In late February, Ian and I ran ~100km from Lake Okeechobee to the Atlantic Ocean at Hobe Sound as part of The Fifty. The Ocean-to-Lake Trail Hiking rail (Lake-to-Ocean in this case) is one of the coolest, wettest trails I’ve ever been on.
It’s also exceptionally flat. Over 100k, we went up and down an elevation profile of 300 feet, maybe less. But this flatness belies one of the most interesting forestscapes in the United States.
Florida is underlain by limestone built up over tens of millions of years, in a shallow sea. As it rose above sea level, precipitation falling on the limestone surface started to create subtle topography. Because it is so flat, water does not drain quickly, but water always finds a way... The resulting landscape drainages and high plateaus are no more than ten feet different in elevation, but that elevation is enough to create fundamentally different forest systems including high pine forests, hardwood and palmetto forests at moderate elevation, and cypress swamps in the lows.
Most photos by Ian.
We stayed at a bee-themed AirBnB in between the start and finish. Really early in the morning of the run, we dropped a car at Hobe Sound, and took an Uber to the start. I imagined Lake Okeechobee was very big. It was certainly very muddy.
The run was rich with wildlife we saw was amazing. Lizards, turkeys, and lots and lots of other birds of all types, shapes, and sizes. Only one alligator from far off.
The first half of the run was underwater. The cypress swamps at the start were… swampy. Lots of bromeliads on the trees and we even saw a few budding.
Bromeliads over a pool.
This song captures pretty much describes it:
The first part was largely a combination of high pine forests and cypress swamps.
Possibly the wettest photo I’ve ever taken.
After the first 50k, you get into some dirt roads along canals that link up into hardwood-palmetto forests. This part was nice running after all the splish-splashing.
Ian grooving through cool trees.
The latter half has a lot more wood work over the swampy bits. This was a welcome change from the morning.
Managed pine forests on the eastern portion of the run. These are regularly burned to keep the understory down, and turkey and deer hunting seems popular in these zones.
Km’s 92-95(ish) are through white sugar sand. They’re dunes grown over by beach veg. A welcome sign that we’re nearing the end.
The last bit goes by the road through Hobe Sound. Many loud trains. We were not close to 35 MPH at this point.
We reached the Atlantic a bit after sunset.