So here I am. Sunday a week from leaving for New Zealand. Feeling a little nervous for sure, but hey, who doesn't. Haven't really started to pack, I'm saving that for tomorrow :)
Day 5
That night was one of the warmer nights, I actually wasn't freezing! Looking back on the trip, I really loved the nights. Apart from the cold of course, but that isn't really something you actually remember; its only something you look back on and think is funny. The nights were nice because of how quite it was. No cars, motors, plans, urban life doesn't exist. What you hear is the waves, birds, insects. And the stars, I don't know if I mentioned the starts, but there are so many. They're so bright. I just love it.
The morning was wonderful. I was the first one awake. My alarm clock were hunting osprey, how awesome is that. Walked around and saw the sun rise while picking up driftwood. The decent fire made it a lot easier for everyone to wake up to I think. We packed up pretty quickly and got out early. I hate to admit it, but I got us on the wrong track :/ But it was fixed and we all got some extra paddling in which is fine by me any day.
We went through a quite calm channel really quickly and found our next island really easily. Around the island we saw a huge school of fish (I was def excited to try out my hard practiced cast net skills). Our new island was Fakahatchee Island, it was recommended to us by someone at Ivey House. The really cool thing about Fakahatchee is that it used to a settlement (I'm not sure exactly when because there is hardly any info online) but I think it was sometime in the 40's through the 60's. So there are some really interesting ruins on the island such as some old foundations, cisterns, appliances and the most creepy of all were the grave stones :x
This island was a lot different from all of the other islands, there was only a small area in which we could pull up the boats. After we set up camp, Dr. Holt lead us on an 'expedition'. It was great, we saw so much! The island was very unique in the fact that you could really see the progression and the ecotones. It was great, there was so much diversity. Dr. Holt was pointing out many different air plants, moss, lichens, orchids, cacti, trees just plants in general. The island was huge, and the trails after a while weren't marked well. I was in flip flops and was slightly sad for sure.
When we got there, Chris picked up a red fruit from a cactus and asked Dr. Holt what it was, and Dr. Holt was like "A prickly pear fruit! Wonderful!" From that moment on, we scoured the island for these delicious red fruit. The were so delicious. When we were walking around the island, we saw wild papaya. We decided that these were left over from the settlement. Unfortunately, we didn't find any ripe fruits, and let me tell you that unripe papaya is not tasty at all, it dries your mouth out horribly. It was a lot of fun climbing tress, old walls, under brush and exploring.
I think this is a good time to mention the fact that these islands are made up mostly of oyster shells. We were lucky to see the the various stages of the growth of these islands. They start off as oyster bars, and as they die, new oysters colonize and grow on top of the dead making the oyster bar grwo larger and larger. Then finally the top starts to poke out from under the water and finally a tiny mangrove takes root. After this happens, the roots trap
sediments and the island grows into what we know and love!
On the way back we got a little bit lost, but self proclaimed 'path finder', Andy, got us back in the general direction and Siobhan and I took it from there :) On the way back, she and I were commenting on how the large 'fields' of this plant 'Mother in Law's Tongue' looked so nice and how we wished we could get ours to look as good, I didn't notice her duck under a pretty significant limb. So having my mind on something totally different, a baseball cap impeding my vision, and my afor mentioned 'lack of grace'... yea, you guessed it. WHAM. Siobhan though that a tree fell or something. Nope, my head meeting a branch. I saw stars. That lump was there for a few days. Ouch.
Back at camp we all just sat and talked. Dr. Holt though after looking at the there was rain in our forecast for sure :( But little did we know how sad those days would be. John Knepp, Chris and I wanted to go out and try to find that huge school of fish and catch a few for dinner. So we loaded up a canoe and headed out. While out there we didn't really see anything, but we had fun exploring the little coves and oyster bars. We came back, grabbed a bag, Emily jumped in and we went to go get some oysters :) We spent some time grabbing oysters. These oysters were a lot bigger than the ones we had the night prior at Round Key. I found some baby sea cucumbers :D
So this is a nice little side note, for some reason that evening, I walked down to the waters edge to check on oysters which we had put in a bag and tied to a tree in the water. Wasn't really thinking and just walked right into the water with my sneakers on :( Bad news bears.
The rain was suppose to start around 8, but that time came and went and there was nothing. Thankfully we set up a sweet tarp overhang thingy for over our cooking area :D That was a very good idea. We all tied down our rain flies and hit the hay. Around 1 am, I heard light rain and freaked out in a sleepy daze, grabbing everything that was touching the edge of the tent. We didn't know how waterproof these old tents were, but no matter how waterproof they are if something touches the sides the water gets in and soaks everything. And thus began the time of a thousand rains.
But seriously, it rained a lot.
Day 6
So, it rained. Woke up and it was raining. Of course I put my sneakers right where a stream formed and they were not dry, in fact they were quite wet. So the day was spent in flip flops. It was quite cold. We couldn't get a fire started, and everything was wet. Most of us spent the day in the tents reading, playing cards, sleeping, and not much else.
It was pretty great though, at one point Lauren was down at the water's edge and saw one of those darn elusive tricky Gafftopsail Catfish. She called to Dr. Holt who ran down and soccer kicked it out of the water! It was epic. We couldn't really cut it's head off the usual way with the knife, so Chris kinda... well... tore if off :/ it was gross.
I made a soup out of the catfish because we couldn't get a fire going to cook it that way. So I got a pot of bay water and boiled it with carrots, potatoes, onion, the fish and some lemon pepper seasoning. No one really thought it through, and we didn't' really think about how the salt would become super concentrated. So it was extremely salty. But tasty especially with how cold it was.
