Florida Trail: Overseas Heritage Trail (OHT) & Eastern Continental Trail (ECT) Day 7-9
January 13-15, 2022
Mile: 103.0 to 108.4 (OHT) & 0.0 to 10.2(ECT) (15.6 total miles)
Start: Pelican Key Cottages (via Key Largo Campground, Key Largo, FL)
Finish: Quality Inn, Florida City, FL via S-197 lock bridge
We stayed in Key Largo for a couple days waiting out a massive thunderstorm front but also taking some time to enjoy ourselves. One of the days we went out on another snorkel tour to see the Christ of the Abyss statue in John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park and another we relaxed on the docks of our hotel drinking and enjoying the water. Hey, we needed some good memories to carry with us as we head further north into the thick swamps and boring road walks! The day of the snorkel tour the weather was supposed to be really bad so they moved it out a day. It just so happened that our feet hurt badly so we decided it was fate telling us that we should stay a little bit longer on the islands. Plus it’s Key Largo and there’s tons of good food and fun things to do. We said screw it and stayed an extra couple of days because how often are we going to find ourselves in an island paradise?
The snorkel tour was pretty fun and we cut through some of the mangrove forests and channels twisting and turning through the labyrinth of the dark trees with their long stilt legs supporting themselves in the water. Out in the open ocean they had warned us there’s going to be a couple feet of waves but it was fine since we’d chowed down on our anti-nausea meds. Due to the storm that came through the day before and canceled our tour, the water was all turned up making it pretty difficult to see much. The giant statue of Christ of the Abyss was cool as it rose with arms outstretched to the surface of the water. It was similar to the massive 125 ft statue “Christ the Redeemer” in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil but just a little smaller. The top of the statue was only 10 or so feet below the surface but you couldn’t get too close to the sculpture because it was covered in fire coral that would sting you and possibly cause an allergic reaction and anaphylactic shock! We started calling it “Fire Jesus” and tried to stay clear of the statue as rolling 3 foot wave troughs dipped our toes close to the statue’s outstretched hands. So we decided with low visibility and rough seas it was for the best that we moved on to check out some of the fish on the reef instead of fighting the rough ocean currents at the statue.
We also stopped at the Grecian Rocks which were a shallow coral reef that at low tide is exposed above the water. With the tide on its way out, there were a couple points where we found ourselves drifting and only a foot or two of water. A few times we had to carefully extricate ourselves from the shallows without bumping the delicate sea fans or touching anything like stinging fire coral or anemones. It was still not that great of visibility but was still better than the Fire Jesus statue and we dogpaddled our way around the reef checking our purple sea fans, orange sponges and all sorts of sparkly rainbow colored parrotfish. My heart jumped when a 6-foot-long moray eel snaked past us, the electric green stuffed ribbon hunkering down under a coral overhang, his beady eyes and massive unhinged jaw gaping wide and menacing. It was really an amazing experience and I’d like to come back sometime when the water was clearer and the current wasn’t so bad.
It was a little scary a couple of times when I found myself drifting a little too far away from the reef and into the sand beds where the turtle grass lay on the bottom clipped by sea turtles and other seagrass loving animals like manatees. You would be swimming all nonchalantly and happily without a care in the world when you would run into a wall of large barracuda who’d been watching you for who knows how long. They were like a pack of wolves patrolling the surrounding reef, pacing along the outer edges swimming slowly as they observed everything with their dark, calculating eyes. It was a little unnerving since the visibility wasn’t great and you’d be minding your own business when not far off you’d catch sight of the telltale barracuda underbite with its wicked teeth curved up over their lips like tapered daggers. You’d give a gentle kick forward with your flippers and all of a sudden run into a 4-foot-long barracuda who’d been watching you much longer than you’d glimpsed his angular bulletlike profile. It made us a little nervous and we always retreated back to the reef just like the other fish, not wanting to risk getting bitten or torn up. I also made sure to remove any sparkly earrings or shiny objects on me so it didn’t tempt the barracudas to come near us thinking our bracelets or necklaces were scales of a fish.
One of the days we just laid and listened to the rain pounding on the roof of our tiny little bungalow as waves crashed on the shores. Eventually the thunder and lightning cleared up, the deluge stopped and we sat out on the edge of the docks and watched the sunset dip down over the mangroves. We smoked a cigar that the tabbaconist recommended to us at a cigar shop down the road. Typically we don’t smoke but when near Cuba we thought we’d take our adult beverages and cigar down to the waterfront to enjoy. There’s not many nicer things that I can think of than sitting on the dock of the bay as the palm trees sway, smoking a cigar, sipping wine and beer and watching the sunset from waterfront Adirondack chairs. A couple of sailboats puttered into the harbor and the stars started twinkling into existence over the calm lagoon. It was so ironic that at one point the tiki bar a couple doors over started playing Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay.” It was awesome and our smiles were as wide as the Florida sky.
