This morning we woke up bright and early at the hotel room in Key Largo. Then Slide’s brother, Eric, drove us back down the road to the gas station where he picked us up last night. We didn’t make it all the way to the hotel last night. It was just another handful of miles down the road and would’ve been a massive day if we ended there. Instead, we just got picked up at the first gas station, which you go by when you get onto the keys. When we got back there this morning, we headed inside to grab some breakfast. I packed out a breakfast sandwich and got a coffee drink. Then we started our day by walking on the side of the road. There’s going to be a lot of bike path for us on the keys. But every now and then you just have to walk on the shoulder of the actual road. It was a nice easy start of the day, but I was feeling really tired. I noticed it for the first time last night when we were getting into the room. I was just too tired to even want to eat anything. When I get super exhausted it’s really the only time that I noticed my patience gets a little bit short and I can get irritable. It isn’t something that happens all the time, but when you were hiking almost 40 miles every single day for six weeks straight, you can get a little bit worn down.
The whole morning flew by as Slide and I made our way through Key Largo. We wound up going past a bunch of different businesses and I was keeping my eyes peeled for some of my favorites. When you first go onto Key Largo, there are a lot of different Key lime pie places. Some of them are really famous and are always super busy. But I was actually more interested in a Colombian bakery that we were going to be going right by. For the life of me I couldn’t remember when we would be going by it. I was also imagining that we were going to be going past this Cuban restaurant which I got breakfast from back in January. But when I checked online for that, that restaurant is closed permanently. I didn’t even think to check for the Colombian bakery because I was certain it was much further down the road. Then all of a sudden, we walked right by it! I knew we had to head in there and grab some late breakfast. That place has some of the best Colombian treats and savory items that I’ve ever had and is called the Pinecrest Bakery.
The iguana in this tree was absolutely massive and wasn’t even the biggest one that we saw.
I think I have a new favorite pastry as well. I’ve mentioned before that I love pan de bono, which is a Colombian bread. It’s very dense and heavy, but the inside is moist and cheesy. But today at this other bakery, I tried something I never had before. It looks like a regular twisted pastry with some kind of a sugar on the outside. But inside was a cream cheese spread. It literally tasted like a sweet version of a crab Rangoon, minus the crab. It was probably the best thing that I’ve ever eaten in my entire life. Now I’ll be looking for that everywhere I go for the next couple of days. And on my way back off of the keys, I will probably have to stop off here one more time. If you are ever on the keys, the bakery is called the Pinecrest bakery. It advertises that it’s open 24 hours, even though I’m not sure if that’s true. And it’s probably the best bakeries that I’ve ever been to in my entire life. When Slide and I were there today, I couldn’t help but think how nice it would be to go in there and just buy tons of boxes of goodies to bring to a party or something like that. We got ourselves a big box of things, but anything more just would’ve been overkill.
Hanging out in a park in the keys, watching massive iguanas crawl around.
After we left there, we continued along the sidewalk, just eating our goodies while we walked. Moments like this it really feels like you’re living the dream. We got a couple of empanadas that I had never tried before and a couple pastries I’d never tried before. And then got some of the classics like pan de bono and guava pastry. One of the empanadas we got had this delicious chicken in it with some potatoes. But the cream cheese pastry was the winner in my eyes. I wonder how hard it is to make those. I will probably be fantasizing about those pastries for the entire rest of my life.
In the late morning, we wound up walking right past the place we stayed at last night. I wasn’t sure if we were going to pop in to see Slide’s brother if he was still there. But it seemed like he went out and was doing some activities in the area this morning. In the afternoon we were talking about reaching out to him just to see where he was and what he was doing. And then like clockwork, we just stumbled upon him on the side of the road sometime in the next half an hour. He was sitting out in a sun chair, reading a book, living all of my dreams. I just want to be out here in the keys, having a vacation of my own. And that vacation certainly doesn’t involve hiking 40 miles every single day
Apparently when the temperature drops rapidly these bad boys will freeze and fall out of trees!
