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Spring Break 2010 part 3 (the journey home)
We pulled out of Ft Meyers and headed North. This was Tuesday so we still had some time for some exploration. We detoured over to the Ocala National Forest and took a random hike up a forest service road. The trees were pretty shrubby and from the looks of the logging trucks they have a pretty short rotation on the cuts. Nonetheless it was nice to be out of the van and hiking in the woods. Again i was struck with how much less life was present here than in some of the areas. It just seemed like it wasn’t a fully functioning bio-system, like there were pieces missing. It was pretty though pine and hardwoods with lots of tropical plants. Looks like a nice place for free winter camping should i ever get the chance.
Spring was definitely in the air though. There was some very pretty wildflowers and the red buds were doing there thing. We thought we were gonna break our streak of incredible wildlife viewings that had been going on as long as we could remember but we saw a couple of elk as we were heading out of the woods. I didn’t think there were elk in FLA but seeing was sort of believing. A little research showed Elk are not native to FLA but 6 were released after a TV show, but not in our area. The elk we saw were by a fence so they were probably not wild at all. Sometimes seeing is not believing.
Coming up I-75 GPS sent us off and on an exit but we came out of that with a hitchhiker. He was pleasant enough but not really going anywhere, seemed more like a mobile panhandler than someone trying to get somewhere or even just wandering. We passed on the hints for a handout and took him up to Lake City where there were three other dudes trying to hitch north on that exit. Tough world.
We got a room in Tallahassee and decided to do a little side treking and then driving through the night rather than just drive and sleep for two more days without time to do anything. We took 319 South which runs along the Apalchicola National Forest. We stopped for a hike at Leon Sinks, a geological site highlighting sink holes and swamp lands. It was very cool, especially the disappearing streams and dogs were allowed on the trails so it was fun. Not a lot of wildlife viewing though beyond some squirrels.
From there we drove south to the Gulf and then west along the coast. We stopped and took the dogs to an isolated beach which they got a big kick out of. The water was cold for swimming.
Then we drove and drove. We stopped for some good barbecue in Alabama, dozed a bit, but mostly kept the wheels turning all the way home Thursday morning. Our only excitement was some heavy rain in st louis with a multi-car pile up right in front of us. Our luck held and we weaved our way through the wreckage to make ourselves home.
All in all it was a good trip. I would like to go back. The hitchhiker says you can still swim with manatees in the Crystal River, winter camping in the national forest would be cool and i would like to go back to the everglades with a bicycle (its so flat there) and a canoe (perhaps some back country camping or a long float trip). So didn’t get to check if off, my list of places to go never seems to shrink but just gets bigger and bigger the more i learn.
Spring Break 2010 Part 2 (everglades to ft meyers)
We ended up camping three nights in the Everglades, mostly bird watching and some hiking. One morning John and I both woke early so as not to disturb the rest of the camp we drove up to the marina got a cup of coffee and went and watched the sun rise over a lake. We had some nice company with a night heron fishing nearby who didn’t seem terribly alarmed at our presence. All in all it was a nice relaxing time.
We packed out early to head back to Big Cypress National Preserve. Driving out of the park I was profoundly struck on the abrupt change from the swamps to the agricultural lands. The absence of life was striking coming from where so close it is so thick. What a loss we have with these huge monocrop wastelands. It was really more like a desert than anything else. So sad and such a wrongness around it it could’ve broken my heart. i always cope with things like this by remembering it hasn’t always been this way and it is not always going to be this way its just this way right now. i send out prayers for effective preservation and using the park to build on restoring the whole ecosystem.
At Big Cypress we drove the loop road the other way and again parked near Sweet Water Strand and this time hiked the other way. There were a lot of alligators sunning themselves not only on the canal banks but out in the road. The dogs seemed like they couldn’t see the gators and were totally unconcerned. I think with the gators staying still and being unfamiliar to the dogs they just couldn’t see them. Probably for the best that the dogs don’t know whats out there waiting to eat ’em up.
