Harold Williams Cooney

Friday, December 26th, 2025. Tented 0.4 miles east on top of the canal embankment from where the trail comes in from Kilpatrick Dam Road (0.7 miles from turn off Kilpatrick DamRoad). M482.0 of the Florida Trail. Compacted sandy soil underneath overhanging trees. And bears. Woke naturally at 5:54 am. 55°, clear and calm. 29.529107,-81.782636

Pack on and moving at 7am. I am a little concerned about low miles and late starts. Days have begun getting longer. Hiking season is on. Need to be more forward thinking.

Reaching the Buckman Lock, there was a locked gate on chain link fence. Combination for the lock was in the comments on FarOut. This is an unusual situation. I have gotten other combinations from FarOut. Door codes for a cabin, I can remember that. I struggle to remwmwjat other times where secret numbers are in FarOut. These days, FarOut has the policy of deleting information like wifi passwords from comments because the app has gone woke. Lol. There are fences and locked gates on both sides of the lock.

I need water. I find shade and electric. I set my backpack up under the porch of the permanently closed visitor center and plug my devices into the outlet there. Thankful. Water is elusive. There is a park like landscape. Pavilions and picnic tables each with a faucet, but none of them work. They gurgle air, so perhaps they are off for winter.

I see through the fence that there is a hose roll on the lock tenders office. I go back through the second locked gate, and yes, there is water coming from the hose. Low pressure, but it does eventually work. Out at 940am.

Reaching Highway 20, I did a thing that I probably shouldn’t have. I got a ride and went into town to have cheeseburgers. This type of adventure is expensive in time and money, and I just don’t have either one. I don’t mind myself being indulgent, and I sure do like a cheeseburger, but this type of decision is, I think, an expression of poor mental health, even though i’m afraid to say that.

Back on trail at 2:50 p m. So, I probably took three hours to get in and out of town.

The trail is quite lovely. I’m in a great mood. As the sun goes down and things get dark on a rails, the trail’s bike path for a few miles.

The red line turns north off of the bike pass on what would be dirt roads, but they are sand. I really do need to get excellent miles, but at some point. I pass a ranch gate, and I make a decision that that would be a great place to camp.

Milage:

Start at 482.0, end at 504.2, so that’s 22.2 miles. A sort and indulgent day.