It felt like we had just stopped off for a break, but we still joined him in the parking lot and sat in the shade of his vehicle for a little bit. The funny thing is the car that he’s in is actually Slide‘s car. He just left his car at home while he’s been on trail and his brother drove that car down to Florida to meet up with us. We hung out there for a little while in the shade and enjoyed another brief break. We were contemplating staying longer and then realized that there was a park just down the road. So, we opted to walk to the park and enjoy our slightly longer break in a nicer setting.
Crossing over a bridge in the keys which opened us up to wide open ocean views.
The park that we went to was really nice and had a beach access. We wound up sitting at some stone picnic tables and watching these massive iguanas climb around in the trees. The two we were watching were clearly doing some kind of a mating thing. The male one had a feature in his head that I could only compare to a gizzard. And he was doing all of these motions with his head and making some noise. Then started climbing down and out of the tree in the direction of another iguana that we were watching. It didn’t have those same features and was a little bit smaller, and in my opinion, was clearly a female. The three of us hung out there watching those iguanas roam around for a while. Then eventually, we had to get back on the road.
Over the course of the day, Slide was corresponding with a friend of his that he met on one of his other long hikes. They had hiked together on the Arizona trail, and then this hiker Frog and her partner came and met Slide earlier in the year when he was in New Mexico on the CDT. Now, Frog was driving relatively close to this area and decided to drive all the way down here to visit. It looks like we’re going to be seeing her later on today which is exciting. And works out well because Slide’s brother is planning on hanging out for the rest of the day and maybe doing some biking. Because of the massive mileage that we are doing every single day, it isn’t particularly fun to hang out with us. We can only sit around for really brief breaks. And even in the evenings when we aren’t hiking, we don’t usually stay awake for that long. So understandably there are better things to do in the Florida Keys than watch us!
Only 89 miles remain! Or at least they did at some point this afternoon.
After leaving the park, we kept our heads down for the next few hours. We were continuing along a sidewalk and we’re making our way toward Islamorada. We would be passing through the small town and meeting up with Frog somewhere. We’re also planning on tagging on a little bit of additional mileage somewhere today. It’s looking like our mileage is going to end us up literally in the middle of a bridge. So, we’re hoping to add on a couple miles somewhere so that we can end our day kind of near Long Key State Park. We were hoping to be able to spend the night in another room, but every single thing in this area is totally booked for tonight. We called some places and were checking but didn’t have any luck. Even having access to vehicles and being able to get rides down the road, it still doesn’t change the fact that there aren’t any rooms available at all.
When we got through Islamorada, we stopped at a gas station and grabbed a couple drinks. Then veered off course and decided just to go out to a park near the beach. It worked out perfectly and added on a couple miles. And it was a really nice place to head toward and had bathrooms. On our walk back to get on course we ran into Eric who was biking around. It was just really funny to stumble upon each other while we were walking down the road. It sounded like he had had a great day exploring the area. And he was talking about going snorkeling either today or tomorrow, which I was super jealous about.
Our route brought us right past a park with these large sculptures in the grass.
Just maybe an hour or so prior to this we had lined everything up perfectly to meet up with Slide‘s friend Frog. She met us in a parking lot when we were veering slightly off course to go out to the beach. She met us with coffee, Key lime, pie, pastries, and all kinds of goodies. The community is a really small world and it’s really cool that Slide was able to see his friend again during a crazy year like this. With how small of a world it is out here I was surprised that I had never met her before. It was really nice getting to hang out for a while and talk with her. It must’ve been really cool for Slide to see her again because the last time he saw her in person was when he was in New Mexico on the CDT. Which was literally in January of this year! We hung out with her for a while and then continued doing that side trail down to the beach. Then wound up running into Eric on our way back out to the main part of the road.
A large sculpture that we walked past in the early evening.
After that, we just walked the rest of the way through Islamorada. And while we walked, we tried to figure out where we would be spending the night. Frog was super helpful and actually said that she would drive down to the nearby State Park to see if we could spend the night there. I had checked online and all of the reservations were totally booked. But you never know if places have specific policies for ECT hikers, just because there are a decent number of people coming through here every January doing the ECT. So I was hopeful that we could figure something out there. Otherwise, I’m really not sure where we’ll wind up this evening.
