The winter months offer an opportunity to reflect and recover. After returning to the east coast in October, I rented out my house and traveled (by car this time) to spend time with family in Florida and Kentucky.
While in Florida, I came close to jumping on the Florida Trail for a couple months. I bought the trail guide, had my backpack ready, and even went to the Keys and the Everglades. An inflamed achilles tendon, the result of 3,500 miles of backpacking in a year and a half, was the only thing to hold me back. It's time to take care of the feet and not walk through swamps!
Took the ferry to Dry Tortugas National Park,
checked out Fort Jefferson there,
learned about the fort's history,
camped by the beach,
and walked the shoreline.
Then I spent some time in Key West,
checked out the Everglades,
and camped at Big Cypress near the trail head for Florida Trail.
So while doing some physical therapy and taking time off the feet, I'm transferring my handwritten Pacific Northwest Trail daily logs over to a website called Trail Journals. It's a lot of fun to relive those three amazing months! This project will not be finished for quite awhile, but feel free to follow along... there are some pretty unbelievable stories, for sure. Here is a link to the beginning:
And here is a music video of the first week or so when the PNT takes us through Glacier National Park, probably the most beautiful place I've ever seen:
So what's next? Not sure. Much will depend on the status of the feet.
