In 2002, I arrived at Lake Okeechobee for the Big O Hike in November, not knowing exactly what to expect. My good friend Sunny Piskura had bugged me for years to join her on the annual walk around the lake, and I thought she was crazy.

Then I got two book contracts in which I needed to walk around the lake to write about it - Along the Florida Trail and the Florida Trail Official Guide.

So I made plans. But unbeknownst to all of us, Sunny’s cancer returned and two months before the big hike, she died. It was a shock for many of us, especially to be present on the opening day and to watch her granddaughters spread her ashes on the dike at South Bay.

That year, that hike, I made fast friends, folks I’ve hiked and traveled with all over the country, folks who I count as some of my closest people in my life. I came to love the Big O Hike, all 9 days around our massive lake Okeechobee, its subtleties and its splendor. I returned again and did the whole thing twice, then life took me in other directions and I only made it back for work reasons, or to do the kickoff and head home again.

In 2007, I vowed I’d be there for the whole nine days, and I did it unplugged. I’d thought of blogging from the trail, then thought better of it. It was the most relaxing week of hiking I’ve ever had, and it flooded back reminders of why, despite the assumptions people make that “walking on a dike is boring, the view never changes” this hike is anything BUT boring. So read these journal entries and plan to join the hike yourself next year! You’ll find all the logistical details you need at lox.floridatrail.org