Florida Trail - Segment 6

 

Today we started Segment 6 of the Florida Trail, which goes around the west side of Lake Okeechobee. It will take several trips to complete the 56 miles. Because we'd rather not deal with shuttling cars, and we want to hike together, we'll end up doing the entire loop twice. However, we're confident we'll be able to do so. After all, we were able to complete the east side last year. 

Today's portion started at John Stretch Park. We went 4.4 miles to the Clewiston Campsite, then turned around to return to our car at the park. August is warm and humid, but it was also a beautiful day, and we quite enjoyed our walk along the dike. 

There's no shade on this trail, but we did stop every mile for a water break. On one side our view was of the rim canal, with the lake, across the little "barrier" islands, in the distance; on the other side it was of sugar cane fields and the occasional little business along with the traffic and noise of Highway 27.

We met our goal, had a snack at the camp shelter, then turned around and retraced our steps.

Our bodies handled the hike so well, we're going to try doing the next piece tomorrow!