Florida Trail: Day 18
January 24, 2022
Mile: 26.3 to 35.7 (9.4 miles)
Start: Thank God Island, Big Cypress National Preserve
Finish: Nobles Camp, Alligator Alley on the old Miccosukee trading route
It was so difficult to get out of bed this morning deep in the middle of Big Cypress Swamp not only because we knew we had to put on wet clothes again but it was so cold that you could see your breath when you opened the tent door. I really shouldn’t be complaining since we had just left the North Woods of Minnesota where it had been -28F and -50F windchill with 2 feet of snow. Back on Thank God Island we had spent last night snuggled down deep in our sleeping bags with our mummy hoods drawn tight. But despite the name of this refuge, it was no Marriott or Ritz (I mean come on, we had to toss someone else’s poopy toilet paper away from our camping spot) and so it was time to leave our little island in the Big Cypress Swamp. It was pretty chilly and reluctantly we donned our soaking wet socks, sand-filled shoes and dirty gaiters and hit the swamp for another 4 or 5 miles. We knew that we’d probably have wet feet until we crossed busy I-75 so we sucked up the cold damp ickiness and jumped feet first back in the swamp.
I thought the swamp water might still be warm because water usually is slow to lose heat but the water was too shallow and overnight when the chilled air came through it definitely brought down the temperature of the water from tepid to foot numbingly cold. It was not going to be a fun morning sloshing through freezing water but we were sure glad the worst of the swamp was done with yesterday. In order to get pumped up and get this last section done, I decided it was time for a little swamp music. I blasted a crazy pump-up mix from my phone at fullbore and man that music got us through this one. We started out with Tanya Tucker’s Delta Dawn remix by Skeewiff followed by some J.Lo, Beyoncé, Lil Jon, Kygo, Cardi B, Alabama and Zac Brown Band’s cover of Devil Went Down to Georgia had some good old fiddle music playing deep in the swamp. It was like the real life version of “Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party.”
We let our inner hillbillies go which was awesome and I hollered and hooted like the Florida swamp people that we felt we were. High on music and life we pounded through the mud as it almost sucked the shoes almost right off our feet. We sloshed through the cold knee deep water not even deterring us from plowing forward as we were on fire singing, dancing and getting the miles done. We are sure glad it was “Florida cold” out because that meant no snakes or gators because they do not care too much for the cold weather.
After a few hours we finally touched dry land which we seem to forget about the existence of after a few days in the swamp. We came across some bear tracks as we rolled ashore and the trail turned from single track to wide open prairies and deep puddles on the swamp buggy trail. The huge savannah of the rustling brown grass stretched as far as the eye could see. But despite being in a huge swamp for a couple of days, we realized that we weren’t that far from civilization and could hear the highway traffic and see a radio tower not far away.
During our Big Cypress jam sesh in the swamp we saw someone sitting next to the trail with their winter and rain jackets zipped up all the way to keep them warm. Her name was Thunder and she is also thru-hiking the Florida Trail. She’s a writer and is very nice and even took a portrait of us out here in the swampland. Like us, she was glad to finally be on dry land and her plans for the day were pretty similar to ours if stopping not far up the trail at the I-75 rest stop for a few hours before hiking a short day to a campsite outside the Seminole Reservation.
All three of us were weirdly excited about rinsing out our muddy socks, shoes and shorts in the sinks at the rest stop. I mean come on, how satisfying is it to have semi-cleaned socks that don’t stand up on their own anymore, aren’t made up of more mud than fabric and don’t smell like 3 day old roadkill opossums? Today was going to be a short day of hiking because we weren’t allowed to camp on the Seminole Reservation this year and it’s southern boundary was not far ahead. Covid has really hit the tribal nations hard so they’re being extra cautious and strict with protective restrictions. Also a lovely fact is that in addition to Covid, the Seminole-owned Big Cypress RV Resort that usually allows thru-hikers tent there has had some extremely concerning panther problems. Yeah, I think I’ll pass on camping where there’s a wild panther stalking unknowing Florida Trail hikers, sizing them up for their next meal.
