Johnny Floegel

50 State Highpoint Adventure Part 3:
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On this leg we scaled 11 highpoints in 13 days, driving ~5000 miles round trip and hiking ~120. We started the expedition with a trip down Florida’s last “Wild and Scenic” river, the Mayaka. En route to the Blue Hole (a mysterious 120 foot deep depression in the middle of the park) we were chased down by a 10 foot gator, hooked a golden river-run tarpon and a small snook. We headed north to Ocala where we stopped by a natural spring and took a dive to check out the cold water abyss of the forest (not pictured). From there we took a brief walk up Britton Hill, Florida’s highpoint and the lowest in the nation. We stopped for the night in Chehea State Park, where we were blown away by the humbling surroundings of Northern Alabama. Chehea Mountain was surprisingly challenging with a steep vertical incline and gave us a taste of the physical tests to come. The mountain also had a humorous personality and reminded us that they are indeed living entities, not simple random geological structures. From Chehea we continued north to Brasstown Bald in Georgia, where the steep roadways gave Cliff Floyd (my suburu) a harder time than our legs. We camped the night in the Blue Ridge Mountains in South Carolina deep in the wilderness, and would have been completely lost on a relatively abandoned dirt road had it not been for some friendly local nighttime dirt bikers. After hiking the completely wrong mountain, we finally conquered SC and continued to the Smoky Mountain range, where we spent an extra night at the base of Mount Mitchell. We met multiple angels on this part of the journey, sharing food and fishing baits with us as if we were family, yet no names were exchanged (an interesting phenomena that has remained consistent when meeting people of God on the trail). Mount Mitchell was absolutely stunning, and this 16.5 in and out loop set a new standard for the remainder of the trip. Shoutout once again to Madamn Zeroni for keeping us safe on what could have easily turned into a perilous journey. Part 4 from Tennessee to Pennsylvania coming soon.