From there we started our drive back North. We stopped in Ft Meyers and got a room. The next afternoon we went out to Pine Island and visited our longtime friend Jay and his wife CeeCee. They have a place right on a canal and Jay was eager to take us boating. Smokey was as ready as anyone but Shadow took some coaxing. Once we were out there though they really enjoyed it, except for when Smokey fell in the canal when we stopped for gas.
The wildlife was thick in the canals as they bordered on mangroves. So close to the city there was this huge explosion of life that rivaled the everglades. Gave me hope that we can live in some kind of harmony that allows biodiversity and wild beauty and still have all of the social goods of urbanity. We saw manitee, a bald eagle, dolphins, and the usual cast of avian characters. The Bay was calm so we got the canal boat out and frolicked with the dolphins a bit before putting back to home.
Jay made a nice lunch and we took a drive over to another bald eagle nest. There was one in the nest and one on a nearby branch. The one on the branch took wing and the one in the nest eventually joined him calling back and forth. It was really really cool. We decided to wrap up our visit while our hosts still thought the dogs were cute and headed back to our room.
Spring Break 2010 part 1 (home to everglades)
Back from vacation today. My brother John came through town and picked me up. We left the Saturday before last in the morning and drove through the day. He brought his dogs Shadow (Australian Shepherd) and Smokey (Australian Cattle Dog). It was rainy on day 1 so we didn’t really do anything else and got a Motel 6 room for the night.
We didn’t make too far and still had a long way to go so we decided to drive through the next night. We took a side trek to Russel Cave in NW Alabama. Its a federally managed archaeological site but we mostly used it as an excuse to get off the highway and into the woods for at least a bit.
The next morning found us in South Florida, a little punch drunk but none worse for the wear. We checked out sunrise in a pocket park at an early oil well. It was wet but there were a bunch of little deer in the distance. We drove into Big Cypress, stopping a couple of places to try to get info and see alligators. Eventually it warmed up enough for them to come out and I saw my first alligators.
We got a campsite at Monument Lake, pitched camp and relaxed a bit. Being a National Wildlife Refuge dogs were pretty limited, although with the thick layer of alligators we weren’t going to let them run around a lot on their own anyway. We ended up driving down a road out into the swamps, parking near Sweetwater Strand and hiking down the road. The Cypress were beautiful but it was sad as well as they were all pretty small. Apparently they got pretty ruthlessly cut in the 40s and we never saw a single big cypress in Big Cypress.
The Cypress stands were dense with birds and gators in incredible numbers. It added something to the hike seeing the big gators or hearing them splash into the water. Smokey got a little nervous but Shadow was oblivious to alligators.
We decided to just camp one day and move up our trip to the Keys so we could catch Lost at the Motel 6. One of the elevators were out so after routinely sneaking an extra dog into the room we finally got busted. John paid for 2 rooms so we could be legal but we decided to forgo our second day there.
So day 3 we left out of the hotel and drove down Highway 1 all the way to the end. It was rainy which thinned out the spring break crowds. Mostly just looked at the gulf and the ocean and all the islands. At Key West the sun came out and we walked around downtown. We went to the old Smokey Joes where Hemingway used to hang out and were going to hang out for a drink with an umbrella in it but we got tired of waiting and just left. We walked by Hemingway’s house and saw the giant Banyon Tree and we enjoyed the colorful rooster at the courthouse.
The drive back was more fun as the weather was better and we stopped off and walked a bit with the dogs. We got a room at a place that was pet friendly and sneeked the big dogs in without incident. The next morning we drove down to the Everglades. We checked out a pond where the black vultures were eating the rubber parts of peoples cars.
We camped at Flamingo campground which was pretty nice and really delved into the incredible complexity of life in the swamps. It was just so biologically rich you could literally just watch any area and a showcase of exotic animal life would descend their and put on a show. We speculated on how long you would have to be there before you became jaded to the spectacle and just went about your business blindly.
We kept stopping by the Marina because there had been manatee and crocodile sitings there. On one trip an Osprey flew overhead carrying a fish, we followed it and watched it closely as it sat on a branch. It called out and other Osprey came and it seemed like our Osprey with the fish was trying to date but a bigger Osprey hung out in the same tree like some kind of cock-blocker. Our first Osprey ended up just eating it. On the way out we saw a group of folks with cameras trained on a big Osprey nest. Sure enough there was a mama feeding her baby. We ended up seeing 4 Osprey with fish and countless others and became pretty familiar with their call.
