Florida Trail: Overseas Heritage Trail Day 3
January 8, 2022
Mile: 29.8 to 48.5 (18.7 miles)
Start: Parmer’s Resort, Little Torch Key
Finish: Coconut Cay Resort, Marathon, FL
- Animals seen today: iguanas, stingray, conch, manatees, pelicans, plovers, chickens
- Poisonous things seen today: Machineel (or poison apple) tree, poisonwood, Brazilian pepper bush, tetanus fishing lures for stepping on
- Keys crossed today: Little Torch, Big Pine, No Name, Scout, Bahia Honda, Ohio, Missouri, Little Duck, Knight, Hog, Boot, Marathon Key
In the morning we woke up and headed out early to beat the heat and get some serious mileage done on the trail today. We hung out briefly by the docks at the hotel this morning, checking out the water to determine if the massive shark or a crocodile or whatever the heck it was splashing next to the beach last night. I’d been taking some night photos near the ocean with the still water in the lagoon stretching languidly and calmly all the way to the horizon. It was peaceful until I bent down on the dock to take a photo and immediately behind me the dark water split and a huge thrashing creature erupted from the deep chasing fish (or my hunched over shadow). I stood stock straight, my heart pounding with an inane terror. My head whipped around to the liquid blackness of the beach where all my senses were tingling, the water a few feet offshore bubbling and settling back to smooth glass. It was unnerving and I packed up my camera gear and dashed back to the hotel room as fast as I could.
This morning we noticed posted signs at the hotel’s beach that I didn’t see last night in the dim light. “Caution… Dangerous Marine Life.” After learning that the restaurant down the street had “pet” bull sharks that hung out near the docks in the same lagoon we were in, I think I was very much okay with not going swimming here. We dawdled slightly, looking at some ripening coconuts and checked out the hammocks under the palm fronds waving in the slight breeze. Shannon grabbed a homemade muffin for breakfast and we took it on the road to eat as we walked the half mile back to the Overseas Heritage Trail.
A sweet lady in the trailer near the hotel started cheering us on as we walked down the road with packs and we got pumped up for the day because of all of her positive energy. The water coming off of the mangrove thickets was still cool in the early twilight hours so we didn’t feel the oppressiveness of the humidity like we do in the hot afternoons. We skipped around piles of discarded trash that was tossed in the mangroves right under the “Conservation property” signs. Rusted barbecue grills, old clothes and broken furniture were thrown in the protected stands of mangrove on Little Torch Key to let nature claim them eventually or maybe because trash removal was, like most things on the Keys, too expensive. It was definitely a stark contrast from some of the pristine landscapes of the waterfront multimillion dollar mansions down the street.
A half mile after leaving the resort, we hit the Florida Trail again and hugged the far left of the road facing traffic. We crossed ocean bridge after ocean bridge an arms length away from the zooming cars and trucks racing to points south on the highway. The day was cloudy 70s, overcast with a slight breeze rolling off the ocean – it was perfect hiking weather. We made fast miles heading across the busy channel bridges and pedestrian pathways built upon the beds of the old railroad that had been destroyed by hurricanes in the 1930s. Clusters of eager fishermen and women dangled lines and nets over the railing of the footbridges into the ocean, occasionally pulling up snapper or pompano but more often than not big clumps of seaweed. Trucks and cars randomly pulled off of Highway 1 setting up chairs and fishing gear in hidden coral nooks at the mangrove beaches alongside the trail. It looked like it was a relaxing time sitting next to the ocean with blue skies, sunshine and nothing but time to kill.
Our legs are all chewed up from no-see-ums, mosquitoes and chiggers found in the wet grass that bordered the bike path we were hiking on. We’d been bit up the last few days but this morning we wisened up and applied DEET all over our legs. I guess we never thought walking on a bike path we’d get so bitten up but our legs looked like we had chicken pox from being so riddled with the bug bites.
