The first time I stepped foot on the Florida Trail was a warm September morning in 2020. I was very new to trail running and was on a quest to run as many different trails as possible, and find as many unique trails within an hour drive of Jacksonville.
I had already familiarized myself with all of Guana River State Park and Jennings State Forest, two of my favorite places to run long distances on trail, and wanted to see something new. I was browsing on the Alltrails app using the map feature when I saw a segment in Osceola national forest that caught my eye. It was exactly a one hour drive from where I lived and looked long enough to get a nice 16 mile run in as an out and back.
Little did I know that we had our very own national scenic trail right here in Florida. The Florida trail is 1,108 miles long starting in Big Cypress National Preserve in south Florida and finishing at Fort Pickens / Gulf Islands National Seashore in Pensacola. It is one of 11 national scenic trails in the country. The Appalachian Trail and Pacific Crest Trail are two other national scenic trails for reference. There are only eleven of these types of long distance trails in the country, and Florida has one completely dedicated to our state. How crazy and amazing is that?
I packed my vest the night before and set my alarms for 5 am to go check out this new-to-me trail. I was excited but had no idea what I was getting myself into. When I got there the trailhead was very obvious and showed a map of the entire Florida Trail with a brief history at the kiosk. To be honest I really didn’t look too deeply into it because I wanted to start my run. I didn’t really know how to follow blazes and had no idea what the Florida Trail was. I was just stoked to check out a new area.
*Photo I took of the kiosk at Olustee Battlefield on this exact day. September 22, 2020.
I started my run going northbound on the Florida Trail from the Olustee battlefield trailhead. The first section you meander through the most beautiful pine flat woods, a signature landscape in north Florida. After about a mile, the Florida Trail takes a turn onto a road bed for maybe a quarter of a mile. I didn’t really know how to follow blazes, but I kept going down this road until eventually I saw where it turned back into trail. I kept running as the single track got narrower and narrower. Eventually, I was jumping through brush and thorny vines that were sticking out into the trail. Then after another quarter mile or so, the trail turned into a bog.
*Pine flatwoods on the first mile of this section.
I slopped my way through this water hole for another five or so minutes, thinking that it would eventually dry up. It only got deeper and muddier. Welcome to the Florida Trail in the late summer! I had no idea it would be like this, and being the newly converted trail runner that I was, I turned around and called it a day after 1.2 miles.
I got back to my car and ended up resorting back to my stomping grounds in Jennings State Forest, where I knew the trails would be dry and easy to navigate. That was the end of my first Florida Trail experience.
I wish I could say that I fell in love with the Florida Trail right away, but I did not. I was frustrated with the conditions and had high expectations for a perfectly groomed and dry trail. This is not the reality of the Florida Trail, or any trail running for that matter.
Although my first experience was very lackluster, I did not give up on this quest to continue finding unique, wild, and unmolested trails in Florida.
As time went on, I slowly started to expose myself more to this trail again as I became a better trail runner, and grew more of a tolerance for imperfect trail conditions. A few months after this experience I was visiting family near Palatka for Thanksgiving. This area is right next to Rice Creek Conservation Area, the Palatka-Lake Butler rails to trails, Etoniah State Forest, and Rodman dam. I always made an excuse to explore trails whenever I was down there, and this holiday was no exception.
I still really didn’t know much about the Florida Trail, but I knew I kept seeing the name on Alltrails when trying to find longer trails to run. I finally downloaded an offline map to follow in case I got lost, and went out to Rice Creek to do a five mile loop that looked promising.
This experience was much more pleasant, and vastly different than the landscape just 70 miles north. Rice Creek is a low lying cypress swamp with beautiful spanish moss overhanging old oak trees mixed in the swamp. It is home to Hoffman’s bridge, the longest continuous boardwalk on the entire Florida trail which goes on for .4 miles.
I did not make it to Hoffman’s bridge that day, but rather stuck inside the cypress forest dodging those cypress knees and other critters like raccoons that make dens right off the trail. There is one champion cypress tree in there as well that is a must see! The trails were dry that day and it was cool enough to keep the mosquitos at bay. I absolutely loved it.
