Deep Quiet Wondrous Beauty

Wednesday January 21, 2015
Highlands Hammock State Park
Sebring, Florida

 

 

This morning when we went out we were greeted by a vulture high in one snag behind the rig and a hawk in the other, I admit, I didn’t give them equal picture time.  Vultures are VERY important to the eco system but not so photogenic.

My goal today was the Fern Trail where I had been told, by someone I met on my morning walk to “my spot”, there was an 8’ alligator hanging out.   The most fun way to get there is to take the campground road to the connector trail to the the Hammock Inn which is sadly no longer serves sour orange ice cream or anything else.  Upon asking what happened I am told that the concessionaire was fraudulent and they have yet to find another.  That’s been two years now.  So it must have closed right after we were here in 2013.

 

 

Behind the Hammock Inn is the trailhead for the Wild Orange Trail which at one time apparently had a lot of wild orange trees on it.  Today it mostly has mud. 

David hooks his stainless steel water bottle on his back belt loop. Says it swings less than on his hip but it looks like he has a tail. Pretty funny.

 

From there we walk right across the drive and get on the Big Oak Trail.  Remember David hasn’t seen these trails yet and I’m more than happy to do them again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Big Oak Trail connects to the Hickory Trail which then connects to the Fern Garden Trail.  You can arrange your walks to be as short or long as you like.

Actually all the trails but the Cyprus Swamp Trail have big Oak trees, many ferns and orange trees.  It would take 3 of me to reach all around the trunk of this giant.

 

 

I don’t care much for the wild oranges.  But then I don’t like grapefruit either, too sour.  David, on the other hand, picks the oranges up off the ground under the trees and eats them  if they haven’t been broken open.  If you pick them off of the trees, they are often not ripe he says.  None of them taste “ripe” to me.  LOL    Very juicy he says.

 

 

Apparently at one time you could walk across the stones through the swamp.  Not so much now.

 

 

 

The Fern Garden Trail connects to the Richard Lieber Trail so we spend a few minutes in “my spot”.  I notice that a yellow bellied sapsucker may have been working over a tree right behind me.  In the picture, it’s hard to see the lines of horizontal holes all the way up the trunk.  But close up you can see the sap has been flowing. 

 

 

In the swamps I look out into the distance hunting for eyes in the black water.  I look down near me to see the little things and up above me to see the canopy.  That’s when I notice a big green ball sticking out like a sore thumb.   Is it mistletoe??  I think so.  Mistletoe seems to be a sweet plant, you know, the kisses and all.  But it has a another side.  It plunders water and nutrients from its host tree and serves up toxic white berries which don’t bother the birds who reseed them all over but can make humans very sick.

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Leaving “my spot” we quietly walk back to the fern trail again.

 

 

 

We’re still on the hunt for the alligator.  Third time’s the charm and we spot her on an island off the boardwalk.

She looks like she’s had a big meal and is stretched out completely relaxed.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No worries when you are the major predator in the area.

 

Those are some mighty fine looking alligator skin gloves.  Could she use a manicure?

 

 

All along the beautiful Hammock Road circle there are stops on a fitness trail.  They have no parking spots so they must be intended for those of us who walk or bike the 3 mile loop.   We try out few of them. 

 

 

 

 

At this one, David demonstrates that he can still do push ups. I’m impressed. I try and can’t even do one. I can lower down slowly but can’t get back up. Goodness I need some upper body strength building recommendations. Anybody on the road who could share some I could do without a gym or weights?

 

 

 

The last trail we walk before heading home is the Ancient Hammock trail which is described as a virgin forest and a sample of primitive Florida .  More fern lined paths, more palms, more big trees.  We never tire of any of them

 

 

 

 

We do think that we see the largest trees in the park on and slightly off this trail.  The way to find them is to keep your eye on the sky and notice when there are enormous crowns of live oaks taking up huge space in the canopy.  The base of those will be big trees.  Like this one.  Can you see its left toe hidden behind the palms?  Sorry I couldn’t get a picture of its enormous trunk, too many palms,  but from the foot you can imagine it.

 

 

 

We thought that might be the biggest tree we’d seen until we snuck back into the jungle at another spot to find this one.  How old these trees are and how much they have experienced.  Makes me feel small and foolish.

 

 

 

I’ve come 180 degrees from Sunday when I wondered why we’d come back to Highlands Hammock for a week.  I now know that if I could extend my stay for another week or even two or maybe three I very well might.  These swamps are hypnotic.  They keep drawing me back.  I just want to go again and again even to walk the very same trails where I always find things I haven’t seen before that make me say “how beautiful”.   It’s a deep quiet wondrous beauty.