Since you’re also not allowed to wild camp or be there after dark on the Seminole Reservation because it is its own sovereign nation as the Seminoles have never signed a peace treaty with the United States, we were going to have just a short day of hiking which was just fine with us. We hiked out of the woods, under a bridge where the highway traffic thundered overhead and found a beautiful pavilion with lots of picnic benches selecting the sunniest one to sit under. It felt nice to be able to warm up even though the rays of sun were weak and feeble. We were still able to warm up a bit even having to don our down and winter jackets, leggings and hats.
In true Hiker Trash fashion, we had to get creative at the rest stop to wash our clothes since it was mainly just bathrooms but we made do. If you didn’t wash your socks out, you’d get terrible blisters and rashes from the grit. Plus the sock fabric would become so stiff with dried dirt you couldn’t even pull them on your feet. In the comments on our navigation app, we read that one hiker went to an eyewash station around the side of the truck stop and used a shower there that was for emergency use only but he used it to take an actual shower, wash all his clothes and rinse out all the sand. We kind of felt guilty using an eyewash station as a shower so we went into one of the 4 special bathrooms that had changing tables for children and locked ourselves in that to wash our clothes in the sink. It was tough because the sink was one of the sensor sinks and the water pressure varied tremendously, sometimes starting at a trickle and other times blasting at full spray. It took me about 30 minutes to wash 3 pairs of socks, my gaiters, my shoes and my insoles because the sink water pressure was so variable. But even though it took forever to hand wash laundry in a bathroom sink, we did our best since there was no rush as our camp for the night was only 5 miles ahead of us.
Our new hiking friend Thunder showed up and we chatted with her a bit before she also took up residence at the rest stop, also using one of the bathrooms to wash clothes. I showed her some spots where to charge her electronics on the side of the building away from traffic but also where she could keep an eye on them. In between washing our clothes, Shannon and I relaxed out at the rest stop picnic tables drinking soda and chowing down on mac & cheese, sardines and granola bars for lunch. By early afternoon, the sun finally was warm enough where we could shed our down puffy jackets. Our myriad of socks, shorts and shoes laying out on the pavement by our picnic table were starting to dry. When I picked up my socks to flip them for more even drying, a nickel-sized black widow spider tore out from underneath my sock, scurrying angrily at my hand. I shrieked and shooed the venomous spider away with another sock, its bulbous inky body and signature red hourglass scuttled away into the clipped grass where hopefully it would take up residence instead of my socks.
After a solid 4 hours of hanging out, charging electronics, directing elderly people to the restroom and drying our quasi-clean clothes in the sunshine, we decided that it was time to hike the 5 or so miles down so-called Alligator Alley to Nobles campsite just south of the Seminole Reservation gate. Plus this lady walking her little dogs started being overly curious looking at our phone and electronics charging and I’m pretty sure her dog almost peed on my socks. It was time to go.
The rest of the day was a pretty easy hike (I mean the whole Florida Trail has essentially zero feet of elevation) and on the west side of the trail we passed rows of deep alligator holes complete with dozens and dozens of resident alligators. We saw a few reptiles that were at least 10 feet long which was a little scary! When we moved over to the side of the trail to let a 4 x 4 pass by, the sound of the motor scared an absolutely enormous alligator just a few feet from us that we couldn’t see through the thick brush. The big gator launched itself, kamikazing off the bank and belly flopping into the water. The splashing water hit my arms and freaked me out because the jungle was so thick back there that you couldn’t even see the gator that was probably just a few feet behind us. Shannon shook his head and said next time we should stand on the side of the trail that’s farthest from where the gator holes are. You live and you learn.
As we were passing by alligator after alligator trying to keep our distance, we ran into a white-haired photographer who was finishing up a 20 mile hike. He warned us that just before he passed by Nobles Campsite (aka the tentsite we were staying at) that a large black bear growled at him from the woods. We looked at each other with raised eyebrows but were not entirely surprised to hear about the bear. Not even a few miles back we saw a sign posted about how this area had a very high concern of black bears. We were definitely going to hang our food tonight at camp and were a little bit more watchful when we made our way to camp.
