Delivering mail on foot from Palm Beach, FL, to Miami isn’t easy — especially if you aren’t wearing shoes.
But in the late 1800s, a group of carriers known as “barefoot mailmen” did just that.
More than 600 Boy Scouts traveled that route recently during an annual hike to honor the carriers who braved the elements to deliver the mail.
The scouts traveled for two days, camping out and carrying their own food, supplies and mail bags just like those carriers did more than 100 years ago.
The mail from this year’s hike was delivered to Miami Customer Relations Coordinator Mirtha Uriarte, who stamped the letters with a special postmark to commemorate the hike.
Also participating in the hike were longtime friends Nancy Hill Carter and Suzanne McDavid Pendleton, who helped chaperone the 1976 event.
Forty years later, Pendleton asked Carter if she wanted to complete the hike again. To Pendleton’s surprise, Carter agreed.
“I figured I would call her bluff,” said Carter.
