3/2/2014 – I was determined to get to church on Sunday, resupply, and spend the day slowly working my way back to camp, stopping at viewpoints and taking short walks along the way. I was up way too early but thought it a bad idea to cross this end of the park in the dark. I grabbed a quick “hot” shower-surface temperature actually-and headed out after sunrise. On the way through the park at 7:30, I almost got sidetracked. There was a little fog burning off and the sight was both eerie and stunning. The birds were active, including a couple of wood storks close to the road. This bird is massive! The endangered species is the largest wading bird in the park and these were adults, nearly four feet tall. I thought I should keep moving, but regret not getting pictures of the pair. My next opportunity to capture their image was the next day, but across a pond. Fully stretched out while they fly, they reminded me of pterodactyls in the movies.

I found breakfast and wrote a little waiting for the next service at St John’s in Homestead to start. As with the church in Jupiter, visitors were asked to stand and introduce ourselves to receive a gift. This time it was a miniature loaf of bread. Also turns out one of the priests had worked in Missoula and had been to Sandpoint and Silverwood while she was there. I ran off to the market and stocked up for dinner and breakfast, ice and Gatorade. I bought one of their Cuban sandwiches-ham, pork, cheese and pickle, spicy mustard-to enjoy somewhere along the way. I’ve become a big fan of Publix markets since I’ve been here. Lunch was in the visitor center parking lot.

So I turned thirty eight road miles into an afternoon of taking my time, taking in views and capturing a sliver of the natural beauty of this end of the park. It’s hard to imagine that while you look out at what you think is a massive grassland or prairie, what you’re really seeing is a massive wetland. The interrupting clumps of trees-mahogany and mangrove, slash pine and cypress, are sitting on hammocks, islands in what is a great shallow freshwater sea, with grasses camouflaging the abundance of life. At Mahogany Hammock, I learned that as plant life decays and the slightly acidic moisture from that decay eats away at grass, soil, and limestone-bedrock is just a foot or two down-moats are formed around the little islands. The same thing happens on the land, forming what are called solution holes. Solution holes will hold water in the dry season and may make a nice home for an alligator while it feasts on the smorgasbord all around.