ECT Day 319

Day 319: 26 miles 

This morning we packed up fairly early at Bud and Mary’s marina. The room was really cute last night, and it reminded me of some of the places that we stayed in Canada. Once we were both up and ready, we headed out to begin road walking again.

When we left the room, we both immediately realized it was really windy out. It seems like it’s going to be a pretty windy and overcast day today. We haven’t been getting the best weather for going through the keys. I’m kind of happy though that it’s not sweltering hot while I’m down here. I can manage with a little bit of rain and some cloudy skies. I’ve seen the keys before when it’s beautiful and sunny. It’s just as beautiful and the water is just as crystal blue even when it’s overcast.

It’s looking like today we have to hike a marathon to get to Marathon key. I thought that was pretty fitting. All morning long we were walking by the ocean. The road was going right past the water on the side that we were on. Every now and then the trees would open up and you’d have completely uninterrupted views of the crystal blue ocean.

That was a really beautiful way to start the day. The wind was a little rough, but I was hopeful that it would get better. When we had to cross over some of the extended bridges that was when the wind was the worst. I was honestly just worried that it was going to blow my hat away or something. After the first couple hours it was getting old. But it seems like the wind was getting a bit better as the day went on.

Only three days of hiking remain along the eastern continental trail. And today is one of them! I’m trying to stay present and be as self aware as possible about the end of this journey. It’s tough because I just wanna hike and treat it like any other day on trail. But at the same time, I’m so well aware of the fact that I’m going to blink my eyes, and this whole thing will be over. There were so many times in the last 10 months that I didn’t know if I was going to make it to the end. The amount of distance up ahead of me was so daunting. It was hard to even imagine.

When I summited Mount Katahdin, I still had over 3,000 miles left to hike for the year. And I had already hiked 2,600 miles at that point. Now here I am. I’ve almost walked those whole 3,000 miles since then. I’m closing in at 5,500 miles total walked in the last 10 months. Now there’s no doubt left that I’ll be finishing this thing.

Sometime after 9:00 a.m., we stopped off at a gas station to get some drinks. I got a Dunkin coffee drink and an Arizona iced tea to pack out. The gas station that we went to actually had some really nice-looking Colombian food, so I wound up getting a beef empanada and some pan de bono. We sat outside at a picnic table to eat. The wind was whipping so intensely it was hard to keep everything on the table.

When we left that gas station we got to go up and over another long and windy bridge. So far, the bridges really haven’t been more than two miles or so long. I know that in the days to come we’re going to be doing some bridges that take literally two to three hours to walk across. The cars on the bridges haven’t bothered me a bit. So far, the worst part is how windy it could potentially be while you cross the bridges.  

While we walked today, tons of people waved and cars honked at us. I realize that the majority of the people are just more so curious about what we’re doing. But I like to pretend that every single person who honks and waves knows exactly what we’re doing and is rooting us on. I know that sounds silly, but it makes me happy to think like that.

Not long after the gas station we were walking along the left side of the road. I like to be able to see the oncoming traffic while I walk. I noticed a guy at a parking area across the street get out of his car and wave at us. I didn’t recognize him at first, but it was clear that he wanted to come over and talk to us. He ran across the street and once he got closer, I realized it was Sir-Enity. I had met him and his two sons at the Florida Trail kickoff.

I loved him and his sons. Sir-Enity hiked the Appalachian Trail back in 1995. If you know me, you know that I think anyone who was thru hiking in the 90s is a complete badass. There’s so much ease to thru-hiking now it’s unbelievable. But if you were hiking in the 90s, you are a true legend. I also thought it was so cool that he got his kids into backpacking young. He had already hiked a longtrail with one of his sons, and then was planning to hike the Florida trail with another son.

I totally forgot that he mentioned that he and his son are doing some work down here in the keys. I guess he drove by us earlier and noticed us. Now on his way back he couldn’t resist stopping off to say hello. It was so cool to see him again. Especially because meeting him and his sons really stuck with me. The three of them are such a cool family. I’m always so envious of people who thru-hike with their family, whether that be a sibling, parent, child, or spouse.

We talked to him pretty briefly alongside the road. It was really cool to see him again. Then he got in his car and headed off and we continued walking along the road. We went on for another few hours of busy boring road after that. Going up and over some of the bridges, we got really beautiful ocean views. I spent a lot of the day fighting to keep my hat on my head and my headphones from blowing out of my ears.

Around noon we were walking through a small town again. Some of the stretches and the keys don’t really have any place to stop off. Other sections have basically endless gas stations and places for us to stop. I think pretty much from here until the end we’re going to have great options for stopping off periodically.

