Training Day on the Ocean to Lake Trail

About 16 miles on the Ocean to Lake Trail

First off, this is the official announcement: my friend Leslie will be joining me on the Great Outdoors Challenge!  Leslie is a very strong-willed woman who is a wife, mother, professional, and an entrepreneur.  So far we've done a few shorter training hikes together, and she also joined me on this training hike, which I have dubbed the "Death March."  If that isn't foreshadowing, I'm not sure what is.

Going into this hike we knew it was going to be a warm day.  Forecasts said it would be a high of 80 degrees, and we went with (mostly) full packs.  We started at the endpoint of the Ocean to Lake trail on Hobe Sound Beach and it was a sunny, cool morning of about 68 degrees.  The first 2+ miles were road walking to get to Jonathan Dickinson State Park.  The beginning of the road walk took us along a tree lined road leading from the beach to the intracoastal and then next to some shops along one of the main roads.

Under the tree we go

There were tons of runners out at JD as they were doing endurance races of 25, 50 or 100 miles.  We ran into them on multiple occasions over the course of the day. The first few miles of JD was walking on sugar sand, which you know if you've been to the beach, is not a lot of fun to talk on.  Also, there was no shade, which continued for 99% of the day.  At this point it was still cool out so it wasn't a huge deal.  We continued along amongst the scrub brush until we got a bit further west into the park, where the trail turned into a more normal pathway (no sand) and eventually got to parts that were more of a dirt road than a hiking trail.

Scrub

Trail

We stopped and took a break at the Scrub Jay campsite, which is 5.5 miles from the beginning of the Ocean to Lake trail.  At that point there was still a bit of coolness in the air and we were feeling good.

Leslie looking....uh, I don't know what this is

Some flowers we saw along the way:

The Kitching Creek campsite was our lunch destination, about 9 miles into the trail.  Late morning/noon time it suddenly became blazing hot.  The last mile to the campsite felt like forever in the heat and we were low on water.  We had intended to stop and set up tents at lunch (Leslie was carrying my old tent, which was new to her) as practice but it was so scorchingly hot we just couldn't do it.

We refilled our water bottles at the campsite and wet our pack towels to put on our necks for some cool relief from the sun.  We took a break at the sign indicating we were about to exit JD State Park.  Unbeknownst to Leslie I had packed a couple snickers bars as a surprise snack to give us an energy boost for the last 5 miles.  Unfortunately in the blazing sun they melted....but they still tasted amazing.

Melty snickers

Next up was the Hobe Grove Canal, which OTLers must wade across.  It was slow moving and knee deep, and honestly the cool water felt great, so no big deal.

Me crossing the Hobe Grove Canal.  Note my towel under
my hat to keep my neck cool

Our next landmark was the I-95 and Florida Turnpike underpass for trail walkers.

On the approach to the tunnel

Underpass

 Another mile through a farm in the hot Florida sun took us to a bridge over a canal where we saw a young alligator enjoying the fiery ball of death in the sky.

Gator

Zoomed In

After this, according to the data sheet for the OTL trail, it was under two miles to Riverbend park, where we were ending our walk.  Now, we aren't 100% sure we were on the correct trail some of the time, but there is no way that was less than two miles for this final section.  Granted, I had stopped drinking for the most part because all my water seemed like hot tea from the sun (I know, bad choice, and I was definitely dehydrated).  Leslie was doing a better job of hydrating than I was.

From the bridge it was a long, straight path (without shade) that we walked down until we got to a road...that was also long and straight and in the sun.  At this point all I could think about was to keep moving to get to the end.  After what felt like an eternity we made it out to the small trail along Indiantown road that we followed east to Riverbend Park.

It wasn't pretty, but we had survived.  For me this was one of the toughest 16 mile (more like 17 if you believe the data from Leslie's phone) days I've ever done mostly because of the heat, but also because of my foolishness in not drinking enough.

Details

****Thanks to Leslie for taking pictures!  Most of them were provided by her because I'm too lazy to take them myself.  ****