Done!!!

After 2600 miles, give or take a hundred, 7 months, 1 day and 19 hours, I jumped into the Atlantic Ocean off the south shore of Key West yesterday morning (Feb. 18- and yes, I pushed back my flight by two days) and the epic trek passed into the history books! Well, not quite yet in all honesty. That will happen over the next six months or so as I go back and relive the hike while writing a memoir of it. I have no idea whether I could get it published on a commercial basis, but I would like to do it for friends, family, myself, and not least, those of you who have kept up with my journey via this blog. If you are interested in a copy, send me an email at usahiker@gmail.com, and when it's ready, I'll be in touch.
In actuality, the Key West Death March took three days longer than originally planned, but was still probably the most intense part of the hike. Two days in particular stand out. First, there was a 46 mile haul about a week ago to get down to Key Largo from Coral Gables, which included a 20 mile long stretch through the Everglades at night. This included passing by a "crocodile crossing" sign and being urged on by swarms of hungry mosquitoes, which, rather conveniently, only bit me when I stopped for breaks. Then, two days ago, I cranked out the last 38 miles of the Overseas Highway (an accurate and fantastic name for the portion of good old US 1that connects the Keys) in hot sunshine and unseasonable humidity.
But it was all worth it- Key West was a great spot to end the trek, and I had a great, if all too brief time there. I'll continue to update the blog for the next two weeks with more stories from the Keys, my thoughts in retrospect, and as promised, both pictures and video footage of the final stages.

Behind the eight ball...

Uh, I'm in Boca Raton and it's 3:16pm on Monday afternoon. 200 miles on the nose await me before Key West. I would like to arrive Friday afternoon- so let's see, that's four days, uh 50 miles a day. Um, somehow, somehow I'm going to make this work. So I'll start with cutting off this blog posting now to go hike:)

The Key West Death March

Greetings from Vero Beach- with just nine days, but a whopping 300 miles to go. Having made a quick trip back to New Jersey last week, and contracting a bad cough in the process, the margin for error is now nil, since my flight back to Newark is booked for the morning of Feb. 16. So blisters, fatigue, nagging cough, hot weather, and all else be damned, one way or another (probably the copious amounts of espresso and Red Bull way, to be honest) this hike will be in the books come sunset on the fifteenth.
Still, it's not all that bad. The weather has been hot (Melbourne, FL set a record high of 87 yesterday right as I was hiking through) but not humid or wet. It's also been staying light until 6:30 which helps too. And Florida is as flat as a pancake with many convenient libraries, motels, and junk food stores to fuel the fire within.
That's all for now, have to get back to the road. Look for about two more updates before the final report- which will have a link to a Youtube video of my triumphant entry down Duval Street in the heart of Key West.