We stopped off at a gas station and I got my second 32-ounce Arizona iced tea of the day. Today my veins are literally coursing with juice and tea. I don’t know why I didn’t get any food there. I was pretty hungry at the time and honestly can’t stand to look at anything inside my food bag recently.

Everyone keeps telling me that when I go home, I’m going to have to be so careful about watching what I eat. This isn’t my first hike, so I realize that a lot of people go home and their eating habits are out of control. Luckily for me, the thought of eating most foods disgusts me at this point.

We left there and walked for another hour or so. Even though we haven’t made it really far today, I was still feeling so tired. I don’t know if it was because we were fighting the wind all day. It was in our favor for part of the day, but it was a bit of a cross breeze. It wasn’t exactly helping or hurting us. I think I’m just tired honestly because we’re staying at hotels through the keys and sleep schedule is a little bit off. My body knows that I’m nearing the end of this journey too and is ready to be done.

After walking for another couple hours, we went by a covered bench. I had to get my charging block out of my backpack, so we decided to use this as a perfect opportunity to take a break. I charged my phone and did my stretching. It just felt nice to sit there for a little while. I’m feeling pretty sleepy today. When we stopped off at a gas station earlier, I definitely contemplated getting some serious caffeine. But I wound up not getting any.

When we left our break spot I was feeling a lot better. I was singing along as I walked. Earlier in the day I got a ton of writing done. I’m basically all caught up again on the blogging, which is great. We continued along until around 4:30 p.m. Around that time we walked right past a restaurant. I didn’t think we were going to get to anything until we were further into Marathon. But there was a sign outside which said, “famous key lime pie,” so we had to go in. This would be my fifth slice of pie so far in the keys.

I hadn’t really eaten all day, so while we were there, I decided to get some sweet potato fries. It was actually the biggest platter of sweet potato fries I’d ever seen in my life. Then once I was completely stuffed, they brought out this massive piece of pie. It had the thickest crust and was covered in homemade whipped cream. I think hands down that was the best piece of pie that I’ve had so far in the key. The place was called the S.S Wreck & Galley Grill. Everything about the piece of pie was just absolutely perfect. The crust was thick and buttery, the texture was perfect and creamy, and the filling was nice and tart.

Leaving there I was absolutely stuffed! And we still had to walk so much longer. I packed out the majority of the piece of Key lime pie to eat on the road. We continue along and got to walk on a path a little bit further off the road for a while. My body was really happy to just not be listening to the insanely loud traffic of the road the whole way. It wasn’t long after we got back to walking that I devoured the rest of my pie. There was something magical about walking along the overseas heritage trail while eating a piece of Key lime pie.

For the rest of the day after that I just walked and hammer out to music. I’ve also been obsessed with the mailboxes down here recently. A game I’ve been playing with myself is that I’m trying to find all of the different ocean themed mail boxes. So far I’ve taken pictures of a manatee, dolphin, Flamingo, sea turtle, a seahorse, a lady manatee which is somehow actually different, and a couple other ones. I realize this is actually the stupidest and most boring thing that a person could do. But there’s so many of them and they are so cute and silly. I thought it would be funny to get as many photos together of them as I can. Oh, the way that hikers entertain themselves.

In the next couple hours of walking, it got dark out. It seems like every single day recently we’ve been hiking well into the night. We got into Marathon, but the town was pretty spread out. We wound up walking until about 7:00 p.m. before we made it to our hotel. Once again, we really only did a marathon or so of hiking today. But because I’ve been sleeping in a little bit in the mornings, we’ve been having late nights. That’s kind of an impossible thing to avoid though.

When we got into the room, I took a shower and got comfortable. Then I did something that I haven’t done in a long time. I pulled out the most recent update of my résumé and started to look at it. I have not updated my résumé since March 2020. That’s the last time that I worked in the service industry because everything shut down for so long due to Covid.

It’s looking like I’m really going to sign a lease in the next few days. There’s an apartment in a pretty busy city area that I could move into. One of the people who lives there is a hiker, which makes me really happy. So I started looking at restaurant jobs in the area and had to pull out my résumé.

It’s really wild to be thinking about things like this while I’m still on trail. Ordinarily, I would never do this and I always save all of my planning until after the fact. But my window of time between finishing this trail, flying home, and moving to the city is going to be tight. So I’m trying to stay motivated and productive.

I did some more of that nonsense and a bit of writing in bed. After that I wound up staying up pretty late and watching TV. Then eventually, I called it a night. I only have two more full days of hiking along the ECT! I know that tomorrow and the next day are going to fly by. If only you could live in a moment like this for forever.