Our first day in the Everglades! And what a day it was. We started our journey with a long, bush-whacking hike through the Cypress Swamp and Saw-Grass Praries. Had an early start and delicious breakfast at our "homebase", JT's, before driving out to a trail head. Our first few miles were spent on an old tram road, where we saw panther tracks, our first gator, and even tried some local sour oranges... they were really sour.
We then took a sharp left, and headed straight into the knee deep water and muck. We started out climbing through the tight, viney forrest, learning about the local trees and plants.
We had a close encounter with a cottonmouth before we finally made our way out of the seemingly endless forrest and into the open, semi-dry prarie for a quick lunch break.
After lunch, we learned a little about navigation using landmarks, to find our way through the wide open prairie, still ankle deep in muck.
We ended our long journey charging through the tall cat tails. Alex D lead the group through the thickest muck of the day, keeping his eye out for lurking gators and snakes. The grass was thick, but the mud underneath was thicker. Finally, to everyone's excitement, we made it to our destination, a small pond by the highway. We were told there would be a nice boardwalk for us to travel around the pond on, however, there wasn't, so just when we thought it was all over, we had to finish our hike on our hands and knees to get through the thick brush.
We arrived at camp, safe and sound, and ready to crawl into our sleeping bags, all excited for what was soon to come.
- Luke F and Alex D
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