We left the Torch Keys and headed towards Big and Little Pine Key where the tiny endangered Florida Key Deer live. There’s a wildlife refuge here protecting the little guys who, when fully grown, are about the size of a Labrador retriever dog. There’s not many of these mini deer left but they have been making a comeback slowly with help from new laws affording them protection that take care of the little guys. Having your own giant wildlife reserve on land that’s worth millions of dollars to housing developers is probably a pretty good deal in itself to secure the future of the Key Deer. The speed limit on these specific islands goes down from 55 to 45 mph during the day and 35 mph at night. It seemed like the Key Deer were sleeping this morning so we didn’t catch a glimpse of any. However we heard of a local bar that has some resident Key Deer who regularly visit customers drinking slushy alcoholic beverages and eating their key lime pies.
Despite not seeing any deer, it wouldn’t be a day in the Florida Keys without seeing some chickens. Soon we were dodging clucking chickens left and right on the trail but left them behind as we headed through the hot mangrove swamps. The sun had burnt through the cloud cover and we traipsed along an exposed road walk next to the mangrove swamps where the humidity and heat were radiating out of the forest. There were some pretty flowers and butterflies along the way that made the day kind of nice and we chatted with my grandma for a little bit along the highway walk. She’s a big fan of key lime pie so we told her how we’ve been eating it every day since we’ve been here. It was good to reconnect with her and hearing how it had snowed a foot up in New England sure made us glad that we were in sunny Florida.
We were nearing Bahia Honda State Park which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful beaches in all the Florida Keys. I was really stoked about it and we had been wanting to stay at the popular park but with campgrounds booking up 11 months in advance, there was little to no hope of finding a spot. When I called them explaining what we were doing, they laughed at me and told us that their 80 campsites were booked straight through May which was 5 months from now. When we finally dodged traffic and scurried into the state park, we spent some time chatting with the Rangers who were super sweet. One was a veteran who spent 25 years in the Army and the other was a very energetic and bubbly person who had mastered the art of customer service. They helped Shannon renew his Florida State Parks pass for being a veteran and we headed into the park, our heads stuffed full of recommendations from the Rangers who were really cool. They told us that there’s a walk up campsite or two specifically reserved for hikers, bikers and kayakers on the Overseas Heritage Trail that we’re walking on. I wish the reservations person I spoke to months ago told us about the walk up site before I spent days trying to figure out mileage, logistics and the cheapest hotels. Unfortunately we didn’t know at the time but for the future we now know. I wished we had stayed at the walk up site because my feet were hurting and Bahia Honda State Park was absolutely breathtaking. But we had reservations up north and miles to go so we enjoyed a couple hours at the beach and a “shower” by swimming in the ocean.
It was a yellow flag warning which meant hazardous winds and currents at the beach so when we seeing snorkeling we were very careful to hug the shore so we wouldn’t get pulled out to sea. From the beach you could see in full view former railroad tycoon Henry Flagler’s old railroad bridge that was now broken in half from hurricanes. It was very beautiful out on the horizon, the trusses and beams arching up over the strong currents of the cerulean Florida waters. Towering in the distance above the flat islands and shallow seas, the remnants of a bygone era stood broken and battered, large pieces of the bridge having fallen apart in a century of storms. The old railroad had been closed down only 23 years after it had opened, the immense structure falling prey to a massive hurricane in 1935 that not only wiped out the structures connecting the Florida Keys to the mainland but took the lives of 400 railroad workers and their families living in the islands.
