D2 – Coffee con leche and trail-side diarrhea

Sunday, November 30th, 2025. Tented south of Overseas Heritage Trail m11.3. Across the street from the Monroe County Fire Rescue Station 9. Google Maps had it as Porpoise Boulevard. Old asphalt covered in organic debris. 24.597448,-81.654341

Wind and a little rain overnight but minimal. Woke naturally to the sound of wild roosters doing their thing at about 6 am. Toss and turn all night, but I do think I got some sleep. Very humid and sticky.

Slept here. A car passed me in the night coming into this area, which was highly suspect. The car did not exit. Eventually, I went back to sleep. In the morning, I see they are car camped 100 yards away.

Post coffee photo of path into last night’s campsite. I wonder if I would have checked it out if I didn’t see it on FarOut.

At Around The Bend Hostel, I was talking with another hiker about morning routines. I had said that making coffee, packing up, and two poops and all that, it took me an hour and a half. I told the hiker this frustrated me and that I called it a 90-minute morning

Today, I am sitting in a Cuban like coffee shop at 635am. Walked south about half a mile to Big Coppitt Coffee. They have steamed milk and coffee in a styrofoam cup. Just like Puerto Rico.

When the bike lane ends, it’s time to walk with traffic. Perfectly normal.

Reading the map, it seems like the thing to do is make a tenting reservation at Bahia Honda State Park. After fees and everything, $49. I feel it is expensive and am a little frustrated with myself. Wouldn’t it be better if I just stealth on the side of A1A? Lol, probably not. It’s gonna be a great day. I wish I could speak Spanish. I wish I could drink another coffee, but it’s definitely time to go. Out the door of the coffee place, 720 am.

I stopped at Baby’s Coffee. Cuban sandwich, key lime pastry, another coffee con lache, and some electricity. Oh, man, do I love food and coffee. Delightful. Out at 930am.

So far, much of the bike lanes – what looks to be the original highway – have been open and in pretty new condition.

Somewhere on Summerland Key, I have explosive diarrhea. The first LNT violation of this trip. Perhaps Jamaican revenge, who knows.

Some of the path is away from the road and under the shade of trees. Some as in less than 5%, but still, very nice.

It’s hot, and I stop several times to rest. I have the feels in various body parts, notable my left knew, this is unusual.

Much of the on-road walking is causeway, and mostly, there is plenty of room to walk. I give it sketchy road walk 1 of 5.

My food bag is heavy. Not helped by all the restaurants along this roadwalk. At 330pm, I stopped at Pop’s Smoke Shed – Big Pine Key, hoping for BBQ but getting a Cuban. The waitress is over the top, either she thinks I’m a retard or she’s an alcoholic. Food was not great. I told her it was. Gross.

Section of trail that is far from the road on its own bridge. Often, there are people fishing. I even saw a woman land a fish today. It was pretty small, but still, pretty cool.

In the afternoon, I start having hiker related body problems. Lol. I did a reasonable amount of work before coming out here, a thousand miles in Ohio, but still, I’ve got the problems.

For one, and not really that funny, I have obvious hotspots and blisters growing on both feet. Good times.

The old bridge – and long unused – onto Bahia Honda. This bridge and many others are actually falling apart, large pieces of concrete and iron falling into the water.

For two, and definitely funny, I used an electric hair trimmer to cut the hair on my head and face down to the shortest level possible before checking into Around the Bend Hostel. That’s how I feel the most comfortable, with very short hair on my head and face.

Walking the last section of causeway into Bahia Honda State Park as the sun goes down. The shoreline there is the park. It’s a pretty nice place.

The funny part is that I’m an idiot and for some reason, I decided to keep using the trimmer with its shortest possible setting on my pubic hair. If you don’t know, pubic hair helps lower skin on skin resistance of activities like walking. Less hair means more resistance, and now I have a terrible rash in my groin, and it’s very painful. Lol, hell.

After the front entrance gate, before the campground gate, in Bahia Honda State Park. Let it be known that I do yield for turtles because they’re dinosaurs.

I get into the state park just as the sun is going down. The first thing I find is the bathhouse, and I’m thrilled. I washed my underwear and shirt in the shower and did my best to clean the areas that have been experiencing high resistance friction all day.

The moon is out, and I set my tent up by moonlight. It’s quite beautiful, although there are a lot of mosquitoes out and I get ate up. Lol.

It’s hot, relatively, and I’m a sweaty mess in my tent. I roll up both rain shell doors to my tent to try and get some circulation in this thing as I write this update.

Another fantastic day, I’m thrilled.

Milage:

I woke up at m11.3, and the state park is m37.9, so that gives me a 26.6 for the day. Good times. Probably there’s some worthy extra distance there going back for coffee this morning and trying to get into the state park this evening, but I’ll just call it 26.6 miles.

So thankful. A great day

Harold Williams Cooney