At the visitor center there was a red shouldered hawk nest and we saw a number of those as well. I have had a thing for raptors especially hawks since this three week period of time some years ago when I saw a hawk take a rabbit, another grab up a squirrel, and a third narrowly miss a pigeon. All of these sitings were just driving around my normal business in the Monroe-Toledo are. Another notable raptor encounter happened in the Manistee national forest when i got repeatedly swooped by a pair of Goshawks, had me so spooked i was running blindly through the forest. Our other great Everglades raptor siting were swallow-tailed kites. They’re a really lovely bird and we watched them repeatedly. John got some great photos you can see at his picasa web.
“Appalachian Spring #2”
Hiking the AT we would frequently hike or hithhike into the nearest town to resupply, get some ben & jerries, do laundry that sort of thing. We saw some cute little towns and met some really nice folks. One town we didn’t much care for was Hiawasee Georgia. First off its one of those towns built around a state route so it sprawls for miles along a busy road being one building thick. Second we had both shaved our heads for the trip and Amee drew a lot of unfriendly looks. It was good to get a room with a bed and a shower but ultimately we preferred the woods. The poem i wrote is only 4 lines and i thought some more would come but except for some false starts its kind of just hung there. For good or ill here it is. It makes me think of the bards of old. You don’t want to offend a poet or you can find yourself knocked in verse.
I’d rather sleep in the rain boy
I’d rather sleep in the rain
Then in a king size bed in Hiawassee
I’d rather sleep in the rain
“Appalachian Spring #1”
In the spring of 2001 my wife at the time Amee and I quit our jobs, sold our stuff, and set out to hike a good chunk of the Appalachian Trail. Not long after we put in notice and right around when we had our sale I found out my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer. What had been the fulfillment of a lifelong dream became one of the most difficult times in my life. Not really understanding the gravity of the situation we started the hike at the trail’s southern terminus Springer Mountain in Georgia and hiked 136 trail miles North to the Nantahala Outdoor Center in North Carolina where our packs were stolen. It turned out to be a blessing as my mom ended up having very little time left and i got to spend a lot more time with her after curtailing the trip. The biggest lesson i learned is not to let your plans, hopes, dreams, or apparent obligations stand in the way of what is really important. Being there in a significant way for the ones you love. It was a pretty emotionally raw time and if i ever find my journal from the time i might write at length about the trip. I ended up writing a fair amount of poetry, almost exclusively silly and placed them in my chapbook “America: Its Land and Its People” under Appalachian Spring 1-4.
Appalachian Spring #1
Sassafras Mountain is green with nature’s love
But its ringed with solitude
For all those who will walk above
The speeding cars and the busy places
The teeming masses of the city spaces
Left behind for nature’s stasis
On Sassafras Mountain
going insane part 9: flying first class
I settled back into the luxurious seat and enjoyed an immense feeling of rest and safety. I had been telling myself for better than a week that i would sleep on the plane when i was safe, when i was out of this nation of peril, and now i was here. I was seated in the back, in the middle seat with empties on each side. There were only a scattering of other passengers throughout the rest of firstclass. Seeing all of the well dressed folks made me aware of my own appearance. Green cords, a matching flannel i had bought with Debbie at the Berkeley Ross especially for the trip, and the Vans Kirk had left at the CAN house after we had booted him for slinging acid out of the house. I had been wearing that outfit for about 2 weeks, no socks, tshirt or undies. I think i’d lost them when i came out of the isolation tank all freaked out by the womb without a heartbeat. I wasn’t drawing any bad vibes from my fellow travellers and figured they thought i was a rock star or something.
The flight attendant, a body builder type with the brown hair and mustache of a 70s porn star and the biceps of a lou ferrigno of the 80s asked if i need anything.
“Like what?”
“Oh something to drink, maybe?”
“That sounds good what have you got?”
