Palms

Archbold, Mar 2016

In March, we spent the Easter long-weekend here. This is Lake Wales Ridge, also called the Mid-Florida Ridge. The long, narrow dune extends 115 miles in length and four to 10 miles in width; the sands were deposited 650,000 years ago.

Doesn’t the outline of the southern end of the Ridge bear a striking resemblance to Florida’s southern coastline?

I like to imagine that we traveled not to Highlands or Polk County, but back in time to prehistoric Florida, when the Ridge was a series of land islands connected to the southwestern United States by the now-sunken Florida Shelf. While our primary goal was to visit Archbold Biological Station, we took detours to Platt Branch Wildlife and Environmental Area, New Boot Heal Road, and a once-public road on a now-private ranch. We stayed overnight at Fisheating Creek Outpost .

Platt Branch Wildlife and Environmental Area
Managed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
27°03’00.5″ N 81°21’54.0″ W elev 100 ft

Bikes are prohibited on this other-worldly, sandy trail.

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We’re not sure, but it’s possible that we saw a Florida black bear here. Although it was too far away to tell, it was the right size and color. We also saw deer, scrub jays, sandhill cranes, and mockingbirds, as well as the below Polygana nana (Candyroot).

Polygala nana (candyroot)

Just down the road from Platt Branch, we saw this gopher tortoise. We stopped in the middle of the road to photograph it. While we were stopped, a ranger pulled up beside us. “It’s incredible!” Gauthier exclaimed. The ranger smiled and replied, “This is their home.” Burrows dug by gopher tortoises provide refuge to many other animals during woodland fires and high summer temperatures.

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New Boot Heal Road
Start 27°05’15.47″ N 81°24’20.96″ W elev 85 ft
End 27°07’15.12″ N 81°26’51.61″ W elev 74 ft

This 10-mile ride took us along a mostly hard-pack road that zigs and zags in the pattern of… yes, a new boot heal. We passed by homes with large, beautifully maintained yards, ranches with hundreds of cows that stopped to watch us as we rode by, and a logged tree farm with the logs left stacked fifteen feet high in the middle of the road. The road ended at a dead end where a very lovely, yellow bird, perched upon a power line, sang us a song.

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Fisheating Creek Outpost
26°56’21.73″ N 81°19’06.17″ W elev 39 ft
Fisheating Creek Outpost, 7555 U.S. 27, Palmdale, Florida, 33944
Campsite map and rules

We’d stayed here before, but not on a holiday weekend… or during a big, televised soccer match. Oh boy did our fellow campers enjoy that match. It was not a tranquil stay, but the cook got to try out his newly designed, ultra light-weight camp stove and all the kids running about reminded me of the camping adventures of my youth: the feel of gumboot-clad shins wading in the cool water of yabbie-filled creeks, scaling dried-up waterfalls, and riding my bike ten miles into town to buy my first bikini.

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“I can’t take it?” I overheard one kiddo ask his dad. “No,” was the unequivocal answer. “I can’t take it?” he asked again… and again. Finally, exasperated, the dad explained to the equally exasperated child, “You can’t carry a 200 pound alligator.”

The view from our tent

A Once-Public Road
Start 27°05’29.90″ N 81°28’54.33″ W elev 72 ft
End 27°06’15.92″ N 81°29’04.10″ W elev 69 ft

I am a stickler for rules, so I reluctantly ignored the large sign indicating that the property we were about to enter was private. “On the map it looks like a public road” Gauthier patiently explained.

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It wasn’t fifteen minutes before we were escorted out by a very polite woman, vaguely resembling my sister-in-law, with an SUV full of lil ‘uns. “It was a public road a long time ago,” she corrected us with apologetic eyes, but a firmly set jaw. In Europe, it’s not uncommon for private property to be intersected by public roads.

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Archbold Biological Station
123 Main Dr, Venus, FL 33960
(863) 465-2571
27°10’58.19″ N 81°21’07.50″ W elev 137 ft

Archbold Biological Station has fantastic labels. The trails are labelled, the buildings are labelled, the donation box is labelled, the reused-concrete bridge is labelled. I love labels and I love Archbold Biological Station, even though they don’t allow dogs (hence no Ollie pictures in this post).

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The labels encouraged me to touch the curled-up, waxy scrub oak leaves so that I’ll never forget them, and observe the different plant species on either side of a trail with two different elevations – one side was sandy and the other side had a layer of clay. I also learned how to tell scrub palmettos apart from saw palmettos. I love that scrub jays line their nests with the fibers that grow along the edge of scrub palmetto leaves.

Shrub-like scrub oak (Quercus inopina), sand live oak (Q. geminata), Chapman oak (Q. chapmanii) and myrtle oak (Q. myrtifolia) lined the trail.

