Day 4 Reconnaissance of our upcoming Florida CT (Circumnavigational Trail) paddling trip. With only one day more of reconnaissance left to go before we arrive at my Dad and Sara’s condo on the Alabama coast (aka Our Staging Ground), today started with a shopping spree at Tallahassee’s Costco and neighboring Super Walmart for some hard-to-find grocery items (Via coffees, Coffee mate 2Go, packaged chicken, flavored tuna packages, instant green teas and Arny Palmer’s) which we’ll include in the boxes my Dad and Sara will be shipping to 5 post offices c/o General Delivery for us along the route.
Then, Bald Point State Park to check out the crossing and toilet/garbage/water locations, Carrabelle to locate and walk through their nice-sized grocery store, and now St. Joseph Peninsula State Park to check out a portage (over land crossing) and to camp.
It’s been good. Being that we are so unfamiliar with the Florida coastline and vegetation and animals and weather, spending this time being IN it, camping and exploring and learning our way around it, and figuring out match the trail guide with reality, has been good. Of course, starting where we did in north central Florida and heading north means we’ll have checked out less than half of our route to Key West. But by the time we get to the southern reaches I’m hoping we’ll be more comfortable than we are now at the start. One more day of reconnaissance to go! Then several days at my Dad’s, packing shipping boxes, marking charts, downloading gps waypoints, setting up my blog, finalizing taxes and taking care of all the other business-type stuff that needs taking care of when one will be living on the water out of their sea kayaks for several months straight. I very much look forward to sharing this trip with you guys! Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!