Leslie and David's Wanderings: 24 Feb 2020 Everglades Day Three

We decided we need to get in some hiking before we left Everglades NP behind. On Thursday we had got some hiking suggestions from the ranger and we also researched the available trails on the AllTrails application. We headed to the Royal Palms area of the park. There we hiked two trails, Anhinga (0.9 miles, 0ft of elevation gain, 332 calories burned) and Gumbo Limbo (0.4 miles, 0ft of elevation gain, 138 calories burned). On the Anhinga trail, we saw almost a dozen alligators, tons of fish, and a wide variety of birds close up (a couple of Anhingas, several very showy Cormorants, Giant and Little Blue Herons and a little colorful bird with a couple of bright white tail feathers contrasted against his blue and green melded chest and wing feathers….trying to name him still). A good portion of the trail is boardwalk over a marshy/shallow lake area. The whole southern portion of Florida sits on limestone bedrock formed over millions of years of coral and mollusk carcasses. There is a very thin layer of soil on top the bedrock. So inches of elevation above sea level mater. A few inches lower and the water is deep enough that grasses can’t grow, a few inches higher and its forest. We then hiked a portion of the Long Pine Key trail (4.1 miles, 0ft of Elevation Gain, 815 calories burned). After hiking in for two miles through a Long Pine forest with occasional meadows (where it was too wet for the trees because it was a few inched lower), we had not seen a single bird or animal! It was very flat and boring. But it was a good way to start breaking in our new hiking boots. SO we turned around and headed back rather than proceeding on. We had followed the rangers suggestion to wear long pants and long sleeve shirts because of the bugs, but they turned out not to be an issue. Luckily there was a nice breeze to keep us cool. Yes, we walked farther in Disney World than we did in Everglades NP. Following our hike we headed over to the Schnelby Winery/ Miami Brewery, which was more or less on the way back to the Wanderer. On the same property was the southernmost winery/vineyard in the US. After talking with the bar tender and finding out the wines are mostly sweet, we headed for the brewery since we are more into dry wines than sweet wines. We had a couple of the local brews to sooth our aching feet (these new boots are going to take a few miles to break in), we headed back to the Wanderer. The beer was ok, but nothing special.