BY DAN HILDEBRAN
The City of Keystone Heights’s interim city manager recently completed walking the Florida National Scenic Trail with his now 13-year-old daughter.
Jamie Booth said he first started thinking about hiking the trail three years ago as he approached his retirement from the Army, adding that part of the trail passes near his Crystal Lake-area home.
“So, I knew it was there,” he recalled, “and as I was getting close to retirement, I thought it’d be neat to hike the Florida Trail when I retire, I don’t have anything else to do, which I think is funny now.”
His daughter Cali’s ninth birthday was approaching during that same time, and Booth wanted to invest some time with his daughter.
“We went up to Goldhead,” the retired colonel recalled, “and we figured we’d hike the trail out in Goldhead. I think that day we hiked six or seven miles. We pretty much hiked through Goldhead and back. We had a terrific time, and as we were driving away, Cali said, ‘That was fun. I’d like to do that again.”
“And I said, ‘Well, if you really like hiking, I’m thinking about hiking the Florida Trail, and maybe we can do it together.’ That was kind of the beginning of the discussions over the next couple of years about actually doing it.”
Starting out small
Booth retired as the District Commander of the Jacksonville District of the Army Corps of Engineers in July 2024. But instead of settling into a traditional retirement, he interned at the City of Keystone Heights and then contracted with the city for additional work.
The traditional season for hiking the Florida Trail is from January through March, and as December approached, Booth told his daughter that if they wanted to do it, they should start preparing.
Booth originally intended to through-hike the 1,100-mile trail from Big Cypress National Preserve in the Everglades to Gulf Islands National Seashore in the Panhandle.
However, with his growing responsibilities with the city, the pair pivoted to taking on the trail in smaller units.
“And so, since it comes through Keystone Heights, we went out back to Goldhead and we started from Goldhead and hiked into basically the Goldhead and Blanding portions of it,” Booth recalled, “And then we hiked from Blanding on towards Lake Butler the next time and we would just take small chunks and we’d just increase our mileage.”
The father-daughter tandem increased their endurance from five to 12 miles a day. Booth’s wife, Melissa, would drive them to drop-off and pickup spots. Then they graduated to overnight and multi-day trips, working up to 80 miles over four-day stretches.
Cali said those first few hikes awakened an enjoyment of the outdoors for her, with Goldhead’s streams and ponds.
The most dangerous animal
Asked if they ever feared for their safety, Booth said his military training included going through Florida swamps. He added that the wildlife threat is more perceived than real.
“We only saw two poisonous snakes during the five months we were out there,” he said.
Ironically, the retired Army colonel said the most potential danger they encountered wasn’t from black bears or alligators, but from homo sapiens.
“The only time I felt a little uncomfortable was on our very last day of hiking up in Pensacola,” he remembered. “We were hiking along the beach, along the equivalent of A1A up there, and somebody pulled in. We were hiking very early in the morning to escape the heat, and someone pulled up in a car right behind us. We were out in the middle of nowhere, and they drove up behind us, pulled off to the side of the road, kept their lights on for a little while, and then turned them off. That was just odd. Sometimes the hair on the back of your neck goes up, but we just kept on hiking and kept our eyes to the back.”
The pair walked their 12-mile day hikes through March, covering the central portion of the trail between the Suwannee River and South of Orlando.
Hiker Insertion and Extraction Support Team
Melissa then drove them to the southern terminus in Big Cypress, and they worked their way north with week-long overnight treks.
“Usually, Melissa would drop us off on a Tuesday or Wednesday morning, and we would typically hike until Saturday,” Booth said. “And then if we came across and the timing worked out, we’d stay at a hotel just to grab a shower one night.”
Booth said he learned that the promise of a shower was a motivation that could squeeze an additional 10 to 15 miles from his daughter when times got tough.
Melissa, along with the couple’s son Alex, drove hundreds of miles during the project and earned a moniker from her husband and daughter.
“The HEIST,” said Booth. “The Hiker Insertion and Extraction Support Team.”
The pair sometimes listened to music while walking, but said their fondest memories will be talking about life.
She sees what a good man is
Cali said she relished in what she coined “Dad-Lore” stories about her father’s childhood adventures.
She added that the hike made up for the long periods her father was away on deployments.
“He was always gone when he was working and stuff, so I didn’t get to talk to him that much,” she said. “So, I just really got to talk to him more and know his interests as a person, that kind of stuff.”
Booth described the adventure as a life-changing experience.
“I think every dad needs an opportunity to figure out how to connect with their children,” he said. “I just found that with Cali and hiking, and what I guess many would consider a pretty extreme version of a sport. Not too many people are willing to hike a thousand miles. I’m just a nearly 50-year-old guy who’s been in the Army, not a big deal. But to have a 12-year-old doing it. Just amazingly proud of her tenacity to get through that.”
“I’ve learned more about her personality and how to interact with her,” he added. “And so I think our relationship is extremely close now, more so than it would’ve been had we not done this hike.”
Booth said that, after speaking with Florida Trail Association representatives, he believes his daughter is the youngest person to have ever traversed the 1,100-mile trail.
Melissa said she can sense the closeness between her husband and daughter.
“I can see there’s a strong bond between the two of them that will last forever,” she said. “And I think coming as a female, I think it’s every little girl’s dream to be close to her dad and that he be the hero in her life. I love that they have that relationship.”
Melissa added that the experience showed Cali what to look for in a good man.
“A protector,” she said. “A provider, to take care of his daughter while he’s out there.”
She recalled one discussion she had with her husband the night before the pair were to embark on their Everglades segment.
“One of the things he said to me right before he left for the Everglades is, ‘Don’t worry. I’ll take care of her while we’re out there,’” Melissa recalled. “And that to me was important— that she sees what a good man is.”