We met a couple from Maggie Valley in the North Carolina mountains near Asheville where we used to live. They were 70 and 80 and had adventured all over the world. Recently they had gone to Australia and walked across the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Apparently you have to take a breathalyzer test before being strapped into a harness. For being the age they were, this couple was wild! When they disappeared to go get food, Shannon and I stayed out on the dock talking and finishing our cigar after the red sun sunk below the horizon. All of a sudden, something large splashed in the water behind us which we thought might have been a shark hunting. Yep, there’s definitely a few good reasons not to go swimming at night out here. A young guy on the docks of the resort nextdoor from us was trying his hand at fishing but was only having luck reeling in tiny snapper. I think with sharks around it might be a little difficult to pull in a fish but he kept trying. A vibrant and talkative Cuban couple in their 30s or 40s set their lines out on the docks nearby and taught the young guy a whole bunch of stuff about fishing. By the time we left, the lady had pulled out a nice sized red snapper and the young kid was trying his hardest to land one on the dock. We had to scare up a 3 foot tall white stork who had taken up residency on our dock in order to get back to shore. I felt like we were back kicking at pelicans at Robbie’s Marina again!
We eventually left Key Largo with the first season of Bloodline on our minds, having binge watched the TV show drama about living and dying in the Florida Keys and all the crazy shit that goes down supposedly (but mainly for Hollywood drama purposes). The Whistlestop dive bar we stopped at the other day was highly featured in Bloodline along with the underwater Christ of the Abyss statue we snorkeled to. The hike out of Key Largo was bittersweet, knowing that we faced highway walking, canal walking and the knee-deep water and mud of Big Cypress Swamp.
We stopped at the Winn-Dixie grocery store to pick up some food on our way out of town. For lunch we plopped down outside the store on our little sit pads, eating salad and chicken wings and Shannon finishing some of his pizza he had brought with him. The parking lot here followed the unofficial rule to the Florida Keys: if there’s chickens there’s no cats. If there’s cats, then there’s no chickens. If there’s no cats or chickens then there’s iguanas.
Well this parking lot had it all – chickens, cats and lizards. A couple of the ragged-looking parking lot cats wandered up to us and we threw them some chicken wing pieces which they seemed to enjoy a lot. It’s pretty fun feeding the stray cats and was definitely a highlight of my day.
We left Winn-Dixie, stopping at the bathroom at the Key Largo Visitor Center where a nice guy in a flamingo shirt came out and chatted us up. We passed by some very interesting pop-up stores selling fireworks and flags supporting certain former presidents, the confederacy that ended 160 years ago and the not so clever EffU Brandon. Lovely. We walked pretty quickly past that guy selling flags, not making eye contact because he looked like he wanted to start a political discussion or possibly a fight. He was definitely an angry elf and we probably looked like damn yankee liberal hippies walking with our backpacks on the side of the road. It’s like when you’re on the subway – you just don’t make eye contact with the crazies.
The walk out of Key Largo was entirely on the side of the highway but luckily there was a bunch of traffic so we didn’t feel like we were going to be squashed like a bug from vehicles rushing by at 70mph. There wasn’t a whole lot to see with a single lane of bumper-to-bumper traffic. We were squashed between a chain link fence with crocodiles lurking in the saltwater lagoons on one side and highway traffic and a concrete barrier on the other.
The only cool thing about walking on the highway was being able to look down from the bridge above Gilbert‘s Marina where we had heard a wildlife officer the other day attend to a crocodile sighting there. We spied a janky houseboat belonging to a true river rat living out in the mangroves which was a floating barge of sorts tied up to a couple RV trailers on pontoons. There were a couple of bikes stashed in the woods for the river rat when he has to go to the mainland. The barge was pretty interesting as he had hammocks on his second story roof which looked like a pretty cool life. Although I bet the mosquitoes are pretty bad out there and I’m not sure what he does during hurricanes. I wonder if the crocodiles ever give him problems?
