Florida Trail: Big Cypress RV Camp to Clewiston

Trail Miles: 48 to 105

Rest Day In Big Cypress:

We take a zero mileage day to go to the nearby Seminole museum and chase down our resupply box.  (Thanks Good Doc and the Brothers Chessman and Camperdan for loaning us your wheels.  Finding someone to drive you around can be helpful.)   There is a group of us over age 55 and we get the nickname the senior center, when we get the senior group discount at the museum.   It  is a top notch museum with a wonderful video of Seminole history, detailed exhibits inside and a mile boardwalk outside identifying plants in a cypress dome and a simulated Seminole camp with docents to explain their culture.  We all enjoy our time there and highly recommend a visit. This whole reservation walk has been a wonderful experience for us so far.  

Trail Family:  Big Cypress to Pumping Station:

Chessman is being car supported on his hike  by his brother Camperdan and we are often also being supported by them.  Thanks brothers! This morning they drive us to breakfast and we later hike ten miles without our pack.  It’s an easy hike filled with birds of all kinds: Sand-hill cranes, great snowy egrets, great blue herons, anhingas, cattle egrets, grackles, vultures, and ibis as well as numerous songbirds. We especially like the meadowlarks.  The sky is a brilliant blue and the day seems filled with all kinds of possibilities as we hike back to last night's camping spot at the RV place.  It is a wonderful spot and we meet some other hikers when we return.  Mowgli, an especially earnest and cheerful young man,  helps Mark wash the Good Doc's car.  We eat and laze around and eventually pack up in preparation to head back out onto the trail.

Camperdan and Chessman

In the  afternoon, Camperdan drops four of  us off where we began hiking in the morning and we head on our way down a dirt road alongside a canal.  We are pleased to be accompanied by Songbird and Sunset.  Two of the hikers in our senior group.  Songbird is a high energy lady who knows  about lots of things and loves to talk as we walk along.  Sunset is the guy with the adorable accent  who has hiked a lot of long trails and we find his stories very charming and all his one liners are especially memorable.    It’s a lovely afternoon stroll along water, reeds, birds and brilliant blue sky, with friends.

We camp next to a pumping station along the Florida Trail reroute and have a group potluck while enjoying the glorious south Florida sunset and the continuous songs of the water birds. I can not express vividly enough to describe the wonder of all the birds. Those birds talk all night long as well, yet it is a soothing chorus and we all sleep very well.   ( In planning, I was very worried about where we would camp in this section, but it ended up being very easy as we just found a flat spot beside a pump station).

Beautiful Sky Day:  Pumping Station to Grassy Canal Bank:

Mark who previously had been nicknamed Merl, as a joke to rhyme with Pearl, is renamed Hawkeye by Sunset because Mark continually points out things the rest of us don’t see. Today it is lots of dead things: a snake, bird, numerous fish and a poor turtle that had an unfortunate accident and rolled upside down.  He also points out these buckets. 

They are bee buckets for the native bees to make their homes. They look kind of tiny in this photo but the are about 12 inches  across and a foot and a half or more deep.  They are put up to keep the bees from making a nest in the transformers.  Win for the power company and win for the bees.   He also points out lots and lots of birds, that you really can’t miss, and numerous alligators swimming sneakily in the canal alongside us that one might not see.    We get to watch Osprey catch fish too. It is so cool.   This part of the hike is teeming with wildlife.  We start seeing Sugarcane late in the day  as well as fields of sweet corn.  Sunset and Hawkeye tuck a few ears of corn, that are laying on the road, in to their packs for supper.  

It’s another BEAUTIFUL sky day.  Picture perfect clouds in a clear blue sky and I absolutely love it.  We press on to get to the water cache by the wayside picnic tables and meet up with  Mayor and Schweppes.  The Mayor is hiking with his blind dog and carries her on his pack.   All three seem very kind.  (Starting with the kick-off added meeting up with so many more people, and we highly recommend it)

The barn swallows come out and swirl around us gobbling up mosquitoes.  They make a virtual tornado that follows us for over a half a mile.  It is incredible and I find myself falling behind with my eyes glued to their antics and the setting sun.  The sky is dark and the horizon is pink and gold with the setting sun while thousands of swallows feed.  Another ending to a  perfect day.  Hallelujah .