At Bahia Honda we found some shade on the beach where we dropped our gear and took off our shoes and socks to go swimming. I was pretty grumpy since my feet were hurting badly from the long miles on pavement and was eager for a few hours rest. At the beach we had a beautiful view of the old rail bridges and threw on a snorkel gear. We lingered in the shallows of the swimming area, the currents strong and even 30 feet from shore pulling us towards the open ocean. In the bed of seagrass Shannon spied a 4 foot wide stingray below him and then a conch (pronounced “konk”) which is a delicious giant pink sea snail that is now endangered because of how tasty it is. A local told us that you used to be able to take 12 conch per day per person but that quickly fizzled out after it decimated the population. Conch are still endangered pretty much everywhere in the Caribbean except the Honduras coastline. Unfortunately we didn’t realize that most of the conch we ate came from the Bahamas where they are also endangered. We probably will not eat it again as it somehow is shipped here from the Bahamas where it is also endangered.
After swimming for an hour and tiring from paddling against the currents, we packed up, went inside to the concession stand where we ordered lunch from their friendly girl working at the counter. Shannon kind of reverted back to a little kid in a candy shop, overwhelmed at all of the choices of Key Lime Pie made from the tiny sour limes grown here. Did he want key lime ice cream? Or how about an entire mini pie? Or a slice of pie? How about chocolate dipped key lime pie on a stick?
We went outside to chow down on our tuna salad and turkey sandwich and stood watching the lagoon in front of us. A super friendly guy from Minnesota chatted us up and pointed to two manatees that were swimming languidly in the lagoon. It was so cool seeing the giant sea cows surface out of the depths, strands of seagrass hanging out of their mouths like spaghetti. Mostly all you could see was the large silvery round body that looked like a giant slow-moving torpedo in the water. A couple of oblivious kayakers kept boating over the manatees as they were eating seagrass below and you could see that the sea cows were getting agitated having something block them from grabbing a breath of fresh air. A young kid paddled his board over to manatees and maybe didn’t realize that it’s super illegal to approach the manatees with significant fines and jail time. This past year biologists estimated that 20% of the manatee population in Florida has died because the seagrass that they eat has been killed off due to pollution and agricultural run off into the canals and seas that caused algae blooms that decimated the seagrass. Florida has found over 1,100 dead manatees in this historically grim year, many washing onshore and whole families dying off because of lack of food. It’s gotten so dire that Florida has started a manatee feeding program in response.
As more kayakers and paddleboarders entered the lagoon, the manatees started to look pretty stressed. People were approaching them and kayaking over top of them and it got so uncomfortable that passerby started commenting how messed up it was. I went inside to the gear rental store and told the lady working, “Hey I don’t want to be a dick but there’s a bunch of manatees in the lagoon right now and people are boating over them. Could you have a Ranger or someone check it out?”
The lady paled and immediately started circling the lagoon talking to someone on her walkie-talkie with a very concerned look on her face. You could see that the manatees were definitely stressed out because they were trying to rise up to breathe and there was a boat over them. I’m pretty sure she talked to the boaters and told them to get away from the manatees because they left the lagoon.
We talked to the guy from Minnesota who is big into muskie and walleye fishing. He claims he caught a 58 inch muskellunge that should’ve been a state record at the time but because he was by himself and then let it go, they wouldn’t give him the record even though he measured it took video and picture because he didn’t have another witness. But he said the fish up in Minnesota are small potatoes compared to the fish down here in the Florida Keys which was so true. Compare a several hundred pound ocean grouper that could swallow a man out here to a freshwater muskie and it’s like comparing an 18-wheeler truck to a Mini Cooper.
Shannon and I went to the restroom for one final bathroom break before we headed back out over the next hurdle which was the notorious 7 mile bridge. We were leaving the bathrooms when two volunteers for the state park drove their golf cart over to us with our backpacks and told us how they had both hiked the Appalachian Trail together. Now both of the guys are spending the winter living in an RV at beautiful Bahia Honda and traveling around the US after. They were just so sweet and it was so wonderful talking to them as they had all the greatest advice about being with the person who’s your person and not caring what anyone else thinks. One of them had been a teacher for middle and high schoolers and said he was so glad he is retired now and living his best life. They stayed in their RV as they volunteered, staying at one of the most beautiful places I think I’ve ever been to at Bahia Honda State Park. Their wide smiles on their faces and love in their eyes made it evident that they were doing the right thing. Life is too short you never know when your time is up.
