Well after leaving the illustrious Skunk Ape headquarters we headed back to "normal" at a state park. After calling around we found that it is probably best to have reservations at campgrounds in south Florida in the winter. We found a spot in a nearby park and raced off. We checked in and found our spot. Our spot also had this awesome caution tape and steel pipe contraptions that turned out to be a bear trap. We were really glad that no one told us anything.... About 9 at night we heard the trap go off and the bear thrashing around. Needless to say everyone at the campground was pretty excited, we had flashbulbs and flashlights for a half hour or so until the bear was hauled off.
The State park also had and old walking dredge that was used to build a highway across the Everglades in the 1920s. It was pretty interesting engineering. They averaged around 100 feet in a day, not the best but hey the whole things operated on 20 or so horsepower.
We went for a great hike the following day and Alexis again thought that she was wildlife chow. After making fun of how everyone at the campground thought the bear in the trap was big, I saw what I thought was a deer or possibly large dog thrashing around in the bush. It was neither of these, it was in fact a rather large black bear that poked its head out of the brush and looked our way from about 30 feet up the trail. Alexis was pretty excited so we don't have a photo, we did capture the below less threatening critter.
We then headed up to Rainbow Springs State Park, which turned out to be really nice. Went for a paddle on the Rainbow River and hunkered down for yet another cold snap. It got down to 26 at our camper, not quite what when thought when we decided to head to Florida for the winter. Visited with Alexis great aunt in Tampa then headed back to Orlando for our flight to San Jose tomorrow morning. We lucked out in that the whole area is now under a tornado watch, hopefully it clears out before the AM.
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