We plan to camp at  the two palms camping spot listed on our map app, but throw up our tents a mile or two short, alongside a canal, in some grass and weeds.  We are tired as it’s been our first day hiking over 20 miles.  We get pretty giggly camping out like hobos huddled around our camp-stoves in the dark eating some corn we gathered along the way.  We chit chat into the night and I just love the way Sunset from South Carolina calls me ‘Miss Pearl’.  It sounds like my name is dripping with sugar and  it makes me want a mint Julip or some sweet tea while I watch the fireflies.  Did you catch that?  There are fireflies and they are the first I've ever seen.   Not only was it a wonderful day it is also  a wonderful and momentous  night.

Trail Magic:  Canal Bank To Crooked Hook RV Camp:

 We are in the land of big sugar now and most of today’s hike is alongside sugarcane in various stages of growth.  It is interesting- at first.  Some of the trail is tough walking, as a lot of the path is neither a trail nor a gravel road.  It’s just roughly mowed weeds and grasses and this slows our steps down tremendously.  We probably should have just walked on the parallel country paved road.  We are really happy when we see Camperdan.  Trailmagic!  He has peanut butter, apples, and tortillas.  Perfect trail lunch.  Thanks Dan.  

We are also really thankful for all the water caches left for us hikers in this section.  Thank you very much trail angels.  (Another perk of hiking with the crowd, although it is not much of a crowd on the Florida Trail!)  

Just as we are getting close to Lake Okeechobee, we spot a sprightly older man working in his yard. We say hello and he invites us into his yard and treats us to some fresh picked bananas from one of his banana trees.  A wonderful  talk ensues and we are very blessed.  Benjamin is 72 and filled with grace that he sprinkles generously to those in his presence.  He calls us sojourners and something about that word resonates with Songbird and I.     He also has seven and a half foot dreads piled under his hat and considers them part of his whole being.  He encouraged us to think more holistically about our bodies as well. We are temples for the Spirit.  Upon our departure his benediction to us is, ‘one love.'  Amen, Benjamin.  AMEN.

Camperdan picks us up at John Stretch Park and hauls our tired bodies to the Crooked Hook RV Camp and Hawkeye sits at the tiki hut drinking dollar beers and watching a football game.  We also shower, swim and wash our stinky clothes.  It’s nice having a friend like Camperdan and the Crooked Hook RV place is a really nice place to camp.  

Walking along Okeechobee From Crooked Hook to Clewiston:

Early morning has Camperdan driving us  back to John Stretch Park to continue our hike without our packs once more.  It’s a misty morning sunrise on the dike  of  Lake Okeechobee, the second largest freshwater lake in the United States. It’s also a fishing mecca and we watch the boats coming and going as we pleasantly stroll along with Chessman.  At the RV Camp, Chessman hikes on, and we go back to camp. (there was a board across the small roadside ditch and we were careful dashing across the busy road)

We go for a swim before packing up our gear and hiking the four more miles to Clewiston.  There are lots of eating choices in town and we pick a taco place.  Yummy!  Clewiston is very Hispanic and they really know how to make good Mexican Food and we enjoy the hospitality we receive and the delicious meal.    We get a room at  the Best Western Hotel across from Wal -Mart, as we need to resupply with food.     We grab a bit of food for the next few days, and we buy for a resupply box we will send forward to River Ranch Resort one hundred miles ahead. (The Clewiston post office is only a couple blocks away from this Best Western)  There doesn't appear to be any shopping after River Ranch for quite a ways.  We will see.  So far, we have experienced that there is more food available for purchase than we thought.  

Lesson learned: make a plan, but be open to the magic along the way.  

Miles hiked: 57.6 miles

Total miles: 105.6

A three minute slideshow of this section to the song, ‘One Love’. 

https://youtu.be/YsU192AhjnQ

Ahead of time, I was worried about where we would camp along the canals, but it was unnecessary worry.  You just camp somewhere along the trail and it seemed to be fine and in retrospect we have very fond memories of all the night bird sounds for the two nights we just random camped.  

We also later discovered that we could have made a rough resupply at River Ranch, but it was pricey.  We would probably mail here again.  River Ranch Resort was a bit confusing too on picking up our package.  It was in the hotel check- in building.