Saturday September 30th 2023

Today’s weather followed the same pattern as the last few days with a little twist at the end. The day began overcast, cleared up to mostly sunny and then clouded over again at the end of the daylight portion of the day. Unlike the last few days the clouds also came with a pretty heavy thunderstorm. The rain echoed off my roof for about half an hour.

After a leisurely paced breakfast I set out to try one of the hikes I couldn’t do earlier in the week. When I tried to hike the trail on Thursday, the path was blocked by big puddles leftover from the flooding earlier in the month . Today I got by the first puddle by stepping carefully from downed branch to grass mound to roots and so on along the side of the puddle. The trail was clear for another hundred yards or so after that. The second big puddle was huge, but it turned out to be easier to get around by going off into the previously flooded palm forest. You still had to be careful exactly where you put your feet. I was able to continue a good distance after that before reaching a much deeper puddle that went way back in the woods. There might have been a way around, but I didn’t see it. Working my way back along the path to the parking area was only a little less challenging.

It was an adventure navigating around the puddles. There were some nice views of the Myakka river straining at its banks. All of the tall grasses on the islands and along the far bank made for colorful views. The one thing I did not see a lot of was wildlife. I’m used to seeing alligators and big water birds all along the stretch of river the trail parallels. Today I found one TriColored Heron in the big puddle at the end of the usable portion of the trail. I startled it causing it to fly to the other side of the puddle. After we both calmed down from the surprise the bird worked its way back toward me. They are pretty birds.

After completing the dry parts of the trail, I drove deeper into the park to the concession area on Upper Lake Myakka. The boat tours and the tram tour are both operating today. I don’t have any real interest in the tours. A few people were on the boat tour that went out while I was there. The parking lot was empty by comparison to the crowds during the winter months. I was there to look for gators, birds and other interesting stuff. There were a couple of photogenic great blue herons and an egret or two to satisfy my search.

I did some other walking in random parts of the state park today, but my last big walk of the day was canceled because of rain. Getting caught out in the rain is bad enough, but I’m not crazy enough to start a walk in the rain.