The campsite was huge with enough room in the area for at least 20 tents. We snuck in the side by the picnic table and fire ring where we set up tent in the shade of some large live oaks. A handful of handmade wreaths made of vines and dried flowers were strung up all over the campsite in memory of a hiker called Mostly Harmless. I don’t really know the story there but it was interesting to have these wreaths hanging everywhere in his memory. We tried to be respectful but it was a little spooky trying not to run into the wreaths and accidentally hang ourselves as night fell.
As the sun set, we realized that we still needed some drinking water for filtering and so we scooped from a murky lime green pond that definitely was home to some alligators. It was more than a little sketchy grabbing water because you couldn’t see what was below the surface. Plus they tell you not to collect water between sunset and sunrise so the gators don’t mistake you for a deer. Shannon went down to the pond’s edge and quickly scooped up water with a pot. Meanwhile I had two hiking poles with the poky edges ready as I stared down into the water for any movement preparing to defend Shannon from any gators. We were in and out quicker than a bank heist and avoided being chomped on by gators.
However when we went to filter the electric lime green water we noticed something swimming in it. Now we’ve had mosquito larvae and little insects like water bugs in our backcountry water before but it was very rare and the water filter or chemicals would get rid of them. This time was different as somehow we had scooped up not 1, not 2 but 3 little fish that were now swimming frantically in our water bladder turned aquarium. And with our stinkin’ water filter not working, we ended up having to do a rough filter of the water through my bandanna to make sure that the fish didn’t get sucked into my water bottles and then treated it with Aquamira chlorine dioxide drops. It’s good we had brought the Aquamira drops as back up water treatment because the $50 filter we bought and tested at home is now kaput and we can’t seem to figure out what’s wrong with it. It kind of sucks because we only used it 2 or 3 times where it would take 8 hours to filter 2 liters or water before it completely stopped working. Unfortunately we can’t get another filter sent to us for at least 2 weeks because of the lack of maildrop places so we’ll just have to live with it I guess.
As the sun was going down, our friend Thunder showed up and we showed her some good flat spots where she could camp. She joined us for dinner at the picnic table and cooked all her woodstove that’s pretty nifty. It was a biofuel stove so you shove a few little twigs in it and it cooks your meal very efficiently so you only need like a few sticks to boil water. With so many fallen sticks and palm fronds on the trail, it seemed like a pretty good idea for fuel which we’ve actually struggled to find as many local outfitters cater more towards fishermen or school sports.
Thunder asked us all sorts of questions and we asked her about being a writer. She said that this is her first time doing a thru-hike and shared with us a little about her life and we listened intently to her stories. It was funny because I guess I was talking about all the crazy animals and plants we’d seen so far on the trail that Thunder asked if I was a biologist and then asked if I was a photographer I said no and just like animals and I am learning about photography. We all laughed and then told her to check out our water bladder to see if she could see the fish swimming in it. Thunder and I became obsessed with checking in on our little aquarium hanging from the tree and the silvery rainbow little fish we named Franky.
Soon the air turned chilly and you could see your breath which was pretty cold for South Florida. It was time to hit the hay and warm up in our tent and sleeping bags. We hung our food from a solid oak branch and as we were getting ready for bed I kept tripping over something that eventually cut me. It turned out it was actually a lovely piece of rusty barbed wire leftover from when this was private property. I think I’m up-to-date on my tetanus shots but I put some antibiotic on the cut and hopefully that works.
As we started to mentally prepare for tomorrow’s hike while tucking into bed, we figured out that we had to make it 22 miles through the Seminole Reservation. You can’t stop to camp at the Rez anymore this year because Covid-19 has hit their community so hard that there are a lot of restrictions. You used to be able to tent camp at this RV Resort on the Rez but they’ve been having a lot of problems with wild panther sightings in the area and they’re nervous for hikers in their tents that the panther might attack or get too close. So I guess we’re going to do 22 miles all in one go which shouldn’t be a problem. Off to bed and hopefully all of the owls finally stop hooting!
