The Florida trail to Panther Camp

This take Carl and Carmel on a hike thru the Florida trail.  The entrance to this one is very easy, just take I75 to the rest area in the middle of Alligator Alley and we picked the north entrance. This hike was about a 12 mile round trip hike and the goal was to reach Panther camp, have lunch and hike back before night fall. If you look at the map below our trail was the Florida trail (orange ) to the red trail and then up the blue trail to Panther camp and back the same way.

Not long after starting our hike we came across this rat/corn snake.  This snake is harmless and was just trying the heat up on the rocks on the trail so we took a few pictures and left it to warm up.

As you can see below the trail is not all dry. About half way up the red trail we hit what almost looked like a river, but it was well marked as being part of the trail.  The water got to be about knee deep but we pressed on being very careful to look out for gators and cotton mouth snakes.

 About a mile away from Panther camp is where things got a little on the scary side. As we hiked we had to be careful to look out for danger on the trail and this came all to close twice for us in about a quarter mile span.  The first one was when we where hiking and Carl spotted a cotton mouth snake hiding in the middle of the trail right in Carmel's path.  Carl stopped her and pointed out the snake which we then carefully walked around and kept on hiking.  Not to long after that we came to a water crossing where Carmel  had to grab and stop Carl from stepping on a cotton mouth snake right on the edge of the water.  This was one of the biggest wild cotton mouth either one of us had seen.   This one we made sure to be even more careful with and even made sure it got off the trail before we left the area.

In the end we made it to Panther camp and had lunch plus rested our feet a bit.  On our way back we saw the big cotton mouth again but this time it was not on the trail but close.  We made sure to give it space and walked on the other side of the trail.  Now about half a mile down the trail we ran into 3 hikers and we wanted to make sure they were aware of the cotton mouth snakes we saw.   As we try to warn them about the snakes one of them tells us not to worry because they are biologist.  Now that's fine except that the guy that told us this was barefoot and I am pretty sure that the snake can not tell the difference between a biologist and any one else.  If you are ever out hiking and anyone ever warns you about any danger just say thank you and hike on with caution.  In the end we made it back to the car and did so right before dark.  Another hike under our belt and a wonderful trail as long as you are careful where you step.