We left Bahia Honda as the wind picked up and threw sandy grit on our faces. Our arms were tired from fighting the current while swimming but we’d chowed down on some ibuprofen to get us through the last bit of trail today. We headed out of the park, commenting about how crazy the current was even a few feet off the beach so we’re glad we had stopped a bit and saw some wildlife but we’re excited to come back another day when the weather was calmer and the rip currents not so strong. On our way out of the park we said goodbye to our new favorite new park rangers. I told them in the short couple of hours we were at Bahia Honda we saw three manatees, a stingray and a conch. Plus we also sampled the delicious key lime ice cream that both the rangers had raved about on our way into the park and it was sooo good! The two rangers laughed and said come back anytime if you’re hiking or biking to just give them a call and they put us on the calendar for the walk up spot. We said goodbye and headed back to the roadway where we shuffled our feet north, slightly more well rested and in better spirits. Our next big obstacle: the 7 mile bridge.
The 7 mile bridge is the most formidable ocean crossing of the keys. It’s the longest bridge in the 100+ miles of islands and unfortunately had no pedestrian path to follow as the old railroad bridges had been washed out in several places by storms. You were stuck walking an arm’s length away from traffic flying by at 60 miles an hour with no water, no bathroom, nowhere to stop to rest your feet. You have to cross all in one go and must time your crossing right to not hit the bridge at night or during a rainstorm. It was a couple miles up the road from where we were so we stopped at the friendly Chevron gas station to fill up our water bottles outside with enough water to traverse the bridge. We continued on a little ways to Veterans Park where we crossed the four-lane highway as a last chance to use the bathroom. As I took my turn watching our bags at the busy park, the skies open and it started pouring. As tourists scrambled from the beach back to their cars, I just sat at the picnic table unmoving as thick drops of warm rain fell from the steely blue clouds above. The palms swished and swayed back-and-forth above the frantic tourists hauling their beach chairs back to their cars despite the fact that they were already wet from swimming in the ocean, they didn’t want to get wet from the rain. Who knows.
I was trying to get pumped up to cross the bridge since now we only had two hours before sunset and did not want to be anywhere on the bridge around drunk or distracted drivers in the dark. It’s just too dangerous. We hauled our packs over our shoulders and started up the bridge, having to dodge discarded fishing lures with rusty treble hooks discarded along the side of the road. You did not want to step on a fishing hook and have that go through your foot on 7 Mile Bridge. As we stepped onto the bridge the skies calmed for a few minutes and we thought the rain was over. However a half mile in, the clouds open up and it downpoured like I have never experienced before. Florida rain just hits differently. Soon we were being pelted by enormous fat drops that felt like BB gun pellets hitting our skin. We were completely soaked through but it was a warm rain so it didn’t matter and our clothes probably needed some freshwater on them anyway after swimming in the ocean at Bahia Honda. The rain soon turned sideways as thick beads hit our skin, battering us as the road conditions deteriorated.
A 3 foot wall of water splashed in front of the cars as they zoomed past us, not slowing down because they probably could barely see the road and the bridge barriers let alone us. This was probably the hairiest part but we just embraced it, soaked to the bone and glad that we had stashed everything in our trash bag liners in our backpacks. After about 20 minutes the rain lulled and the sun slowly started to come out and we counted that there were still two of us on the road. We hiked as fast as we could over the bridge, trying not to think about how much our feet hurt and or how close that one guy texting on his phone swerved at you. The wild ocean churned a variety of teals and aquamarine, the beautiful royal blues in the sky and tails of mottled purple-gray clouds lingered on the horizon. The sun was starting to set as we crested the last bridge and behind us we started quick glances at the cotton candy colored pinks and orange hues as the sun started to sink.
