Sunrise at Gulf Islands National Seashore, March 3, 2011….18 miles left until we finished.

Finished! We walked through Florida!

On top of Fort Pickens

How was this a year ago? It seems like closer than that. While the Appalachian Trail seems light years away now, I think the Florida Trail seems closer because of our closer relationship with Florida itself. While I am glad to be in Texas again, I sometimes wish I had done more exploring and had gotten to know Florida more intimately, exploring its other locales.

Despite the road walks, I do recommend hiking this trail. It’s a ‘quick’ trail, it’s flat and it offers up habitats that many people don’t get to see or appreciate. It is a different mindset and I’m hoping that with the book I am writing about our hike on the Florida Trail that I can sway more people to hike the trail. Not only that, I want the trail to become better. It has a vast amount of potential and it can only get better if people are out there appreciating it.

I hope we have more long distance trails for us in the future, even if we are a few decades older when that happens. Long distance trails are challenging in so many ways but worth it when all is said and done.

🙂