Dear Reader,
When John woke up this morning, his fever had broken. He had a headache and didn’t feel 100% but felt good enough to keep paddling.
While we were packing up, two fishermen pulled up in their truck and launched their boat. When asked what they were fishing for they answered “we’re just going to throw in some bait on the end of a line and see what bites.” And then they rattled off some fish names, the only one I recognized being Bass.
The river widened and stretched out some of its kinks as we paddled away from Campsite Z. But in doing so it lost yesterday’s gorgeous lush intimacy.
Dark tannin-laced water met gray wintering deciduous trees. White branches and limbs took on halloween shapes draped with spiderwebs of draping moss.
The water was calm. The light breeze sometimes in our face, sometimes behind us and sometimes nothing at all. But the current was against us, so we moved slowly and I tried to distract and entertain my mind.
When the scene is expanded, the details disappear. When the landscape barely changes and the current is against us, that’s when the minutes and hours and miles drag on. So I looked for alligators. And I looked for black bears.
You wouldn’t expect to see black bear here, would you? I associate them with the Sierra Mountains, the Cascades, the Rockies. But I’ve seen them in the Canyon lands, swimming rivers in the depth and heat of the desert. I passed under a sleeping bear, startling it as I glided below the desert bank in my whitewater kayak years ago. And another one actually boarded and punctured our 14′ whitewater raft, rudely awaking us from our slumber in a tent nearby. So if bears can be in the desert, they certainly can be in a wetland in Florida.
We saw flowers, the first signs of spring. Turtles on logs and then not. Birds we couldn’t identify and some we could.
And then John saw our first alligator of the trip! John was between it and the bank, as it floated on the surface. Nose, eyes, head, back. And then it dove just as John shouted “Alligator!”
In a dual between an alligator and a bear, which one would win? Or do they just walk the other way?
A welcome break in the trees meant a lunch stop and garbage toss. There was a bathroom but can you believe there was somebody else in it! I had a chuckle and moved on.
And three miles later, at the next break in the trees was our camp. Campsite X. And with a picnic table, just like last night. And a clearing with grass and a mini graveled boat ramp to pull up our boats.
We logged 9.4 nautical miles today.
John started feeling really sick again and headed into the tent. The sky is rumbling and a night’s worth of rains are expected shortly. But we’ve got a cozy nest for the night.
We are alive.
We are (kinda) healthy.
We are adventurers.
Goodnight!
Cheers, Susana
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