Although solo travel isn’t my favorite kind, it is worth doing on occasion because one is forced to pay attention to every detail—especially on a wilderness trip. In the 22 hours between when I departed by kayak from the Hell’s Bay Trailhead on March 7th and when I returned, I saw no other humans. The only other mammal was an otter who eyed me quizzically in between rounds of swimming and rolling around on shore. On the Pearl Bay Chickee, with Orion and Canis Major overhead, I reflected that if a count were taken, the score would be six million human souls in the Greater Miami Metropolitan area and one plus the gods know what else on this wooden platform in the estuary, surrounded by mangroves and their nutritive souls. Crickets sang all night, and I periodically heard flapping and splashing from birds landing on the water. When I got up for the outhouse at 3:00 AM, Scorpius had replaced Orion.
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