“Water, champagne, orange juice…’
“That sounds good give me an orange juice and a champagne.”
“Very good sir, champagne and orange juice. I’ll have those out as soon as we get in the air.” Almost immediately the plane began to taxi up the runway and we gained speed and left the ground. I could feel our acceleration in a very visceral way and as we sped down the runway my feelings of relief increased, i had made it.
Once we leveled off the muscular flight attendant brought me two flutes one of orange juice and one of champagne. They were both so good and i felt more rejuvenated and more relaxed. They went down easy and I quickly finished. “Finished already, would you like another round.”
“That would be fine, but probably just one more mixed.”
“Very good, a mimosa.”
“Yes a mimosa. Thank you.” I drank it down when it arrived and reclined back in the comfortable seat. I looked out the window at the sun, such a strange angle to be seeing it and looked at the electronic map of our path going up and over the arctic and coming back down across greenland to minimize our flight over open water, i’d learned on the way over. I closed my eyes and fell into a deep sleep.
I dreamed i was flying over the world in the company of Lucifer. He pointed out the great expanse of the world below and said it was all mine if i should desire it. He was very beautiful and i felt relaxed in his presence, i felt he was sincere but part of me new i was in very dangerous ground. I told him no i did not desire the world. He told me i could save those masses of folks from all the pain and misery i had felt and they all feel in our brief and pitiful lives. I told him no i did not wish to save the world. He showed a flash of anger then. “Well alright then. There can be nothing but enmity between us. I will raise an army and you shall raise an army and we will finish this now.”
I saw in my minds eye myself walking through the streets of paris an unkempt mob behind me marching too some great and final confrontation, knowing many would die but that final victory would be mine. This reality was far more tempting. I felt my Michael self resonate to the call of battle and a final end to all of the destructive nonsense through one act of bitter destruction.
I said, “no, my friend not now. Let the truce abide awhile longer. Let someone else marshal the forces of good for i will not fight this fight. Not at this cost not even for the final victory will i pay that price.” I awoke with a sense of momentous loss. of a missed chance to put things right. of a sense of relief.
Going Crazy part 8
I walked to the ticket counter and got in the line. There was an older guy and we struck up a conversation which struck me as eerily significant. He seemed kind and I felt safe for the first time in a good long while. When I got to the counter I told them i would like a ticket to Detroit and gave them the confirmation number. She asked me where I would like to sit and i said i would like to sit next to the previous gentleman. She said he was flying to North Carolina or some such place and asked if I wanted to go there. I considered it for a moment, and said no i had better go to detroit.
I headed for the gate. I remember being tripped out by the signage with looking at the Dutch and English words and thinking of different interpretations. seeing hidden messages. everything had ominous overtones.
I got to a waiting area by the gate. i left my jacket on the row of plastic seats and went in the bathroom and washed my face. I rinsed my mouth out with water but didn’t drink any. I had gotten spooked about whether you could drink tap water in Europe and hadn’t been drinking for a long time. I had no thirst and at the time this had stopped concerning me and was just the way it was.
I came out and put my jacket back on and paced until it was time to go. But first questions. “Did you pack your own bags?”
I struggle with how to answer, “Um, I don’t have any bags, I lost them.”
“Did your items ever leave your sight since they were packed?”
“No?” pause “Oh wait. I wasn’t thinking of it as an item because I’m wearing it but I left my jacket on a bench while I was in the bathroom. I’m sorry I just wasn’t thinking.”
“OK sir, could you please come with me.”
“Oh sure”, I said. I followed him back into a small room and answered more questions to another guy. I told him I had lost my bags with my plane ticket and i didn’t know where. He asked me again and i told him i’d checked them into a locker and lost the key. Another guy looked through my jacket and I pulled out my pockets. They went ove”r my passport carefully took my hemp wallet looked at it and handed it back.
“OK sir, you can go catch your plane.” I stepped out of the room and into the already moving line to board. My heart was beating fast but i also felt in a groove falling out right into the line. As we entered the door of the plane being greeted by the flight attendant I thought I saw an attendant nod her head towards a small door with stairs up.
