Dancing with the gators

[MojaveGeek]

This TR has nothing at all to do with "western place" but is further west than Africa    As part of a family trip I spent a few days hiking around SW Florida, basically just north of the Everglades around Big Cypress.   There are trails in places, generally along old levees that were built for vehicle travel back in the day.  Uh, that's not a log in the trail just ahead.



There are a lot of super birds if you're a birder like I am, tons of herons, ibis, storks, etc.



And of course there's lots of gators, some lazing in the sun right along the trails



It is slightly scary being all alone and walking closer to a gator then the gator's length.  They watched, but didn't make any moves.  I don't think a pair of hiking poles would deter one if it was in a feisty mood.

So the trails I chose were usually above water but they are often just little dry strips surrounded by water.  You don't see scenery like this in Death Valley!



The area is FLAT.  I mean, just plain flat.   As in, hike 10 miles and gain 100 feet, which is probably just GPS noise and stepping over logs.  I had one pretty challenging day.  I went in on a high quality dry two-track, which ran next to a slough with great birds and a fair number of gators.  It was actually a segment of the Florida Trail.  I had been there 5 years earlier, but had not brought a GPS - you don't need one to navigate as you're not going anywhere other than the path!   I recalled doing a loop off the main trail, and although a few muddy spots, mostly dry.   I knew I had been out for 6 hours that day.   The map showed the loop I wanted to do at 15 miles but my recollection was that was what I had done, and that's not an unreasonable time if the trail is good.

If....   So I was coming back on the backside of the loop and all was well.  There were places where the grass was calf high and I had to watch out for snakes a bit - I had encountered a cottonmouth out there last time.  They are scary.  Pit vipers, like rattlesnakes, but no rattles.   Instead they open their mouth wide, and it is brilliant white inside - scared the crap out of me.

Anyway it's getting late but I think I'm on target to get out at sunset, half an hour before dark.  Then I came to a place where there was a 15 yard wide stream across the road/trail.  OK, changed into wading shoes, got across.  But the change took 15 minutes and most of my daylight margin.  Still optimistic.  I came to a junction where a single track headed off, about .3 miles shorter and I'd been on it before.   I headed that way but then.... there's a section of a couple hundred yards that is literally under water.  There was a post half way across with a trail marker.   Well I did not like that so I back tracked and headed the longer way back. At this point, I had very little margin for light - though I had headlamp.

Well after the backtrack things were good for 1/4 mile and then... mud, deep and soft. And water, deep and dark.  Now these are not just little puddles you can scootch around.   Either they are much bigger wet areas, or places where you really cannot bushwhack because of the jungle vegetation.  I was getting stressed.  I really did not want to be wading in dark water with the gators while I was trying to decipher the route by headlamp.  So I had to just go straight through the puddles, lakes, and streams, boots and pants and all, up to calf deep.  I did scream a few obscenities into the jungle.  

I pushed and got back to the good two track with fading light, managed to go 10 minutes without headlamp but there were a bunch of creepy sounds from the water I was walking along so I turned it on for part of this last 2 mile stretch.  At least I was dry and the way was clear.   The insects started swarming my light, but the moon came out so I could shut it off.

In the end I was out about 9 hours and covered 16+ miles, getting some nasty blisters in the process from hiking in wet boots and socks, but at least the gators didn't get me.

I had found some nice Florida birds.  The Limpkin is found there and in some of the islands of south Georgia.  The Crested Caracara is also found in south Texas - and down into central america. But I'd been looking for Florida Scrub Jays, which are not found anywhere else, for about 4 days.   Finally, limping around some good habitat the next day, I was excited to find a pair.   Or rather, they found me.

[netllama]

Wow, hiking in Florida. That seems sweaty. Nice birds though.

[Brice]

 I did scream a few obscenities into the jungle.

Ah yes, the obsenity laden hike.  In my experience they often happen with dwindling light and unknown terrain ahead.

[trailhound]

Welcome to Florida hiking - dead flat and half under water. Trail maintenance here is really challenging. The vegetation growth is so rapid that a lot of trails would be gone in two years or less without cutting. Trail crews use brush cutting mowers. Think lawn mowers on steroids.  Beware the smiling alligators. You are on the menu.

[MojaveGeek]

I picked up the Florida Trail where it crosses I-75, Alligator Alley. FT is the pride of Florida hiking. Yet if I'd gone south, within a mile I would have been up to calf deep water for some miles - there's a few "island" hummocks along the way where people can camp. I chose the northward version, which was really nice. The old road side trails, not so much so. I routinely carry wading shoes. In addition to normal vegetation growth, there was evidence of a lot of trail work having been done after the last hurricane, though obviously more damage closer to the coast. Heat? Well I was out on a day with a "wind chill warning" and found it quite comfortable Temps returned to normal later in our stay and yes, the combination of heat + humidity is a challenge. One thing I found was a scarcity of dry places to sit down. There's not a lot of rocks, and the downed trees were often in the water.

[netllama]

I picked up the Florida Trail where it crosses I-75, Alligator Alley. FT is the pride of Florida hiking. Yet if I'd gone south, within a mile I would have been up to calf deep water for some miles - there's a few "island" hummocks along the way where people can camp. I chose the northward version, which was really nice. The old road side trails, not so much so. I routinely carry wading shoes. In addition to normal vegetation growth, there was evidence of a lot of trail work having been done after the last hurricane, though obviously more damage closer to the coast. Heat? Well I was out on a day with a "wind chill warning" and found it quite comfortable Temps returned to normal later in our stay and yes, the combination of heat + humidity is a challenge. One thing I found was a scarcity of dry places to sit down. There's not a lot of rocks, and the downed trees were often in the water.

At least you didn't have to worry about leaches and venomous snakes...

[MojaveGeek]

At least you didn't have to worry about leaches and venomous snakes...

I hate leeches!!

There are poisonous snakes in Florida. Cottonmouth, aka Water Moccasin, is a pit viper (without a rattle) which enjoys being in the water and scares me when wading in dark muck. There are also three species of rattlesnakes/

There is a vast difference between developed Florida, which is miles and miles of strip malls and gated communities, and the wild areas that remain.

[TacoLand]

Trip reports like this remind me how grateful / spoiled I am to have been raised in the desert. Humidity, gators, bugs, Florida Man .... glad you made it through all those water crossings in one piece!

That Florida Scrub Jay is hilarious too. We've got a few different Jays here in the Sierra and the Florida one looks like that weird cousin you only see at big family reunions every ten years.

What's next on the agenda for trips in 2024?

[MojaveGeek]

Actually until something like 20 (?) years ago, there was officially only one species of scrub jay in the US Then they split out the Florida one. It does look a bit weird, right? Now the western scrub jay has been divided into the California (I think) scub jay and the Woodhouse scrub jay. Those poor jays must be pretty confused!

I'll be out in DV in the second half of March, and then spend some solo time in SW Utah.

Looks like a good week to not be in DV. A lot of rain forecast. You got some pretty wet too ... those vids of water over the hood on the Harry Wade road!!