Shannon asked if I could speed up so we could get done quicker and I was hoping my “i-candy” or ibuprofen would kick in overdrive. It took a lot of grit and mental strength to keep going at a quick pace as the bottoms of my feet felt like with each step I was grinding glass into my skin, the very bones wearing down to nubbins on the miles of unforgiving pavement. I knew we had lost some of our strength and calluses from the Pacific Crest Trail two months ago but man the first couple days of this trail have been rough. Also didn’t help that I screwed up the logistics schedule thinking that our shorter days at the beginning of the trail we were hiking 12 miles instead of 22 miles like we were doing today.
Dodging discarded boards with rusty nails, trashed fishing gear and drainage holes on the bridge that could catch your foot as they poured straight down to the ocean, we hiked as fast as we could while watching the vehicles in front of us to make sure they didn’t drift into the shoulder as their distracted drivers took photos of the sunset. I put in one of my headphones to see if music would help me pick up the pace. A ridiculous mashup of Cardi B, rap and Africa by Toto was what was helping me dig deep and get the hell across the bridge. Some points I was even singing (okay screaming) out loud as the blisters on my heels popped and my feet started going numb from walking so much. I knew I was on the cusp of having sweat out most of my electrolytes as my calf muscles were starting to twitch but I mettled on and soon we created the bridge over the ocean and headed down to Marathon Key. On the way over the bridge we had brief distractions from fisherman hanging out on the part of the old railroad bridge that paralleled the road and was still barely attached to the island of Ohio Key. We had also seen famous 7 Mile Bridge residents Betty the Bush and Fred the Tree who are growing 15 or 20 feet straight out of the concrete on the old railroad bridge. It was just Christmas a few weeks ago so people had decorated Fred and Betty in giant ornaments, an angel and even a star that lit up at night. I don’t know how the decorators even accessed this bridge section because it wasn’t connected to the islands and if you boated out, you needed some rock climbing gear and serious skills to clamber up there from the ocean.
After the bridge was finally finished, we sighed deeply with relief and searched desperately for a spot to lay down our packs for a few minutes. We set our bags down at a park next to some large rocks on the ocean and stretched our legs in the twilight as the sun had gone down as we crossed the last mile of the bridge. It was a little nerve-wracking as car headlights blinded us and the setting sun blinded the driver’s eyes but we somehow we didn’t get hit and survived the 7 Mile Bridge ordeal.
Night was falling and we had already hiked close to 19 miles today. It was unfortunately still 4 miles left to reach our hotel and my body shivered and twitched as my muscles seemed to have just given up on going any farther. At this point I had never felt so beat up before in my life. However I also have never completed 50 miles in the first three days of a thru-hike and we had also been trapped in frigid weather having not been able to walk or run as much as we would’ve liked to because of windchills ranging as low as -50F. So I guess I could see why was it was a little bit of a struggle today. Shannon was also hurting and we decided to call it a night now and come back in the morning to do the miles.
Luckily Marathon Key had ridesharing so we called an Uber and beautiful wonderful Deb picked us up. She even waited for us to go to the convenience store on the way to the hotel to pick up some drinks and snacks for the evening. When we got to the hotel we grabbed a small room where we showered, laid on the bed unmoving and tried to figure out what we’re gonna have for dinner and if food delivery services even existed on the Florida Keys. As of January 2022 it seemed as though Uber Eats and DoorDash do not exist here yet so we picked the restaurant closest to us for takeout.
Shannon (my hero) volunteered to place an order since the nearest restaurant wasn’t picking up their phone and it turns out they were closed permanently. So onto the next place where he grabbed some fish tacos, rice, beans and of course a slice of Key lime pie. We chowed down on food with pillows propped under our legs, scarfing down dinner and then promptly falling asleep. We’d figure out what we were going to do for hiking in the morning but it had been quite a wild day full of ups and downs just like the tall ocean bridges and low coral islands here in the Florida Keys.