Around 4:45 PM we were walking through Islamorada on the sidewalk and a truck pulled over right in front of us. And the interaction that followed actually wound up being the coolest most “small world “encounter ever. The guy got out of his truck and introduced himself as Ed, a man who I actually met back in January! When he started to explain our meeting, I remembered it immediately. When I was down here in January hiking north toward Islamorada I was on the phone with my dad. Then a man wound up walking up to me who said he read my blog. It was actually really cool that my dad was on the phone because he just got to listen to the conversation. He loves hearing about things like that just because I’m his child and he’s proud of me. I walked and talked with Ed for a little while back in January. Now here he was almost a full year later driving by me again in the keys! He pulled over today and we were talking with him for a while. We actually wound up asking if he knew of any place for us to spend the night. I think he had asked us where we were ending up and we had said we weren’t totally sure. While we were there with him, he made a couple phone calls and tried to reach out to some people he knew. But we didn’t wind up having any luck. That’s totally ok though and I knew we would still work something out one way or another.
As the sun was going down we walked by this restaurant with a bright lit up patio, overlooking the water.
When we left there, we continued walking along the sidewalk and not long after that we heard from Frog. She had reached out to Long Key State Park to ask about camping. They were completely booked, but they said they could hold space for Florida Trail hikers and ECT hikers. Obviously, this might have just been the good luck of whoever she was talking to. It wouldn’t shock me if someone else called the same park and was told something very different. But we were told that we could come in and were able to camp for the night. Which was great news because otherwise we had no idea where we were going to be spending the night. I was super grateful for Frog for saving us phone calls, uncertainty, and for figuring everything out for us. Not only that, but she also came by earlier and brought us the most incredible lunch, which was so thoughtful. Neither of us had had Key lime pie yet down here in the keys. So that was a really great surprise.
Slide up ahead of me walking by red-light as we crossed over the bridge heading toward Long Key.
Honestly, overall, the energy today was just incredible. I’m very grateful for all of the different people surrounding us who have been supporting and helping us. Today I just felt like we were very well looked after and cared for by everyone. Which is a really amazing feeling when you’re pushing yourself so hard every day. I think that one of the coolest things about today was running into Ed for the second time this year. Stuff like this makes you realize how unlikely it is to stumble upon the same person twice. And yet I don’t even think I could count on one hand the number of very unique experiences I’ve had this year where I ran into someone more than once. To call it anything other than divine would be a major understatement.
It was a huge relief to have that figured where we would be spending the night tonight. After that, we wound up continuing along the sidewalk for another hour or so until we walked by a roadside parking lot that had a picnic table. Slide’s brother Eric was pulled off there, and we joined him and sat down. That was the perfect opportunity to eat a little bit of a snack and take another break. We still had a couple more hours of hiking in our future. By the time we left there, it was just starting to get dark. It was great to be on the wide bike path far off the road. Especially this time of day. When I was here back in January, I remember running into a lot of people on the bike path even in the evenings. I actually had multiple people get mad at me because I didn’t have anything reflective on or a headlamp. It is very easy to see out here because of how wide open it is. And I guess when I was here before the moon was pretty bright. It’s not like I ever had a close call with a cyclist or anything like that. This evening, though we didn’t wind up seeing anyone as we walked along the bike path.
The sunset over the ocean as we walked toward Long Key.
One of the best parts about the end of our day was that we had gotten to watch the sunset over the ocean. We just happened to be going over one of these short bridges in the keys around 6:30PM when the sun was almost completely gone. It just made for a really a beautiful last bit of daylight. Then we continued on in the dark and making our way toward the state park. It must’ve been sometime after 8 PM when we arrived there. Then just walked into the park and went toward the camping area that’s the person on the phone had told us to stay at for the night. We didn’t wind up seeing anyone in the park as we made our way there. Then we found a great place to get our tents set up and get comfortable for the night. Long Key State Park is a really cool park with tons of resources. When I was living out of my vehicle in 2021 I drove down to the keys and vividly remember hanging out at this park. Obviously, it’s so late tonight that we’re not really going to see or do anything. But it will be nice to have the amenities of a bathhouse in the morning if nothing else.
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