcher” by Greta Van Fleet 

Affiliate Disclosure

This website contains affiliate links, which means The Trek may receive a percentage of any product or service you purchase using the links in the articles or advertisements. The buyer pays the same price as they would otherwise, and your purchase helps to support The Trek's ongoing goal to serve you quality backpacking advice and information. Thanks for your support!

To learn more, please visit the About This Site page.

Comments 3

  • Holly : Feb 5th

    That armadillo is so cool!

    Reply
  • Kiki : Feb 5th

    I’ve really been enjoying your posts and pictures. Thanks for taking the time to share your adventure!

    Reply
  • Perle : Feb 6th

    This is such a great recap of your adventures! Inspiring for me to actually execute this year and not on social media is awesome.

    Reply

What Do You Think?