I turned from the line climbed the stairs and sat down comfortably in the back of first class.
Going Crazy part 7
I took some of the change from the smokes and called the tarot reader. There were names of a couple on the answering machine, but not my guy, and i left a message for the guy that i would get back to him. I walked to the main train station and bought a ticket for Schipol. I got to thinking of a conversation i’d overheard about Dennis and his buddy getting stopped on the way out of Amsterdam a few days ago and getting busted for some small amount of drugs they had forgotten about. I began to wonder if they were set up which made me wonder if someone had hidden drugs in my gear. I started to look through my good old army backpack that had seen many miles over many years and realized it was too full of nooks and crannies for me to ever be sure someone hadn’t stashed something in there. I decided it was best to stash it for now and put it in a coin operated storage locker at the train station. I put the ticket in my pocket surreptitiously checked the schedule and slipped on the train just before it moved out hoping to shake any tales.
I arrived back at Schipol and checked the KLM desk. They had no record of my lost ticket and told me a new one would be $3,000. I was stunned and thanked them and walked to another part of the airport. I was unsure of my next move but thought i had better check in with my family as my “friends” were probably back in the states by now.
I purchased a phone card which was most of my remaining money and called my folks. I talked to my mom and my brother had just called having picked up my friends from the airport and myself not being there. He had told her they had said I was acting crazy and had gotten separated. He was pretty angry at them leaving me.
I told her they were trying to pressure me into smuggling drugs and had taken my plane ticket. I told her I had checked on it and it was $3,000 dollars for a new one. I had limited minutes and she told me she would check on a ticket and to call back in an hour. I told her i would.
I went to a smoking area and chain smoked cigarettes until I thought i was being watched and i wandered off. The lighter I realized I had taken from the mind spa when my lighter had died. I wondered if there was a transmitter in it. I decided I should go through my pockets and get rid of anything not essential. I had lots of stuff and i just started throwing it all away. I kept only my passport, some change, and my wallet which i went through carefully throwing away a lot of business cards and phone numbers of folks i had met during my stay. I didn’t know about any of them anymore. The hardest thing to toss was the ticket to get my backpack but there was no going back now.
I called my folks and my dad answered. He told me they had gotten me a ticket and all i needed to do was go to the ticket desk and give them a confirmation number. He asked me if i had a pencil. Damn I had thrown all of that stuff away. I started asking people walking by. I’m not even sure if they spoke english. My Dad stopped me after about 5 times. “Your just going to have to memorize it. Here, Here is how to do it. It starts with MPCH, that’ll be Mickey Please Call Home”. He went on to make up a mnemonic for the 15 digit code of random letters and numbers. He wove in birthdates and catch phrases and had me repeat it back to him twice. I told him I had it and they said they would meet me at the airport in Detroit.
floating the big muddy
I got the canoe out on the missouri yesterday for a little taste of fall. I floated with Sarah from Catfish Katie’s down to Coopers Landing. Its only 4.7 river miles so it makes a pretty good fall afternoon float. Get a little taste of the big river but its not an all day commitment. It was beautiful, much changed since i floated the same piece with eric a month ago. Then the fall color was just getting started, a yellow tinge to most things some stuff going all the way. now it was all on the ground. two fall floats and missed the color, hard to do that if you tried. i guess it gives me something to look forward to.
The hills and bottoms were still pretty amazing. Once you lose the leaf cover you can actually see more of the shape of the land. The wind was kicking up pretty good which gave us close to an extra hour on the river. At one point we passed some kind of bottle. An hour later with steady paddling I noticed the bottle had passed us by, so we weren’t setting any speed records. We fished it out of the river and it turned out to be a gas cylinder. I am not sure what to do with it now. It seems better in my garage than floating down the missouri.
