Road Walking Shenanigans (ECT Days 45)

• Hiked Today: 33.3 miles
  • The Florida Trail (685 – 718.3)
• Total Hiked: 930.8 miles
• Total Paddled: 99.5 miles

Weather: 55-70°F, sunny turned cloudy, 3 minute sprinkle around 7:00 pm, light wind

Mill Creek North Campsite to Sirmans Missionary Baptist Church 

I got going at the not so classic 5:40 am start time today. The upcoming stretch is mostly roads and offers few designated tenting spots. Thus, it seems most hikers do a tour of Florida’s welcoming Baptist Church’s that allow us to stay on their property. Very kind folks around here. I had connected with Deacon Johnny to stay at the Sirmans Baptist Church tonight, which is over 30 miles to get to. Road walking usually makes for fast miles, but even so, I wanted to get a jump on it!

Generally, road walks tend to be pretty uneventful, so I’ll try to keep this one somewhat succinct. I was happy with the early start. There was maybe a mile and half of mildly soaked vegetation overgrown trail, but then I got on the road and it was pleasant. I found myself in farm country… tree farms on one side and cow farms on the other.

The full moon (or close to it) brought about a nice ambience. If you’ve never gone for a walk under a full moon, I highly recommend it! In particular, I’ve always enjoyed a big moon night hike (or if really fortunate, a cross-country ski run) when there’s a freshly clean blanket of snow. That can be truly special. I was happy no snow here today though. And, there was only one truck that passed in the wee morning hours.

Looking back at the sunrise… I’m pretty much heading west towards the panhandle now.

See… here’s where I am in the world.

The tree farm turned into a solar farm at one point. Quite extensive and as the sun popped up they all seemed to come “on” and tilt towards it. Pretty neat, I thought.

Another reason for my early start was to make it for Wendy’s breakfast. Wendy and Dave Thomas have been partnering to make old fashioned hamburgers in a quick manner since November 15, 1969. And now they serve breakfast too, don’t ya know. Ok, the truth is I intended to stop there either way and at some point in the morning realized the breakfast menu closed at 10:30 am. It was 13-miles from camp, so this required Speedy Stevie to step it up to the streets.

That’s why I was frustrated when I got pulled over by the police soon after taking the photo above! Yep, must have been too fast I guess. Maybe I even appeared too furious? Actually, it sounded like the officer was just checking that I was ok, or, I wondered if maybe someone called me in as looking suspicious, not sure. I was kind of taken aback. She even took my license and ran it. Everything was fine and she was nice and all, but the whole thing seemed strange to me. Having never heard of the Florida Trail or of people walking for such lengths, she seemed both confused and curious, so that was fun to enlighten her about this thru-hiking world.

Interstate 10 again. I had an epiphany walking under this bridge that I’d also walked under it on the CDT (in Lordsburg) and PCT (I believe at the spot where my wonderful California relatives gave me and some friends a ride to the In-N-Out Burger in Cabazon 😎). 

Small things like this opening in the fence make my day 🙂

I made it to Wendy’s and it was wonderful. I charged up the phone some, filled up water, threw my garbage out, purchased a few strategic food items from the attached convenience store, and then got a footlong cold cut trio from Subway to pack out for lunch. This was one of those super stops with not two, but three fast food joints all under one roof. The third was Dairy Queen, and as I’m writing this I’m realizing I should have gone for the trifecta and gotten a “Blizzard.” Huge mistake! It was a great stop nonetheless and I was back to the trail by 11:00 am to continue the road walks. The nice lady working the counter even gave me a refill to-go cup of coffee. Angel!

An orange tree! I even plucked up the courage to try one this time. Quite sour, so it was just the one bite.

A mix of paved and packed down sandy roads today. Generally, low to moderate traffic, nothing too gnarly today thankfully

So much for keeping this one brief. At lunch, I stopped at someone’s driveway because the alternative was just along the shoulder. I got everything laid out and enjoyed my sub immensely.

Of course, the owner of the driveway parcel drove out in his awesome old Ford pickup. I thought he might not take kindly to my spot choice, but quite the contrary, he was happy to see a Florida Trail hiker. Jim was his name and he told me a story of how during one of the hurricanes, not sure which one (Helene maybe?), he got his saw out to start cleanup after things calmed. He remembers felling two trees, and then waking up hours later to his son calling his name. Turns out, the calm was just the eye of the storm! He said he got “picked right up” by the wind and there was a whole rescue operation and everything and it sounds like he’s lucky to be alive. Super nice guy and a fun random encounter. Glad he was doing well!

Water source = volunteer fire department building

Or milk from the spigot? I think it was just air bubbles because it seemed fine after I filtered. Probably fine, right? 

Clouded up in the afternoon

Moooooooooooo

Made it to the church and found another hiker, Rookie!

Rookie and I had the place to ourselves. I didn’t get the chance to meet and thank Deacon Johnny for what would be a wonderful stay. Once again, it was very uplifting to my morale to be around another hiker. And, I got to charge my power bank which was getting dangerously low, so this was a really nicely timed stop. I did find a small blister on my heal after the 30+ miles of road today, so hoping that doesn’t flare up into anything. The only downside of this spot was the ongoing and irregular chorus of dogs. Quite impressive the sounds coming from the various pooches in the neighborhood here!

Cheers to another good day on “trail.”

Albums of the Day: “Imagine (1971)” by John Lennon and “Automatic (2025)” by The Lumineers 

Started the Audiobook: “Hollow City: The Second Novel of Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children (2014)” by Ransom Riggs.