Date: 2005-01-04
From: Florida

To: Transition Time
Miles today: 0.0

Zero miles todayMy home in Florida Ok, my trusty, loyal, intelligent, friendly, great-journal-writing-herself transcriber Jan Liteshoe (you can read all about her at www.trailjouirnals.com/liteshoe ) has instructed me that I need to make a transition from my almost completed, but temporarily interrupted (again) thru hike of the Appalachian Trail to a new Florida Trail journal for my upcoming, well planned hike of what, until today, I thought was going to be a 700 mile hike. But after talking to Cricket at the Florida Trail Association I found out that the Florida Trail is 1300 miles and then Hippie and I are adding on about 200 miles from Key West to the actual start of the Florida Trail in the Everglades. So much for all those plans about the trail. I guess we will just have to walk about twice as fer (now that I'm back in the south, I have to start talking with a southern accent) as we thought we would. I will still have my 175 miles that I have left on the A.T. done before one year is up. I have until May 1st to complete that. This will be my last entry on my Appalachian Trail site until I get back on that trail and this will also be my first entry on my new Florida Trail site that you should be able to get to by going to the left tool bar on my journal and clicking on the Florida Trail hike. That is if my dear friend and trusty. loyal, intelligent transcriber and very talented writer and superb horse trainer and rider and adventurer and also very easy to look at, Jan Liteshoe (www.trailjournals.com/liteshoe) will set all this up in her spare time. (for free) If any of you remember back when I started my A.T. thru hike last May 1st, I don't like planning things way in advance. I know it gives you something to think about while you sit back in your recliners, but when there are so many adventures in this world, I just don't want to be doing nothing while planning on doing something. I decided about three or four days before my A.T. thru hike to do another thru hike. I went home and paid a couple bills and got a few dollars from my depleting bank account and headed for Amicalola Falls State Park to start walking. I like to start my A.T. thru hikes from Amicalola Falls State Park and do the approach trail up to Springer Mountain because a half an hour into my hike, I get to stop by the lodge and have a breakfast buffet!! It is turning out to be a little longer in the planning stages for this hike. Hippie and I got down here in Florida on January 1st and spent January 2nd visiting my family, so we started actually planning and getting ready for this hike on January 3rd.Now it's January 4th. We went up to Gainesville, Fl and spent an afternoon talking to Cricket at the Florida Trail Association. I thought my ol' buddy Chief was just trying to pull my leg again when he told me the trail was 1300 miles long. Well, it's 1300 miles long!! I have no idea how or where I got it stuck in my brain that it was 700 miles long. It's actually a good thing it's longer...I get to walk farther before I'm done. Hippie and I decided to try and get a ride to Key West and leave my truck at home. We have about six people I will be talking to soon to see who wants to drive us down there and leave us. We bought the set of trail maps and joined the Florida Trail Association. The trail maps were $80.00 and the membership fees were $25.00 a piece. We found out that you can't walk across some of the privately owned land or the Seminole Indian Reservation if you aren't a member. The talented, helpful Jan Liteshoe posted a thread somewhere about us thru hiking the Florida Trail and I got emails from Tamara, Earthworm, Hammock Hanger, Bluetrail and Sudz all offering help along the way if we needed it. Bluetrail even said when we got to her house that she was going to make me some fried chicken!!! I like Bluetrail alot already and I haven't met her yet. It sounds like there are some wonderful people here in my home state. Ok, we have the maps, but my biggest worry about this trail is the water...not that there isn't plenty of water because there is. I understand that we will have long sections that we will have to walk through water as high as our waists. I'm worried about drinking water. Florida's water is all surface water. I'm used to the mountain springs and streams. I did drink water right out of the lakes when I was a kid, but I don't think I would do that now. I asked a number of people that have hiked this trail and have decided to just use Aqua Mira. Everyone said that we should treat the water somehow. I hate pumping water through a heavy filter and I know someone who got giardia and she pumped all her water. I don't like chemically treated water, but I may have to do that for now. I did talk to Jo Jo Smiley and she said that she's using that new pen they have out. I'm going to an outfitter on Friday and I'll check into that. She said that she just used a few drops of bleach in each liter of water when she hiked the trail. I'm going to end this entry now without talking about the rest of the things we did today. I have a VERY VERY YOUNG friend that said he was getting bored reading my entries about all the fun I'm having. I've heard that I have him to thank for a large number of the hits on my journal, so I want to try to make his life a little better if I can. At least I understand that he's getting out of his recliner and going to the Doyle to sit at the bar and soak up some of those 22 ounce Yuenglings. Good job A-Train, I'm glad you are up and moving about!! Oh yeah A-Train, if you want to go outside where it's cold, I'll take a Coke and fried chicken...I don't like Pepsi. I got a message for Hammock Hanger from LWOP The Dewdrop...he said he would send you a copy of him summiting Katahdin in those black lace bikini panties when he gets your summit photo...what's that all about??Happy Trails!!!!!!