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| The Big O: Going the Distance |
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 What do Ontario residents Leona Belcher and Don Galbraith, California resident Connie Harris, and Maryland resident Rosalind Suit have in common? Every year for the past six years, they’ve made the long drive to Florida in November to take a hike—a long hike—around the second largest lake entirely in the United States, Lake Okeechobee. Sure, it seems like a crazy idea, but folks have been doing this for years. In 1990, Palm Beach residents Irma and Hank McCall walked the entire circumference of the Herbert Hoover Dike, and then they showed off their slides to a bunch of hiking enthusiasts in the Loxahatchee Chapter of the Florida Trail Association, who jumped on the idea. Why not organize a group hike? In 1991, the Big O Hike was born. Led by Gordon Johnson, this annual event spans the week surrounding Thanksgiving to minimize the amount of time participants need to take off of their jobs. I joined the hike in 2002 for the first time, catching up with these folks who keep coming back every year for yet another walk around the lake, and found myself absorbed into the magic. It’s truly a physical challenge: 109 miles in 9 days, walking a full circle on the Florida Trail around Lake Okeechobee, on a rugged limestone dike with no shade. The reality? It’s a blast. With logistics worked out in advance by a dedicated crew of volunteers, all I had to do was hike. Each evening, we’d camp at a full-service campground and have a group dinner at a local restaurant. I didn’t have to carry a backpack, just a daypack with water bottles. I didn’t even fire up my camp stove. All I had to do was put one foot in front of the other and make it to the shuttle at the end of each day’s hike. Completed in 1937, the Herbert Hoover Dike hemmed in Lake Okeechobee with a tall levee and flood control locks, cutting the lake off from its natural flow into the Everglades “River of Grass.” It’s the price paid for hurricane protection after one of the nation’s worst natural disasters, when the lake overflowed into Pahokee, Belle Glade, and South Bay in 1928 during a hurricane, drowning more than 2,000 people. While the dike prevents drivers from seeing the lake from their cars, it also prevents the lakeside development rampant throughout the rest of Florida, since the lakeshore is public land, managed by the Army Corps of Engineers. As a result, the best way to enjoy Lake Okeechobee’s natural wonders is on foot. Each day revealed new wonders. Between South Bay and Pahokee, the trail parallels Torrey Island, a nesting spot for bald eagles and osprey, and the vast sugarcane fields of Belle Glade, where the little-known Chosen Mounds lie hidden. This multi-layered burial complex, unearthed by Smithsonian researchers in the 1930s, contained the bones of ancient Calusa along with porpoise teeth used for engraving, conchs used as hoes, and thousands of pottery shards. Approaching Pahokee, I watched skydivers rain onto the airport, and the first day’s hike ended amid the frivolity of the Grassy Waters Festival, a cross between a county fair and a church picnic held on the waterfront. During the next week, our happy hiking crowd thinned out as we continued to walk. We started with nearly 200 people on the first day, when folks show up to participate in the “Wimp Walk,” 3 miles long, and we ended with 22 hard-core hikers completing the whole 109 miles around the lake. I saw massive alligators lazing along canals, watched a trio of white pelicans soar overhead at dawn, and experienced the wonder of colorful sunrises every morning. Indian Prairie stretched to the horizon like a Highwayman painting; the marshes at Moore Haven gleamed golden in the morning light. Each day, the terrain remained the same, but each day, the view was very, very different. Hiking with a large group was also a very different experience for me, a social experience that bonds people together. I quickly realized why so many people come back to the Big O year after year—especially Leona, Don, Connie, and Rosie, who drove so far to join us. It’s like a family reunion, a social event, or as one of my friends quipped, “like the annual Christmas letter but live, and in person.” By the end of the week, I’d made a dozen new friends, people who hiked my pace and shared my interests. We shared a magical Thanksgiving dinner at the Clewiston Inn, and made runs to Wal-Mart for supplies. It was like being on vacation with your closest friends, and it was over far too soon. Interesting in participating? The hike runs during Thanksgiving week. There is no fee for joining the group, but a small contribution for the “Big O Journey Packet” gets you a guidebook and t-shirt, plus logistical information on the towns around the lake. Most of the hikers camp together at various campgrounds, moving “base camp” every few days or so to another town around the lake. Some folks opt to stay in nearby motels and join the group each morning. To obtain your packet and learn more about specific logistics for this year's hike, visit lox.floridatrail.org This article first appeared in North Florida Adventure Magazine, October 2003 Reprint rights available Images available |
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