Harold Williams Cooney

Monday, December 1st, 2025. Bahia Honda State Park Campground, site 13. Off m37.9 of the Overseas Heritage Trail. 75°, occasional breeze. 24.657882,-81.278230

I woke up about fifty times throughout the night. The temperature did eventually drop. A little wind did pick up, but it was a sticky mess inside my tent all night long. Uncomfortable. Bit up by bugs.

The moon was out most of the night. It rained for a few minutes just as it went down. I convinced myself to get up and pack up sometime after 6 am. With all my gear in order, I walked back over to the shower house to take another shower.

Yesterday, I washed my underwear and shirt in the shower. I put them on wet this morning, but it wasn’t bad at all. I eat a little breakfast and try do a good job with all the chores and stuff. Walking out from the state park a little before 730.

Wet underwear, high humidity, terrible red skin in my groin. Still hopeful there will somehow be no more additional painful chafing today. Lol.

It’s going to be a challenging day today. I really need to move and find distance. I need to try not to stop for too much food. Lol.

Most notable of the day’s obstacles, the Seven Mile Bridge. A trail famous feature. It comes on quickly departing the Bahia Honda State Park.

Walking into traffic gives the larger of the two bike lanes. Research on this situation says the worst part isn’t repeat impending death by oncoming traffic. It’s the inability to go to the bathroom.

Fred The Tree is an actual Florida thing. There’s no way to get to Fred. Even with a boat, you’d need a landing party with a grappling hook and ladder.

For me, the biggest issue over the Seven Mile Bridge was the fear of falling over the barrier and into the water. Seems possible and is absolutely inadvisable. I’m not a fan of the water or falling off bridges. Confirmed.

I make it off the bridge by 10:45am. A handful of vehicles came over the white line at me, but it wasn’t that bad. I even managed to figure out how to urinate, very relieving.

To celebrate not dying on the bridge, I go into the Seven Mile Grill. “We make our own sausage!” Oh well, omelet then, please. Rye toast, home fries. Good times. It was okay.

There is a Starbucks a couple doors north of the diner. I want a latte until they tell me it’s more than $11! Wow. Yeah, no. Regular coffee, please. Out from Starbucks, 12:15pm. I live an amazing life.

Working my way across Marathon Key and it’s hot! 77° is what the weather says. In the sun, on the sidewalk, keeping an eye on cars that might run into me, the temperature feels a lot hotter. At 1pm, I stop in to Publix for bathroom and water. That means I’ve had 2l since Starbucks, one hour ago.

Just before the sun goes down, I stop for a bacon cheeseburger at S.S. Wreck & Galley Grill. It was okay. Maybe. Sigh. I gotta stop stopping at these key restaurants, expensive and mediocre! I am carrying more than enough food for me on my back! I don’t have anywhere near enough money to eat like this, lol. Cheeseburgers are my siren song. Nightmare!

By 630pm, less than a mile after the restaurant, the trail offers me a protected bike lane. It is completely dark as I get ready to pass Duck Key. The moon is out. The temperature is fantastic, the no-see-ums are not horrible, and the wind is below moderate. NIGHT WALKING! LET’S GO!

The trail from Conch Key to Long Key was fantastic; the old roadway converted to bike path. The breeze is up, the moon is bright, and there are people fishing in the dark.

I take an excessively long break at the Long Key parking lot, where there is a semicovered park bench that I try really hard to talk myself into cowboying on. The breeze would have been lovely but very close to the road, and so I decided to move on.

I make for the Layton Trail, a quarter-mile nature trail out to a “viewpoint” on Florida Bay. To me, a viewpoint is an elevated situation. In this case, viewpoint is a break in the dense plant matter where there’s water. Between the road and the water, I find an open enough spot in the jungle leaves to set my tent. Miserable.

At 1030pm, I am on the ground, in my tent, in one of the most humid, stale air spots I’ve ever camped in in my life. Lol, hell. I probably should have cowboy’d at the parking lot. Sleeping will be difficult, and I’ll probably get eaten by a centipede.

It’s been a great day. I probably shouldn’t have gotten the omelet and cheeseburger, but I did. I really need sleep. I’m low on water, but there is a convenience store fairly close to here that opens at six.

Milage:

I started today at m39.7, and am now camped at m69.1. So, that’s a 29.4 for the day. Seems about right to me.