Slipping, Sliding, Splooshing, and Sloshing in Big Cypress (ECT Day 15)
“I don’t like sand. It’s coarse and rough and irritating… and it gets everywhere.”
– Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones)
7 Mile Camp to Ivy Camp
- Hiked Today: 19.9 miles (The Florida Trail)
- Total Hiked: 207.5 miles
- Total Paddled: 99.5 miles
I made myself coffee in bed this morning. Just your basic style from a cheap instant packet, but wow, the barista brewed it to perfection. When I got up, there was still about an hour in the dark. Not looking forward to jumping in the water right away, I took my time. Even so, I was on the trail for the classic 6:57 am start.
My shoes were not dry, but not waterlogged either. Somewhere in between. With freshly laundered dry socks, my feet setup felt pretty good to start on day 2 of Big Cypress. It lasted 15 minutes before I was submerged again, but that was expected.
The tall skinny pines with green needle vegetation only at the top scattered across the landscape was beautiful with the golden yellow sunrise backdrop. I noticed too, a change in the noise coming from the birds here. Rather than the flapping, honking and squawking kind, it appeared there were more the singing kind of birds.
Pre-Lunch Ongoings
Some of the trail was really nice today. Some was nice, but under a little water. Some was muck, which was not nice. And some was the water and muck combo, also not nice. Generally though, the trail was pretty good before lunch.
I’m filtering for the first time on the ECT! I didn’t have to in the Keys or in the Everglades. This is also a brand new Sawyer squeeze! So it worked super easy. I sometimes question whether the new ones are even doing anything because the water passes through so easily. For those not familiar, all I do is thread this filter onto my Smartwater bottle and the other end onto my “clean” container and squeeze the water through. Boom easy peezy.

I’m one of the rare thru-hikers that uses a bladder and hose. At least, I never see anyone else with them. My pockets are hard to reach behind me though, so I like it 🙂
There was a section where they very recently did a prescribed burn. Actually, the day I started there was a notice about it, but not sure this was from that exact burn…
That was all pre-lunch… when the trail was “good.” For my break, I found a spot where someone had tented right next to trail. It was all padded down and worked perfectly for me.
Throughout the morning, I occasionally stopped, removed my shoes, tried to get clean out any debris, and switched socks. I did this at lunch too and every time I’d go right back into the muck. The thing was my shoes seemed to be sucking up the really fine sand and I could start to feel it smooshing my toes. The sand was filling the gaps creating pressure and friction. Not great. This would be the big struggle for me today, as well as the general tough walking through water and the uneven bottom.
Water Hiking!
After lunch, I went into shin deep water and pretty much didn’t come out of it til my tent site. That’s about five straight hours wading through the water!
Earlier in the day, I looked ahead to try and guess where I might camp. I had hoped of reaching the highway even and ending the deepest parts of the water. Bahaha, that wasn’t happening… my pace slowed down dramatically in the water! Unless I was hiking in the dark (some of you remember how that went for me before), I wouldn’t be close to getting out today.
It really was beautiful scenery, just some of the toughest hiking I’ve ever done. This was one of my favorite spots. First, were these little white flowers…
Then, the deepest part I’d wade through. This was the most what similar to what I’d imagined Big Cypress NP being like…
Right after this, I bumped into the first backpackers I’d seen on the FT. I hiked with Overkill for a bit, who’s shooting to thru-hike the Florida, and also chatted with two section hikers for a bit! So fun to actually see people for a change.
I was really tired for the last few hours and went a little bit into trudge mode. For water, I collected right from the swamp and just went a little away from the trail, which actually I was good with. I figured this was probably really good water (it was clear too). I came up with the hang the pack on a tree method for such times…
The Wonderful Ivy Camp
Once at camp though… surprise!

I didn’t really need to set up my tent on the platform since there were dry ground sites, but did and it brought me back to my chickee days!
I was so thankful for a dry camp site! The ivy camp is what it was called. And there was a mini-chickee! Or just a raised platform thing, but I set up right on it. First, I went and washed my legs some in the swamp, but then I climbed right up there and got organized.
As best I could I got cleaned up. I couldn’t get over how much sand I accumulated!
And yes, my blisters have returned. They faked going away during the Everglades portion, but are back with a vengeance.
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Comments 4
O great pictures videos & writing! I’m glad you got a dry place off the ground to sleep!
Wow! I am starting to understand how hard this swamp walk can be! Can it be even worse than post holing in deep snow? If you have to deal with blisters too, then I imagine it is.
Keep finding the good as you keep on trudging along!
So immersive with the pics vids descriptions. Mud blister double whammy yuck. FWIW, I don’t know if maybe these ECT posts should be tagged as “yellow/AT” on trek site…right now they have the green culture gear catch all tag. Shrug.
I give you a lot of credit although I don’t completely understand why. Swamps, water, dangerous road walking and Florida flat. Looking forward to your progress. Stay safe