Day 31
Miles today: 20.4 miles
Miles so far: 490.2 miles
Campsite: Oak Hammock Shelter

Had a nice coffee with Ruth this morning. She drove me to the trail not far from her house, where we had dropped off the boys the day before.

I hiked in another beautiful section this morning. Right away I called Buckman lock tender to insure someone would be there to unlock the gate for me. Joe was his name and said he will be watching for me. Upon my arrival, the gate was already unlocked and I walked across the lock as I did not see anyone. While on the lock, there was a humming sound and thought it was odd. On the other side, Joe was tending to his truck. I am sure he gets plenty of time to do whatever he wanted. He informed me I had crossed at the right time as the lock was moving… Hence the humming. I looked back and noticed now the lock sidewalk area was open and uncrossable. Ha!

After the lock, the trail began to be wet again. I already missed the Ocala section. I took my shoes off and hiked with my cheap crocs. A huge pain in the butt but my shoes remained dry.

I arrived to the Hoffman Crossing and it was a long boardwalk above the swampy water. It was a very long one! Sadly once off of it, the trail was under water again. Booo! Would be nice to keep that boardwalk going for another quarter mile or so.

I decided to stay at the shelter and 3 section hiker were already here. They have been trying to do the entire thing on the weekends. I was gathering water in the rain and Syd, the sloth, came to the Shelter. The section hikers had taken most of the shelter floor with their belongings and I didn’t feel like sleeping between them so I set up my tent against the shelter for some rain protection. Syd will be squeezing amongst them in the shelter.

I have been eating the homemade cookies Betty had made me. It was basically my breakfast, lunch and dessert. Yum!

Time for bed as the section hikers and Syd are talking about gear. All I care about right now is dry feet. Happy trails!