We crossed over to a much fancier marina with massive yachts pulling in and out of the harbor and a giant tiki bar with colorful umbrellas on the fake sand beaches. There are very few natural sandy beaches in the Florida Keys as the islands are made of fossilized coral, ground up coral and mangroves. Almost all of the sand you see is usually imported at a premium to the resorts and state parks and tourists don’t really seem to know the difference. Anyways, when we looked down at Gilbert’s Marina we spotted this weird silver mass in the water and some massive shapes rising from the depths. We couldn’t figure out if it was a crocodile or a school of fish or a submarine. Suddenly the torpedo shape turned a muddy brown and a pod of massive dirty sea cows rose from the seabed when they were snuffling down their favorite food of seagrass. It’s really cool to see the endangered sea mammals from such a vantage point. I’m always so impressed by the length and heft of the massive sea cows. They’re simply enormous!
As we walked alongside the highway, traffic piled up as it was much like beach traffic where I grew up. With only one way in and one way out with no turn around, once you’re in traffic you are stuck. Well it seems like everyone from Miami and points north were converging on the Florida Keys creating bumper-to-bumper traffic. Even though it was a random Sunday afternoon it seemed like everyone was headed to the islands for some R&R. Maybe the standstill traffic is like this every day. That would be annoying if you lived or commuted in the keys.
The slow-moving traffic was kind of nice because you didn’t have cars and distracted drivers coming at you blowing by at 70 miles an hour. We even got waved at by a bunch of people as we hiked and felt like celebrities being interviewed as we answered questions from people hanging out their car windows like,
“Where did you come from?”
“Key West!” we shouted.
“What are you doing walking on the highway?”
“Hiking the Florida Trail!” we cheered.
Some of the cars were blasting tunes and people even danced with us as we trotted by. A bunch of people had rented these three wheelers that looked pretty sporty with their race car driver seats, flashy colors and no roofs. There’s a whole line of maybe a group of friends who rented them, out partying from Miami down to the Keys which normally is a 30 or 45 minute drive. Each of the three wheelers had a different song blasting so we danced with each of the sports cars, changing our moves up for at least 10 vehicles. They all laughed and danced back which was fun.
To the left of us was a tall gated fence chain-link and tell enough to feel comfortable that none of the crocodiles rumored to inhabit the saltwater were going to sneak through and surprise us. At one point I was walking in front with a lagoon to our left when I caught a glimpse of a huge splash from something absolutely massive slipping into the water. I pointed it out to Shannon and we kept an eye on the surface of the water. Shannon looked away for just a moment and I saw the V-shaped snout of a crocodile. How cool!
The American crocodiles used to only number maybe 300 down here and now biologists say their numbers are closer to 2,000 these days after protective measures went into place. This is the only place in the world where both crocodiles and alligators live side-by-side. Crocodiles tend to be longer and heavier than alligators but only stick to the brackish and saltwater. Alligators, on the other hand, prefer freshwater although we have seen some in the ocean before in the intercoastal waterways near Cumberland Island in Georgia. So you never know. It was cool to have seen a crocodile!
The waterless highway slog was hot, humid and long with nowhere to even duck into the bushes to pee for 13 miles because you’re next to the highway on one side and crocodileland on the other. Luckily we were able to hold it until we got off the highway, most likely because we were dehydrated. We also were thinking about how we needed to resupply coming up since there was not going to be much food for the next 150 miles of trail. So far we hadn’t found any fuel canisters which seem to be few and far between. We heard that Walmart in upcoming Florida City might carry them but we weren’t sure how we’d get into town. So far we’d mainly been eating granola bars, using microwaves and coffee pots for hot water and eating out at the many restaurants and grocery stores. In the Everglades we weren’t going to have the luxuries found in the Florida Keys so we needed to be prepared.
It turns out we need not worry of how we were going to get into town because when we finally left the highway and found ourselves at a bait landing, we were able to call an Uber to get to town. After 3 or 4 hours of hiking without a bathroom break, I had to go pee so I went down the dirt roads to find a spot. I didn’t know how well traveled the roads were since it seemed to be more of a turnaround point on the highway for drivers heading into the Keys. Turns out it’s a little bit busier than I thought! All of the brush here was the acidic Poisonwood trees that would burn you if you touched them and I was certain there were bound to be alligators, crocodiles and massive snakes hanging out in the woods and low lying swamp. I looked around, found a spot where I wouldn’t be at risk of having Poisonwood burning my legs and as I was out for a quick pee of course a truck drove by but the guy politely covered his eyes as I tried to pull my pants up. Oh the joys of hiking! At this point I was so done with today that I didn’t even feel embarrassed.
We caught an Uber into nearby Florida City where we stayed at one of the hotels there. My feet were blistered and hurting pretty badly from walking on the roads and despite having rested in Key Largo, I just hoped another day of rest would help them feel a little bit better. We ordered Uber Eats rice bowls and went to bed after catching up on some more episodes of Bloodline.