It’s hard to tell saw palmettos and scrub palmettos apart, as you can see in this photo.

We didn’t know it at the time, but this captivating species of lichen, Cladonia perforata (Florida perforate reindeer lichen), is endangered.

It’s wonderful that the Roebling and Archbold families recognized early on how special the Ridge ecosystem is and preserved it, and it’s doubly wonderful that it is accessible to the lay public as well as scientists. The architecture is also very cool.

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Resources Consulted
Lake Wales Ridge, Lanscope America
History of Archbold Biological Station

Biking Picayune, Jan 2016

26°05’43.35″N 81°37’06.97″W elev 9 ft
Picayune Strand State Forest,
Naples, Florida 34117
(239) 348-7557

We had been driving west along Tamiami Trail for a while. I occupied the passenger seat and felt a little guilty about it because it meant that I could sight see and Gauthier, in the driver seat, couldn’t. “Holy moly, are there ever a lot of alligators!?” I would exclaim, or “Did you see that Sandhill crane?! I’ve never seen one this far South!” but by the time Gauthier had looked over his shoulder, we had driven past it every time.

By the time we reached Collier Blvd, my exclamations had become less frequent and their tone had changed. “Veronawalk?” I asked skeptically as we drove past a cement bridge painted a muted red with gleaming white pilasters that led into a gated community. Emerging from a newly tarred four-lane roadway and as-yet vacant strip malls, Veronawalk looked like it could have been snapped together from an “Italian Revival” modeling kit. “Are we going in the right direction?” I asked.

Turning off of Collier Blvd onto Sabal Palm Road, I received my answer.

Driving along the narrow dirt road, a filament bounded on either side by a wild array of sable palmettos, saw palmettos and long leaf pines and the occasional elevated house and fern colony, Veronawalk seemed outrageously alien and sterile, the realization of a dream sold to 17,000 unsuspecting victims in one of the first swampland real estate schemes.

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Platted, dredged and drained, Picayune Strand State Forest lacks the diversity of its neighbors, Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve, Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, and Collier Seminole State Park.

The trunks of erect but dead Australian pines add a vertical dimension to the grid of canals and roads that was “Golden Gates Estate.” Perched atop this trunk was a gorgeous Red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus).

We parked at the edge of the swamp, where the road forks. Two-feet-deep puddles, murky but fresh from the constant sheetflow of the Everglades, had formed in the ruts of tire tracks and spread out across the road in both directions.

We hopped on our bikes and headed north, skirting the edges of the puddles and trying not to get wet with little success.

We passed a surprising number of jacked-up trucks, SUVs and Jeeps. Hunting is permitted and apparently popular in Picayune. The trail we had planned to take was completely flooded.

One truck stopped to ask us if the road we were on led back to a main road. “Are there any gates?” he asked. At over 76,000 acres, it’s scary to think of how easily you could get lost in Picayune.

Where the road crumbled and disappeared is where it was wildest.

And a good place for a picnic.

On the return ride, we abandoned the idea of staying dry and rode our bikes straight through the middle of those giant puddles. Fat tires inflated to just the right pressure, seat post shocks and padded underwear eliminated any discomfort we might have felt from the rocky and uneven surface and allowed us to pick up enough speed to keep our balance as our tires sunk into wet gravel and we projected ourselves through the water. It was exhilarating. I almost made it back without falling. Within view of the car, I fell, drenching my pants, but I still felt like a winner.

Resources consulted:
Everglades Foundation
Florida Natural Areas Inventory
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
Naples Daily News
Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan
Tidewater Florida

Spring and Fall in Southwest Miami-Dade County, 2015

Spring starting point:
Silver Palm, FL 33170
25°33’03.40″N 80°26’43.82″W elev 11 ft

Fall starting point:
SW 168 Street and SW 208 Avenue, Miami FL 33187
25°36’30.57″N 80°31’30.14″W elev 5 ft

Our bike riding adventures took us to southwest Miami Dade County twice this year. In May, they took us to the Redland historic agricultural area. Our path followed public roads barely recognizable as roads and canal C-102. We saw a variety of farms: avocado, palm tree, mango, dragon fruit, bromeliad and many others. We also saw donkeys and purple love grass.

In November, we ventured into the fringe of Miami Dade County just west of the C-357 seepage canal where “farmburbia” peters out and the Everglades National Park begins. Once again we followed the ruins of public roads. This time they were overgrown with grasses as thick as your thumb and so high they blocked out the sun. Once inside the perimeter of Everglades National Park, there were two roads to choose from. One was cut out of the native limestone floor. We took this road as far as we could before it became flooded, which wasn’t very far. The other was made of raised hard pack and offered a great view of the endless horizon of Shark River Slough. We saw mocking birds, blue jays, butterflies, goats, chickens, cows, horses, dogs and, unfortunately, discarded tires, soda pop cans, mini fridges and cell phone accessories circa 2005. We also stumbled upon Julio’s Apiary, a licensed bee farm.