There was music and a fire at Coopers when we arrived. Dad dropped us and picked us up and he had a good time so i should have river drop off and pick up into perpetuity. There’s a lot of river and i hope to see more of it. Hoping to get out this winter when theres ice.
back from vacation
The Popster and i drove about 4,600 miles across the southwest over the last 2 + weeks. It was a great trip, not perfect but relaxing and very nice. We drove out pretty quickly, with The Popster doing almost all of the driving. We went out 56 and drove straight through missouri, kansas, oklahoma, texas, new mexico, arizona, and on into nevada. we went across the hoover dam and got a good look at the bridge they are building across the canyon. we drove along lake mead and tried to stop for a swim but the lake level was so low it would have been wading in mud, which the dog enjoyed doing.
we holed up in mesquite, nv in a casino hotel for a couple of days, mostly just resting from the grueling drive. Myrtle and i did a long morning hike and we found a stuffed hedgehog dog squeeky toy. There was a backpack there too but i put it out in a sunny spot to dry out and never made it back to pick it up before leaving. The Popsters visits with his mesquite pals was brief and anticlimactic after the long drive.
we drove into california and up to the bay after stopping at an anchient peoples museum that had an old anasazi house and a recreation from the CCC days as well as a reconstructed pit house. if i lived in the desert i would have to live in a pithouse and only come out at night in the summer. we also went to the valley of fire, a cool redrock dessert. the three of us hiked out in the heat to mouse’s tank, and i saw more petroglyphs than i’d seen in one place before. very cool ones and i am eager to go back when i have more time. i would like to take a long winter some time and devote it to documenting hyroglyphs. some day. i thought it was cool that so much of the good surfaces were used in this canyon but i didn’t see any in any other canyon.
the tank itself was very cool and probably accounted for the longheld sacredness of the canyon. it was really more of this mossy kind of grotto than what i would think of as a tank. Mouse was a troublesome old Pauite who holed up out there in the middle of nowhere and caused mischief before they put him down.
at three months of no smoking my only regret is not to be able to easily make a tobacco offering when i go to indiginous sacred places. i’lll work around that next time, should’ve bumbed one from the popster. all in all vaca was less challenging on my no smoking than i had anticipated.
after valley of fire and the long drive across california we slept for 1/2 a night in the berkeley marina parking lot. there is something restful about sleeping under the ocean breeze. brother john came out and woke us early and we went to Nations my favorite california chain for 2 eggers and chili-cheese omelletes with lots of bad coffee. we read a chronicle and discussed the demise of the newspaper.
we hiked the dogs around point isabel, my favorite dog park in the known universe. a 2 mile loop trail along the bay with great views of The City and the goldengate bridge. Myrtle was in heaven going around saying “hi” to all the dogs and people in the park.
we went back to the woolsey house and discussed its impending demise, zoning and unfixable problems with the house and its plummeting value and reverse mortgage. i imagine that will be the last time i see it from the inside. but then again maybe not because i learned before it was a beany factory boarding house it was the hog farm, wavy gravy’s commune, and before that it was a Beat house. it was nice to see Pete who i used to live across from. John moved up to my old space so we saw quite a bit of Pete. I met his brother who came up from florida to help take care of him. hung out with greg the most, donna was sick and didn’t see much of her. scotty was surprisingly happy to see me, as i never thought we were that close and even stacy seemed pleased with our little family reunion.
we spent a day driving through yellow stone. the falls were huge, like nothing i’d seen. we could not walk to the bottom of bridal veil falls because of the spray. all the upper parts of the park were closed with snow so we just made a day trip of it. we did go up an overlook none of us had been too and dad and myrtle had never seen the park so it was pretty fun.
at the bay we hung out, john made chili and we had zachary’s stuffed pizza (yum). i missed my friends in concord.
we caravaned down to joshua tree national park area and we camped in BLM land. when we arrived we came to this wide open expanse where there was an occasional pick up or camper with dirt bikes riding around. we drove to this outcropping ahead of a rocky hill but there were some trucks parked out of site behind it. we decided to drive to the foot of the long rocky hill and camp against it. we drove forward and were looking at potential campsites when the pick ups began shooting assault rifles not far from us so we drove around to the other side of the range of hills and camped.
the site was pretty enough but littered with debris, thousands of shot gun shells, and myriads of shot up stuff including a card table and two manequin torsos. it was sunday and when it got towards dark everyone but us left. we cooked a meal and i slept out under the stars with the full moon brilliant like street lamps.
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