Deep Lake on the western edge of Big Cypress National Preserve is a much-needed Oasis in a Florida experiencing drought and potent muggy heat. There were multiple alligators a-swimmin’, including one that slowly edged its way closer and closer to my two cohorts and I; I suspect that someone fed this gator in the past. After lingering at the lake, Jade with her camera and I with my sketchbook, we took a wet walk in the cypress dome to the left. Jade asked about the water’s depth, and Michael, slogging ahead, said, “chin deep,” an exaggeration that made me burst out laughing. Putting one booted foot in front of the other in the water felt like just what the doctor ordered after the sweat had gushed down my back in the sunny clearing where we captured the lake. For some odd reason, mosquito intensity decreased on the wet walk, then ratcheted back up to levels that match your stereotypes about Florida swamps on the trail through the woods back to the firehouse where the trail starts.
Can you find the alligator in my sketch?
Photos 1, 3 and 7 by Jade Cave, photos 2 and 4 by Michael Chesal, all other pictures by RWS © to respective creators
