Florida Trail: Day 38
Feb 13, 2022
Mile: 329.8 to 312.9 (16.9 miles southbound slackpack)
Start: Holiday Inn, Davenport, FL via Circle K at Hwy 27 near Orlando
Finish: Holiday Inn, Davenport, FL via Circle K at Hwy 27 near Orlando
We figured out a plan where we’re going to stay an extra day so I could rest my feet to prevent them from getting infected and also catch the Super Bowl tonight. We hung out in the morning, taking a lazy breakfast since we only had 15 or 16 miles to go today walking back from a random point on the Florida Trail north of here back to Route 27 in Orlando where our hotel was.
There is an organized deer hunt at the upcoming Green Swamp Wildlife Management Area north on the Florida Trail this weekend which means that there are going to be tons of hunters who may have very little experience or might shoot at anything that moves in the woods. We figured that it’s probably a good idea if we didn’t go hike the Florida Trail this weekend if we could avoid it. There’s four different hunting geographical areas in Florida, all of which the deer gun season has ended except for the next 80 to 100 miles where we were hiking through. Plus the fact that it was open season for a little longer and that the WMA was hosting managed hunts meant that we really didn’t want to be in the woods this weekend. There is a decent chance someone would accidentally mistake us for deer despite having cut up an extra large orange shirt we procured from Hobby Lobby for $2. My backpack is orange but it’s kind of faded and you really want to make yourself seen in the woods. It’s very easy to get excited when you’re out hunting and see something moving and it turns out to be a squirrel or the neighbors or not a deer. There are many other hunters out there who aren’t responsibly identifying that their target is actually a deer and you just don’t know who you’re gonna run into. For safety’s sake I think it’s best that you just assume that the people deer hunting here have two brain cells and are maybe not quite sober.
We got dropped off in the morning by a super sweet girl who told us all about her kid who is three and doesn’t know where she came from because no one in her family is as sassy and prissy as her little girl is about nails, hair, etc. Our driver was super nice and I always feel a little bit bad taking these Uber drivers all the way to these random backroad places and we tried to make them feel like we’re not about to rob or kill them. Once we got dropped off next to a random farm, the road walk back to town was pretty uneventful. We passed by cattle who mooed like crazy and the noise set off the basset hounds who started howling at a nearby house. There was lots of cypress swamp, private property and eventually even hit some orange groves and a gravel pit. Woohoo – big day!
It was fun hiking next to the orange groves as the smell from the ripening orange is absolutely delicious. There weren’t any oranges on the ground that we could reach without trespassing and stealing citrus is supposedly a big fine if you get caught. Plus I’m sure the place has cameras and we’d seen law enforcement going back-and-forth all day. At one point about 4 cop cars came zooming down the road heading towards the Green Swamp WMA where the ongoing hunt was. I thought maybe there was a hunting accident after an ambulance blew by us and we were just glad that we weren’t hiking out there right now.
There wasn’t much to do while road walking in the outskirts of Orlando except to listen to audiobooks and I jumped into a thriller about the mafia and missing people. Shannon is listening to the second Pillars of the Earth series and for both of us it was pretty uneventful as traffic picked up when people started heading to Super Bowl parties. Once we arrived back to Route 27 where our hotel was, we headed over to the Walgreens to pick up snacks and waited there to get picked up by an Uber driver to drop us back the 2 miles to the hotel. Yes, it’s only 2 miles but it’s against highway traffic and there weren’t sidewalks the whole way. Plus we didn’t want to do a bunch of extra miles if we could avoid it. We got our requisite snacks which consisted of potato chips, cheese dip and iced tea and of course gluten-free gummies. Then back in the hotel we tried to find a place for chicken wings that wasn’t gonna be crazy expensive and had them delivered as we washed up and turned on the Super Bowl with our former city of residence Cincinnati somehow magically making it to the Super Bowl which hasn’t happened like ever or something crazy like that.
On our way up in the elevator we shared the trip with a French bulldog named Lola and her owner who told us it was Lola’s first road trip and you could tell she was excited to get to the hotel room. So were we and couldn’t wait for the halftime show with my second main man Snoop, Dr. Dre of all people, Eminem, Mary J Blige and Kendrick Lamar. When they came out it was chaos and we were so excited, hooting and hollering all up and down. When the camera panned down during California Love to see 50 Cent drop down from the ceiling, the room exploded and we went crazy. Yes maybe I was half deep into a juice box of wine and Shannon was a couple beers in and we both had chicken finger grease all over our hands and on my side of the room I had just spilled water all over my sheets. We had a blast dancing in our hotel room and having a blast with the Super Bowl. With Cincinnati seeming like they were about to pull through, the Rams came in there and snuck in a little touchdown and it was over but fun. Hopefully my hangover tomorrow won’t be that bad and it was fun to text and call with a bunch of friends and family during the Super Bowl. Sometimes the little things like watching TV make up for having to walk 16 crappy miles.