The island acted like a giant sponge, and the water that was coming off the island that day and even the next was amazing. It was so warm, it felt like bath water almost. And when it hit the bay it would steam.
That nights dinner was exceptionally good. We made Bear Creek Creamy Potato soup with little canned shrimp and extra potatoes added. It was amazing. When we were cleaning our dishes, we noticed that there were many little polychaete worms, and then some little minnows appeared and finally these amazing needle fish. the water was so cold that you could just scoop the fish up with your bear hands. So cool. But some of the larger ones would get pissy (of course) and whip there long bodies around and bite your arm. They had long sharp teeth, you didn't feel them, but they drew blood. Had some nice little cuts from them. Overall, we decided that we would just let the pots soak overnight.
Day 7
This was day was very nice. We woke up and it had stopped raining and it was begining to finally dry off. It was a pretty lazy day, and we just kinda wandered around the island. It had a great start when Emily spotted a significant school of fish. So I hustled and grabbed the cast net. It was glorious. A nice catch considering that there was a very small place to cast out without catching a branch. The catch was mostly what were learned were mostly mullet, some needle fish and there were these great big fish with an underbite and a significant black lateral line. We didn't eat them because I couldn't figure how to kill them, and we weren't %100 sure they were safe. So we threw them back. Turns out they were Snook (google image search them, they can get to be HUGE). So these fish were gutted and eaten for lunch. Good idea, delicious outcome, full bellies for all.
I should add that it was still cold, and that we woke up to frozen pots ;) But we were able to finally get the fire started! So we all started to dry out our soggy sneakers. After lunch I was feeling pretty restless, and I decided to go for a canoe ride. Phoebe, Andy and John Dryburgh joined. We just went for a paddle to a near by cove. It was troublesome because there were so many dead fish. They just littered the bottom. Because of some suspicious algae, it was decided that we weren't going to eat the oysters.
Day 8
This was our last day out. We woke up and didn't rush to much. I think we got out around 9:30. At first we were a little turned around trying to find a 'shortcut' that didn't make us paddle through Fakahatchee Bay because of the wind. But in the end thats where we went. It was awesome because they didn't believe the way I suggested, but it worked like a charm! It was awesome, I think that I'm getting better at navigating ;)
The paddle overall was really great. It was easy and calm . Once again we saw a lot of dead fish. But this time they weren't tiny fish but rather huge ones. Snook, mullet, catfish and even tarpon. It was incredible the number of dead fish. Andy and Emily even saw a dead Skate. It was highly unfortunate. The fish kill we decided was from the cold snap and that they couldn't handle the prolong cold. A good side to this was the number of sea birds that were brought out by the prospect of a quick easy meal.
It was really funny what some of the people were thinking of to get them home quickly. Some people wanted a shower, others a cheeseburger or a coke. For me, it was a can of Spaghetti-o's.
Once we got back to the Ivey House, we cycled through a shower and a load of laundry washed, we went for a walk around Everglades City. It was a lot of fun. There wasn't a lot of things to do, but it was fun to walk and see the sites. We found a great little place Camilia Street Grill. It was so good! I had fresh salsa with Indian Fry bread, Grouper Sandwich, and Key Lime Pie. Soo good!
That night, we all (including Pat) played cards and just re-lived the trip. It was so nice to relax with everyone in warmth!
Day 9
So the next day, we found that our flight was delayed. So some people went to the Ranger Station, but the group with me went to the Everglades City Muesuem. It was a really nice muesume that was very informative and fun. They talked about hermits, the road from Miami to the west cost of Florida, the old way of the glades, the native people, how the national park came to be. It was all very interesting. After that we walked around to some shops and ended up in a second hand shop. The ladies there were so funny and the kept talking to us! Telling us stories about what they do, and people they've met. Pat even got a new TV.
Once we got back, we met up with Fred and loaded up the car. We headed off to a nice little area the Ivey House calls 'manatee' pond. It was a little stream/drainage area where the manatees gathered together to stay warm. There were so many! You could really only see their noses when they came up for air. But there were a couple rolls and a few tail flips :) Oh, and babymanatees are adorable, like little baked potatoes floating around. Love it.
That was also the only place where we saw alligators. They were pretty big to be honest. I still wish I could have seen them in the wild when we were paddling or camping just to see how I would actually react. Because looking back I feel like it wouldn't have really been a big deal, they don't move awfully fast unless they're hungry or agitated. I I think that in a canoe, I don't really fill the food category. None the less, I'm still glad that I got to see some . Would have been a shame after the huge deal everyone made back at home about being careful about not being attacked not to have even seen one.
After that, we piled back in the van and stopped at Cyprus National Park. They had a nice little boardwalk that you could do that showed you briefly the nature of the area. One of the neatest things was this really large and supposedly old Bald Eagle nest on top of an old Cyprus tree. The Eagle wasn't in the nest at the time, but later on we did see it fly above us. Very cool. No matter how many times you see one, you still get a thrill from seeing that huge, distinct, well known bird right near you.
After that, it's pretty basic. Got the the airport, security thought I was under 18 twice, Chris almost got sent back because his boarding pass didn't match up, Knepp and Siobhan were searched, thought I lost Dr. Holt and Lauren. But nothing bad happened.
So over all it was an amazing trip that went really well. I saw so many things and learned so very much. I wish that I had my camera and that I took more pictures in general. But hey, hopefully I can go back next winter to do Turner River in a kayak. Next thing is to get ready to go abroad. Fingers crossed!