Resources
Select Florida Native Grasses for North Central Florida – Fact Sheet #67, by Gale Kempner, University of Florida IFAS Extension
Modified Water Deliveries to Everglades National Park, 8.5 Square Mile Area, by Michael J. Collis, US Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District, May 23, 2012
Agrilicious: Julio’s Apiary & Avocado/Mango Grove

Three Days and 31 River Miles (50 km) on Peace River, Nov 2014

27°13’54.87″N 81°53’29.69″W elev 28 ft
Launch site: Zolfo Springs; Landing site: Canoe Outpost – Peace River, Inc., 2816 NW County Rd. 661, Arcadia, FL 34266, (800) 268-0083

Canoe Outpost maps and instructions

Gauthier and I chose to spend Thank-you Day floating down the quiet waters of Peace River this year, feasting our eyes rather than our stomachs.

Our shuttle from Arcadia to Zolfo Springs.

Sloth cows, bison, llamas, mastodons, tapirs, megalodon sharks, mammoths, camels, dolphins, dugongs… What stories the river could tell!

Gardner Public Boat Ramp

He was seven feet long.

View from our camp site, night one. It got pretty chilly: 41 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celsius).

Off the Beaten Path, Dec 2012

Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, 1200 Crandon Boulevard, Key Biscayne, FL 33149
25°40’27.02″N 80°09’29.55″W elev 1 ft

Among the long overgrown campsites where only forgotten trail seekers dare to go…

Giant Zebra Long Wings are everywhere.

And so are Golden-Silk spiders, also known as banana spiders. This one was about 4 inches long. Their bite is less painful than a bee’s, and apparently, “In the South Pacific, females are induced to build webs on bamboo frames, which are then used as fish nets. The natives also relish the gravid females as a protein supplement, eating them either raw or roasted. Different reports say that the flavor is somewhat like mixed raw potato and lettuce mixed, or nutty flavored like peanut butter with a sticky consistency (http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/golden_silk_spider.htm)”.

Ficus roots give Ollie a height advantage.

The sable palmetto is not just a tree, it’s a habitat.

One of South Florida’s many thorny vines…

Is no match for Gauthier as he takes a photo of a dragonfly with his Lytro.

A lizard (Eastern Fence?) with a skull pattern on its head reminds vagrant hikers of the dangers of hiking off the beaten path.

Nine Mile Pond Canoe Trail, Apr 2013

25°19’29.77″N 82°47’59.63″W elev 0 ft
Everglades National Park, Homestead, Florida, 33034, Near Flamingo Visitor Center and Campground

This is one of my favorite places on Earth.

The short cuttakes about three hours, stopping to take pictures. The full trail takes about five hours, once again, stopping to take pictures. Low and narrow mangrove tunnels make it technically challenging. We use Cannon Wave 4 piece breakdown paddles that we shorten while in the tunnels. When we called ahead to make sure the pond wasn’t dry (it being March and the dry season in Florida), we were told to watch out for nursing gators, but the only gator we saw was the one that hangs out near the edge of the pond by the parking lot. Here’s the National Parks Service trail description: http://www.nps.gov/ever/planyourvisit/upload/9-Mile-Pond-Canoe-Trail-2.pdf

This is a Black Vulture with a tracking device on him. “Lacking a syrinx—the vocal organ of birds—its only vocalizations are grunts or low hisses.” (Wikipedia, “Black Vulture”) (http://www.nps.gov/ever/planyourvisit/upload/Final-Vulture-Tagging-SB.pdf)

It waddled away from me as I chased it with my camera.

I think this is a Double-Crested Cormorant. It could also be an Anhinga, but the Audubon Society says the feet of the Anhinga are pink, and this guy’s feet are clearly yellow.

Don’t these red mangrove look like many-legged animals? Like millipedegroves?

The flower of the Cardinal Airplant (http://www.nps.gov/bicy/naturescience/cardinal-airplant.htm).

The Paurotis Palm.

Bladderworts in bloom, like Chinese lanterns, floating on the water.

That’s periphyton in the water in the foreground of this picture. I love scooping up pieces and squishing them in my hand.

Isn’t it incredible how clear the water is? You can see a fish and its shadow!

Mangrove tunnel! The pole on the right is a trail marker.

Where the marsh meets the hammock.

The Wind

Red Mangrove

Swallow-Tailed Kite

The Halloween Penannt. “Sexual activity normally occurs between 8 and 10:30 am, and males will normally wait for females to come to them around the edge of ponds, whilst perched on a weed” (Wikipedia, “Halloween Pennant”). Isn’t it amazing how much scientists have learned about this planet we live on!

American Coot