St. Johns Expedition

This week a friend and I did a three day kayaking trip down the St. Johns River from 520 to 46.  I don't know exactly how long the trip is but I estimated it at about 35 miles long and all the navigation was done by nothing but keen animal instinct.  This was an amazing trip full of unexpected adventure.

DAY 1: Day one was fun.  We set out at around 9:30 or so that morning.  The river was quiet and nice.  We saw a large hill out on the floodplain so we stopped there for lunch.  From that hill we saw another kayaker.  Not a lot folks kayak this river but as this guy got closer we could tell he was out kayaking for the long haul.  His name is Jim so we started chatting with him and decided to paddle together, the three of us.  As we got to know him he told us he was paddling to Jacksonville and out into the ocean.  That made our journey seem kind of wussy.  We all reached the catfish hotel around 4 PM.  Jim took a break and continued on solo.  This catfish hotel is the most rickety little shack.  I slept in it that night and I'm really surprised it didn't blow over that night.  The wall to my right was bending in from the gusts.  It was an adventure!

DAY 2:  This was my favorite day!  It started out cool and windy so that was a bummer but the events later that day made up for it.  We set out paddling and came across some free roaming horses out on the flood plain.  Down the river we caught up with Jim again so it was good to see him.  We all had a rough night with the cold front that had come through.  The sun finally came out and we were dodging air boats left and right.  Out on the middle of the floodplain was a lone cypress tree and I noticed a clump of something on a limb.  It looked furry but surely no woodland mammal would be so dumb as to sit up in a tree out in the open.  I did the only natural thing and climbed the tree to get a closer look.  Sure enough, it was two young raccoons snuggled together out on a limb sleeping the day away.  Coincidentally, I found a good sized yellow rat snake shed in the tree too.  In the backdrop to this scene of coons in the tree was a blazing wildfire.  Fires are natural part of the floodplains  but this was up wind and approaching the opposite bank fairly quickly.  We got to paddle right past it as it hissed and sent dark plumes of smoke up into the air.  At the end of the day we had seen 100 alligators and actually found our next camping area, which was in the most remote parts of the river.  I ate, drank, strung up my hammock and dozed off as the sun went down.  I was exhausted!

DAY 3:  This was another chilly night but better than the last one.  It was overcast and still when I got up that morning.  With the cool morning air, I wasn't inclined to get out of my sleeping bag so I dreaded it for a while and got out a little before nine.  I knew it was the last day and I was ready to get back and have this trip complete.  I had hoped to see Jim again but I think at this point we were a fair bit ahead.  As we headed north we hit puzzle lake which isn't really a lake but a river that goes through a series of small lakes. I had hoped there were a few short cuts but each time I ended up going the long way.  Navigation was difficult but the good ol' animal instincts got me home at the end of the day.

I apologize for the lack of pictures but we were on a mission to cover the distance.  All in all it was a great trip and I look forward to guiding some folks through this stretch in a couple weeks.

Coconuts: Survival in Paradise

Recently I took a trip down to south Florida.  While down there I seized the opportunity to collect some coconuts.  I climbed the palm like a chimp and twisted off five medium sized coconuts and let them fall.  I do enjoy hearing them thud on the ground as my forearm begins to tell me I need to get down before it lets gravity help me down.

Coconuts are absolutely key to survival on isolated islands, especially in the Pacific Ocean.  The coconut palm provides food, water, shelter, cordage, fuel (fire), and shade.  Now if I were to explain how one utilizes the coconut palm in the afore mentioned ways this would turn into an essay so if you have a question just leave a comment and I'd be glad to answer.

Coconut water is an amazing thing!  It hydrates the body and is always healthy and sterile out of the shell.  However, if you solely drink coconut water for an extended period it will act as diuretic which will cause you to lose a lot of that hydration so it is important to get some freshwater.  Luckily rain is pretty consistent throughout the range of the coconut palm.  The next thing that blows my mind about coconut water is that it can be transfused into human blood.  Yeah, you can hook up an IV of coconut water.  So if someone is ill you can put that stuff straight into their blood and it will hydrate them.

So when I visit areas and see coconut palms I know I should be able to last a little while and it's so important for me on my various adventures to be able to process them efficiently and confidently.

Check out the below videos on the process.  Until next time, go eat some coconuts!

South Florida Road Trip

This week two friends and I hopped in the car and headed south.  South Florida is known for its abundance of reptiles and invasive exotics.  There are invasive reptiles all over the place and quite the variety too!

I could write a long blog about everything that we saw and the adventures that were had but instead I decided to edit down into a video so check it out below!

I would like to say that the spontaneity of this trip was refreshing.  We didn't worry about where were going to sleep that night but when it came to to hit they hay we just figured it out.  It was a good exercise in adaptability and flexibility.  We ended up hanging our hammocks from a triangle of palms forming the hammock triangle of life.  That worked fairly well for me but the others weren't quite as prepared as me so they had to either deal with mosquitoes or the cold.  I slept so well that apparently I slept right through a 10 minute rain shower.  I hope you enjoy the video! 

Merlin Hunt

This is a method of hunting that I've always been fascinated with.  Last weekend I had the chance to go film a merlin.  This is one crazy little falcon.

Yes, when I say little I mean about the size of a pigeon.  This little bird is smart though and has been trained to work with its falconer so that it can successfully catch its prey.  It as funny how it had an attitude.  If the falconer called it to catch something and there was nothing to catch, the merlin would begin to lose trust.  There was no sense optimism in this bird and it wasn't going to put up with any nonsense.  If the falconer "tricked" the merlin too many times it would probably revert back to the tried and true methods that it would do naturally.

Meet Peaches the fierce merlin.