Camping In the Swamp

We met my family for a weekend of camping and fun a few weeks ago.  Having babysitters gave Chris and I a little bit of time to do some of our neglected hobbies, mountain biking and kayaking.  We rode about 6 miles on the trails of Chicco State Park and only ran into 2 snakes, only one was poisonous.  Chris kicked the other one off the pier so we could ride on by.  I was earnestly making my way up the hill in the opposite direction.  I've run over snakes before on my bike and it's not something I like to push my luck with.  The next morning, we took the kayaks down through the swampy waters around the campground.  I have never experienced anything like this water.  I've been in some yucky water before, but this wasn't yucky, sort-of.  It was so thick with vegetation just under the surface that I freaked several times.  Normally, if you're paddling and you hit something underwater, it's a fish or something.  Here, your paddle hit something on every stroke. Also, the cypress trees were so close together that I started to get claustrophobic  weaving between them.  All I could do was imagine what was just under the surface of the green algae.  This was THE exercise in self-control and not losing it.  Chris had no problems of course.  I made it though and by the time we headed back I was a lot more comfortable and could actually enjoy the beauty and quiet of this water.

Checking things out 

We would have gotten lost in this swamp if we didn't track our route on the GPS we brought with us

Looking for gators from the pier

Beautiful but claustrophobic

Hundreds of wood ducks swimming and flying around us.