It wasn’t until 2022 that I really started to get into the Florida trail. I had signed myself up to run “The Itch 50k” which is a very low-key run of 15 people or less through Ocala National Forest. It starts near Lake Kerr going southbound on the Florida trail on the western corridor, right after it splits.
This was the first time that I really had to educate myself on how to follow blazes and navigate the Florida trail. I downloaded the Far out app to keep myself from getting lost and signed up with a friend who ran with me the entire way. We had an absolute blast and for the first time I remember it clicking. Follow the orange blaze to not get lost!!
After this, I had signed myself of another event on the Florida Trail, called the “Lake to Ocean 100k” on the Ocean to Lake hiking trail in south Florida. Although this is not part of the official through hiking route, it is a section also taken care of by the FTA. It absolutely stole my heart.
These two races and experiences really set it off for me. This trail is more than just a path to run or walk on. It’s an adventure. It’s both the journey AND the destination. It’s vast, diverse and challenging in its own way. So many people think that just because it is flat, it must be easy. This is far from true. The Florida Trail is challenging, beautiful, and so much more.
After these experiences, I started checking off as many new sections as possible. I coordinated rides with friends to run point to point, organizing an uber ride when possible, or convincing my family near Palatka to drop me off an hour away to just run back on the Florida trail. It was such an adventure to just go out and see these new sections of trail. I was hungry for more.
As my love for the trail grew, the thought of completing the entire trail also started to cross my mind. I didn’t have much knowledge of an FKT (Fastest Known Time) nor did I care if I’m being honest. But the more I started to see this trail, the more it became a thought in my head. I kept checking off more and more sections.
Funny enough, the more of the trail I see, the hungrier I get to see even more. My legs can only take me so far in a single day, but the thoughts kept recurring to me.. “What if..?”
What if I went for it? How far can my legs truly take me in a day? How about a week? How about three weeks straight?
As crazy as it sounds, my heart kept getting pulled in this direction. Something about the challenge, the grit, the beauty, the struggle. All of the feelings. The highs and lows. All of it. It’s something that kept surfacing every time I stepped foot on that trail.
In the life of my ultra running career, I can’t say Ive ever truly been broken during a race. Sure, I have run 100 milers that went absolutely horribly. Ive run 100k’s that have sucked my soul away. I've wanted to quit many races, but I have never once quit or DNF’d a single race in my yet. I do think that my mental strength is one of my best qualities as an ultra runner, but I am hungry for the challenge of something that I can honestly say scares the ever living hell out of me. Something I am not sure that I can finish.
But what if I fail? What if I get injured?
These are all very reasonable thoughts and possibilities. I think when we set big goals for ourselves the first thing that comes to mind is the doubt, the what if.
But what if I DON’T fail? What if I finish faster than any known person has finished? What if it becomes the most life changing experience of my life? What if it opens doors I didn't even think existed?
That cheesy quote that has been going around forever, " You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" really rings true to all of this. If I never try, I'll never no. Being afraid of failure only holds you bath further.
These are reminders I have to set for myself. It all starts with one goal, one plan, consistency and discipline. This is what I need to do if I am going to finish this thing. And this is what I want to do, truly and whole heartedly. I have committed my entire life up until starting this thing to train, plan, eat, sleep, walk, all things Florida Trail, repeat.
This is it. February 8th, 2025 will be my official start date. We are going for it!
I’m getting ready. I’m grinding away daily to make sure I can show up and give it hell, give it my everything. I’m excited to experience all that this trail has to offer in one single push. It’s going to be the hardest and most difficult thing that I will ever do, but it’s what I want more than anything.
For the first time ever, I am both excited but also very scared. Diving face first into the big unknown. For the first time ever I am running something that I'm not sure I can finish. And that absolutely terrifies me, which is exactly why I want to do it. I want the challenge and I want the fight.
So here I am, being overly ambitious as always but absolutely stoked for the journey ahead. I hope that in doing this, more people can become aware of the Florida Trail. As a native Floridian and lover of the outdoors, hiking and trail running, I had no idea what the Florida trail was for so long. I hope doing this can shed more light onto this epic trail and get more people outside. I hope it can also direct more people to become Florida Trail Association members, and to get more volunteers.
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