The Florida Trail

So I feel like a total airhead.

In researching trails, and seeing what's nearby where I live now, in Virginia and where I'm going to school in August, Florida, I found out that one of the longest trails in Florida starts in or near my hometown.

The Florida trail is one that I have apparently grown up riding bikes down, and hiking. It begins in Gulf Islands National Seashore on Pensacola Beach. Since I can remember, my family and I have camped on the camp grounds at Ft. Pickens and I know the camp ground and the trails like the back of my hand.

In September 2004 (the weekend AFTER my birthday) hurricane Ivan destroyed much of the greater Pensacola area and I was out of school for about a month and a half. That time felt like forever in Florida heat, with no AC AND grumpy family close by. For the hurricane I stayed on Campus in the student shelter. Although my family was near by and wanted me home for this storm, I stayed with my friends and had a great time if I do say so. The night Ivan came on shore we stood back from the Common's glass doors and watched as they breathed against the dropping pressure outside. The next morning some friends and I decided to go canoeing DOWN the UWF nature trail. This trail had a lovely board walk that cris-crossed the Escambia river every now and then and was well above the water. When we went down the trail, some of the time we were canoeing over the board walk....
Anyway, it wasn't until a the next summer when a friend and I wanted to go to Fort Pickens for a few old surfs spots we used to hit that I realized that the 7 mile road from the gate to the Fort was is pieces, which meant no driving.
So Rae and I got our back packs, a SMALL first aid kit, a camera and two bikes and set out on the 7 mile one way hike.
We stopped at our old stomping grounds, and told each other about night treks to the garrison to scare tourists out for a night stroll. About brothers trying to feed us to the gators in the swamp, and about all the misadventures of the campgrounds. The camp store, the boys we met, the people we got in trouble with....
When we had road to ride on, we used it. When we didn't we pushed the bikes to the waterline and used the compacted sugar white sand as a sort of make shift road....I think it was some where between two and five miles that we did this. We hit the entrance to the Fort, and the road was back. The sea wall had done it's job and we had "walked" to what had been accessible only by boat.
At one point we thought we would have to get a boat, because the island was cut in two when the gulf decided to take a shortcut over land. But we found a way around it by finding the shallowest point and crossing our fingers that the tide wouldn't come in...
When we got to the Fort one of the Rangers asked how we had gotten there, when we pointed to the bikes and said "Half ride half push" he looked at us and said "You two girls must be in good shape, you look the least out of breath than anyone else who has hiked here. Most people are near heat stroke, and had started at 6 or 7 am."
We hadn't gotten the whim to get things together and get going until well past lunch. We just put on our bikinis, packed our bags and hoped for the best knowing we could always turn back and go home if we wanted. We lolly gagged and I think that's what made it better, we took our time and enjoyed the beach, the waves, the water, the fish and our time together (Rae had just gotten home from school, we're OLD friends from middle school, so her home was a big deal).

So to get back on track, this 7 mile one way hike was 7 miles of the Florida Trail. Seven miles of a major trail in Florida, that I knew nothing about but had grown up on. Literally, grown up on.

Not to mention the countless other miles of the Florida Trail that I "hiked" as I ran up and down the beach chasing a surf board, or a skim board, looking for shells, looking for the other half of my swim suit or running from my brother. I've no doubt been from one end of Pensacola beach to the other and through Gulf Islands National Seashore to Navarre Beach. I've found great secret surf spots that I would lug my board to because the roads were washed out. I've see houses built up by wealthy families and blown down by strong winds. All up and down on end of the Florida Trail.

My goal, is to find a map of the Florida Trail and see how much I can do, and what friends of mine would let me crash at their place along the trail and take a nice hot shower.

Ben, would you let me if I walked to Panama City?