Today, I had the day off, so I drove down to the Florida Everglades, a national park where I have spent nearly a month of my life. It is an incredibly challenging, unique, and beautiful environment. I visited a part of the park I'd never been to before and was really amazed at how different it is, only miles away from the part of the park I'm more familiar with.
I went on a couple of short hikes through the north side of the park. The trails were pretty civilized, especially in comparison to the rugged Outward Bound course. But the path did go by some really interesting things. Like this tree that was being strangled by a vine. WHAT?!?
One of the things that is great about spending a day in The Everglades (as opposed to two weeks) is that you can stay relatively clean. This is the view from a boardwalk that went out over the water for a ways. This looks more like The Everglades I know. It was fun to watch the tourists gasping at alligators and being in awe of how immense nature is out there. I remember counting alligators on my first day in The Everglades being a little bit in awe myself.
This is Coot Bay Pond, the end of my first Outward Bound trip. I remember getting out of the water and literally falling on the solid ground and being so exhausted, proud, and sore. This was actually a fairly emotional moment for me, standing here today. The Everglades have been a purifying fire, of sorts, for me. Both times I ventured out, I came back a slightly refined version of myself. I still lean on the lessons learned in these waters when I come against a challenge today.
Mangrove trees are kinda awesome.
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