This blog is going to be different than most. There’s so much I want to say and write but I’ve been putting off the writing until I felt I had the brain power and focus. Unfortunately that never works with writing. Writing really is work of some sort and like any other work, putting it off never works. Hopefully I will get better at making it a priority again in these next few months as long as I’m not too swamped. I say that literally because in a few minutes time, I’ll get in my car and head to Florida to hike the 1111 mile Florida Trail, much of it through literal swamp.
But before I did that, I wanted to update all you loyal readers. I really appreciate you and feel I owe it to you. I’ve been shoveling a lot of snow, spending some time with my older friends and locked myself to my loom for a week so I could crank out some product to get to the store that sells it. This will help me have some cash for this trip.
I’ve also spent a lot of time getting my food boxes figured out, packed, taped up and addressed. I don’t send my resupply to Post offices because if I arrive on Saturday afternoon I have to wait until Monday to pick up my box. Also, some post office’s refuse to hold the box longer than two weeks. So I spend a lot of time upfront calling around to find stores, Hostel’s, Trail Angel’s and in the case of the Fla Trail, churches where I can send my packages. I’ll drive them down with me in the car and mail them from Florida so it’s cheaper. I’ve been impressed at the number of churches on the Florida trail that have opened their doors to Hiker’s.
I’ve also spent a lot of time dehydrating food for the trip. Because of my financial situation, I spend almost no money preparing for these hikes. I had a bunch of apples in the fall along with a couple of jars of peanut butter. I made a huge pot of applesauce, mixed it with the two jars of peanut butter, threw in some chocolate chips and dehydrated it. I’ll use that instead of power bars on the trail. Then I took the equivalent of 20 cans of beans, blended them, added a bunch of tomato sauce that I had on hand, onions, garlic and chili powder and ended up with a pot that was 38 1/2 pounds in weight. I dehydrated that down to 5 1/2 pounds and put 2.2 ounces for each lunch into my boxes. Instead of buying crackers, I was able to get a bunch of loaves of day old bread which I air dried. It’s like eating hard tack. I think it’ll be good with the rehydrated bean dip which tastes pretty good. But I’m sure I’ll be ready for something different by the time I’m finished this trail! Eating the same thing every day will be good practice if I get on the show Alone where I would be grateful to have anything to eat. I appreciate all the people who have shown faith in me by telling me I would be great on the show.
I expect to start the Fla trail on the eighth or ninth of Jan. I’ll keep you posted how it goes wading through the alligator and poisonous snake infested swamps. I’m including here a few photos of what the Trail app says about the trail. But as dangerous or hard as it sounds, I think winterizing my house and driving to Florida will be the most challenging and dangerous part of this trip.
Once again my gratitude to all who take time to read what I write. I’ll keep you posted as I can while hiking the Florida national scenic trail.
#nationalscenictrails #thruhiking #thruhiker #floridatrail #preparingforathruhike
The Mary Badass 
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