My sister, MuzeBallPythons, and I set out to go herping yesterday morning. The morning started off on the wrong foot, so to speak: my snakeproof boots, after years of abuse, literally fell apart as I set off on my motorcycle to meet with Ivonne; and her new boots, she discovered, were truly a matching pair - both boots were for the same foot.

After I switched footwear and we hit the outdoors shop to exchange the new boots, we headed out to the Big Cypress National Preserve. Along Highway 41, we saw several gators in the canal; they were only the first few of a couple dozen we were to see throughout the day. We turned off on Turner River Road, an 18-mile long dirt road, and saw our first and only snake of the day, a dead water moccasin.





After lunch, we went on a disappointing swamp buggy ride. We were hoping for mud-slinging tires and a rare view of wild Everglades, but instead got fabricated Disney-esque roadside displays and a buggy captain with a political agenda. Tourist-flavored kitsch is lost on Florida natives like us.






(Captive gators at Wooten's, Tamiami Trail.)



We hit the Fakahatchee Strand for a lonely sprint down Janes Scenic Drive, but after a few miles of seeing nothing interesting - other than a deer that Ivonne saw jump out in front of a car, making it safely across the narrow road - we turned around and headed for a place that was even new to me, the Panther National Wildlife Refuge. On our way out of the Strand, we saw the remains of the one animal I was worried about out there, the wild boar. These feral pigs have a nastier rep than rattlesnakes, partly because encounters with them, once you're deep in the Everglades, are more common. Admittedly, I hyped up the wild boar "terror" a bit for my sister's benefit (it's what brothers are for, you know).



Located in the last remaining stronghold of the Florida panther, the refuge has been around since 1989 but I think the hiking trails weren't opened until later. This was my first time here.



The longer 1.3 mile loop trail feels fairly wild (though well-marked), lonely, quiet save for the sounds of nearby I-75, and very well used by the wildlife within the refuge. We saw plenty of trails in the surrounding vegetation that indicated heavy use by larger mammals. We even saw a family of white-tailed deer halfway through the trail.



For the rest of the pictures, check out the MySpace album. No need to sign up to see it:

MySpace Herp Album