Gator poo. A miss-step finds a squishy pile.  The smell…oh my.  Imagine a feeding process that begins by aging the kill a few days before eating it followed by lying around in the heat to slowly digest it.  What is left is quite fragrant.  Here is the gator and her little ones who claim the mud hole nearest to this spot in the trail…likely the contributor of the smelly deposit.

And yes, I am wearing a head net. Without it and a couple doses of DEET we would not have made it past the first mile.

A hike along Fakahatchee Strand cypress slough took us through a thick cypress stand that has sprung from huge stumps of old growth cypress. It is amazing how this tropical environment is recovering from the heavy hand of man.  If we can keep the water coming to it there might be trees just as big one day.