Starting a 1,108 Mile Hike w/ My Girlfriend - Florida Trail Thru Hike ep1

Part 1 of 3, The Florida Trail thru hike begins! Hiking 1,108 miles southbound down Florida, from Pensacola to deep into the everglades west of Miami. Through beaches, swamp land, wetlands, oak hammocks, palm hammocks, open prairies, along rivers, and bike paths. We see more than 100 alligators, some snakes (water moccasin/cottonmouth) loads of different species of birds, and mammals.

As you would imagine our Florida hike began on the beach! For our first two days we walk Santa Rosa Island (where the Truman Show was filmed) in and around sand dunes, along the Gulf of Mexico, ocean crashing next to us, and not a sole in the world out doing it with us.

We chose southbound on this hike for the solitude, and to have a less harsh beginning. Those that go Northbound have a much more brutal start with 30 miles of swamp leading directly into a hard compact bike path making even the strongest of hikers feet mush.

After the beaches we enter the largest Airforce base in the country, Eglin AFB. We had to get special permits, and walk in sections that weren't currently being used for military training exercises. Daily we saw fighter jets, and could hear the exercises, and tests being held nearby. Despite this it was incredible. Bridges over clear creeks, elevation change in the form of deep hills, the highest point on the florida trail, rainbow colored swamps, and beautiful deer moss across the ground.

Our hike takes us through Econfina an area previously devastated by hurricane michael, a category 5 hurricane, as bad as it gets. This path takes us through the hardest swamp hiking in Florida, Bradwell bay in the Apalachicola National Forest. This path takes us through St Marks National Wildlife Refuge with thousands of birds, and alligators. We see stunning sunrises and sunsets, we deal with nights colder than freezing, we wear orange to avoid hunters. It's an interesting trail.

This is part one of three. The hike continues!

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