In 2011, I returned to the Big O Hike for the full 9 days, my first time to do so since 2007. The experience was so immersive, so in the moment, that I never took my laptop out of the car, never wrote down anything in the notebook I’d carried to keep a journal.
But I blogged. My trusty iPhone let me connect with the outside world without it intruding on my experience. I posted the occasional photo on my Florida Hikes Facebook page, and even bounced a few comments over to Twitter. Those interactions were brief. I let the blogs take the place of my journal, knowing this year I’d have a lot to think about along the way with the loss of a good friend and so many changes in my life.
This is the collection of my thoughts from the 2011 Big O Hike. I hope you enjoy them.
Big O: Pounding Pavement in Pahokee
Last night at our well-attended prep meeting for today’s hike, I finally got the answer I’d been waiting for: where the heck are we hiking? Not the dike, after all. In 2004, we saw the horrific effects of that summer’s foursome of hurricanes on this tiny western outpost of Palm Beach County. In 2006, the [...]
Big O: Sweep of Blue
A roar like a jet engine split the quiet of the campground at 4:30 am – seems someone’s air mattress deflated in the night. Two hours later, a carload of hikers are tumbling out of my vehicle atop the dike at Port Mayaca to greet the dawn. For many, it was their first real glimpse [...]
Big O: 3x3x3
Day 3 of the Big O Hike has been 3-squared for the past nine years. Three 3 mile segments (roughly) broken up by access points to the dike. Pulling towards Taylor Creek – location of the Battle of Okeechobee, the creek named for Zachary Taylor, hunter of Seminoles and later President of the United States, [...]
Big O: Braising Cane
A rhythm seeps into my stride atop the dike between Nicodemus Slough and Moore Haven. It’s Day 6 of the Big O Hike, and no longer sidetracked by work, I’m walking alone in the spaces between hikers slower and faster than me. But I’m not entirely alone. I’m chatting with Steve, who ran the hike [...]
Big O: Okeechobee
It’s a tradition at our annual Thanksgiving Day dinner to share a little talent with our fellow hikers. I hereby bring you a poem I wrote – and I don’t write them often – commemorating the hike and our friends who’ve gone before us. Okeechobee Mi-yam-i of the Calusa Pay-hay-okee of the Seminole Big Water [...]
Big O: Turtle Time
In the parlance of the Big O Hike, now in its 20th year, we have a name for those who walk in the opposite direction from the rest of us – rabbits. These folks are our speedy guys and the key to our shuttle success, as they walk contrary – and faster – than the [...]
Big O: Everglades, Interrupted
Where the sunrise is best on Lake Okeechobee, the sun”s rays are directly in our faces. Southbound from Clewiston we stride on paved surface, rhythmic footfalls in tandem with hiking partners. It’s a windy, cloudy morning as the curtain rises over vast marshes with a ribbon of blue beyond, the sweep of open water defining [...]
Big O: Out of Time
I was sitting at lunch the other day with Wagonmaster Mike Nomad, discussing a theory I’ve had for years: the timelessness of our annual event. Over the past 9 years, I’ve only been able to be there for the whole event 4 times. Each time, it’s been an immersion into a different world. “Time dilation,” [...]
Big O: Friends Along the Way
It’s hard to believe that the 20th Annual Big O Hike is over, that just 48 hours ago friends dispersed from the campground back to their everyday lives. I’m finding it a little hard to make the adjustment. One aspect of this hike that makes it stand out from all other hiking events is the [...]
