Backtrack

Last night was at Everglades City area which is on the west edge of the park.  We had planned on kyaking in the area, but I couldn't find anything that looked like what I wanted, (swamp as opposed to open water).

So we decided to back track to a trail known as Gator Hook located down a dirt road off the Tamiami Trail (the road crossing the glades.).  

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Now this is a pretty remote area and although technically it is in the Everglades National Park, there are some private land parcels.  But not to worry, they are well identified.



At the trail head there was a ranger, so we asked him about the trail.  We allowed that while we were experienced hikers, we were from Illinois had not done much swamp hiking.  A very friendly fellow, he  offered that he was from Wisconsin and down for the season as a park volunteer.

He said it was a wonderful trail and the calf to knee high water was clear most of the time so it was pretty easy to see what was underfoot..  He did however suggest we take one of the tree branch poles leaning up against the sign just to stir things up as you walked.  He also offered that there are hardly any gators as there's nothing to eat out there.

Finally, he said "You can wash the mud off you feet over there in the canal when you get back.  But be sure to swish the stick around first."

We smiled and thanked him for the advice.  Back at the Funmobile I decided that good sense says NEVER TAKE ADVICE FROM PEOPLE WHO WEAR CHEESE ON THEIR HEADS!!

So instead of the Gator Hook trail, we drove the 20 mile scenic dirt road, which is where all the alligators were that were allegedly NOT on "gator" hook trail.

Cooperative Roadblock Between Alligator and Buzzard

From here we proceeded to Bonita Springs where we will spend the next three days with Judie and Fred who graciously invited us to visit as long as we did not hang holiday lights or place pink flamingos around the Funmobile.

Good night from Bonita Springs

Brad & Val