I like technology (just look at how many posts I've made to this blog from my iPhone), but it was nice to be out in the middle of nowhere for several days. The first night we did see the lights of a few planes and I saw a couple contrails like the one above, but by and large we were removed from reminders of modern society apart from the people around us.
This second day featured many more trees than the first day, with welcome shade to be found next to many. The day was also partly overcast, which was a welcome relief. A couple times we got to go between trees like the ones pictured above.
No, this wasn't the platform we were to sleep on the second night. I'm not sure exactly what it was, but I assume it was some sort of testing apparatus.
As I said before the miles went by quite quickly on this second day. I tried to take pictures of all the signs we saw, but not all of them turned out.
This day the canoes didn't stay as close together as we did the first day. There were some that went ahead and others that lagged behind on day one, but it was much more pronounced on day two. Buddy and Kay took the lead early on and never let up. I don't recall seeing them after the morning until we got to the platform that afternoon.
I don't recall the name of this plant--not the lily pads, the green and yellow thing sticking up between them. This is its natural look, like an unopened flower, if I remember what Perry said.
This was fascinating to see the trees and swampy conditions intermingled. When I think of trees and forests I think of out West, like the Colorado mountains, so this was a completely new experience.
When we were ready for lunch we found a mostly shady spot (for those in the front of the canoes anyway) and tied up to some overhanging branches. The canoes did drift back and forth, but they were fairly steady and allowed us to enjoy some relaxation.
Deb rested for a few minutes and I caught this dragonfly perching on her arm. She was remaining fairly still and I think that he stayed there for several minutes.
After lunch we entered some really narrow areas. There was a current flowing which wasn't as fast as a river, but it was nice regardless. At times like this there wasn't room or need to really paddle, so we mainly steered to stay with the current. I found it somewhat hard to gauge speed and distance and sometimes we gently bumped to boat ahead of us.
You can really see the moss hanging off the trees in this picture. I don't recall seeing any of that the first day. Later I found out that formerly the cypress trees in the swamp had been hundreds of years old, but most if not all of those were logged in the twenties and thirties. The current trees are mainly 70-80 years old, or younger--yet some of them are still impressive. I can only imagine what the swamp used to look like.
If you didn't look closely this scummy area almost looked solid. I'm not sure what it was, but we saw several patches of it.
Beware the highly venomous ribbon snake! Everything I've read says that the pink ones are very dangerous--they like to wrap around branches and then drop on unsuspecting passersby. In the middle of the swamp you are simply too far from medical help. Even more dangerous than the pink ribbon snakes is the albino ribbon snake. There is simply no treatment for their bite, even if you are next door to a hospital. I only saw one albino in the swamp. I did see several of the harmless yellow ribbon snakes--they were quite friendly.
I don't know what happened to my camera, but for some reason after I took this picture it stopped recording photos for a while. I didn't realize it until I went to take the picture below and noticed that the camera wasn't recording the shot. I turned the camera off, popped out my memory card, and all was fixed. Unfortunately all of the pictures after this one until I noticed the problem had never been recorded... :( Perhaps fortunately I don't remember what they were so I don't remember what I'm missing.
I don't know when this shelter/building collapsed, but it appears to have been degrading for some time. I think this shelter was still marked on the map--or another one was earlier (when my camera wasn't working). Thankfully the next day rest shelter on the map was there--I was getting quite upset with the people that would give us incorrect maps!
Reflections can make for amazing pictures. By this point in the day I think we'd separated from others in the group, so I was able to get good shots like this without having to worry about another canoe being in the shot.
If I didn't have one of my alligator shots as my desktop background I think I would use this picture.
I saw many interesting cypress trees. Some had huge knobby "knees" that rose above the water. They weren't quite as remarkable as pictures I've seen of mangrove swamps, but they were cool. Others had formed tiny islands by virtue of collecting soil and debris in their roots.
This branch looked cool as it formed a square with its reflection.
I was fascinated by this tableau. A burned tree (with no other charred wood in sight) was propped against an unburnt tree. I think it would be interesting to find out how this happened--obviously the burned tree fell against the other and caught against a branch--but why is the other tree not burned? Below is a closeup of the intersection.
Thus ends part two of day two. The next post will cover the remainder of the day (including some wildlife larger than dragonflies). I'll be sad to see this series of blog posts end--much as I was sad to see the actual trip come to a conclusion.
~Matt
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