Desert in the swamp?

[Robert Sobczak]

There's the dry SEASON ...
and then there's the DRY season.

And then there's the "desert in the swamp:"

http://www.gohydrology.org/2012/03/desert-in-swamp.html

[Swamp Hunter]

I agree Robert, it can get dry in the swamp. I want to share a cute little story I wrote about all day hike I took last year. It was never a survival survival situation but these things can turn ugly real quick. Its a story about not carrying enough water. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed the hike. BTW I returned the bones to the swamp.

 

*******************************************************************************************************************************

Needing to clear my head, and test out a new pair of shoes, I decided to take a long hike yesterday into the deep swamp. My plan was to leave about 5 AM, cross a huge prairie to explore some unknown territory and follow an old loggers trail barely discernable on Google Earth. I was hoping to find the old lost loggers camp. I loaded my pouch and after about 2 hours or so of walking, I jumped a deer. She looked pretty and graceful running and jumping across the treeless prairie. I stood there admiring the deer and a flock of Ibis flying overhead in formation. Suddenly I realized I forgot my Gatorade bottles that I always carry! A quick panic search of my side pockets discovered only 2 small foil drink packs and I was already thirsty. Not wanting to turn back, I figured I would ration my drinks. Afterall, this is not a desert, I thought to myself.  Bad idea.

It took me hours to find the old trail thru the cypress trees but I finally found it!  This is what I came for! The next few hours I made good time walking down the old trail but it eventually became overgrown with incredibly thick coco plum trees. No fruit this time of year but they survive in these thick pockets protected from winter cold fronts. Not able to get around them, I had to crawl straight ahead for what seemed like a considerable distance. I heard something growl but I couldn't see 10 feet in ether direction. Suddenly a hawk screeched above that started me for a second. I watched him fly away.

Hacking my way down the overgrown trail was more work than I expected. The morning dew was all gone by now. I drank the first drink pac, put the empty foil in my pocket and pushed on. At about 9 or 10 AM maybe, I finally broke into the open and found a secret beautiful swamp area. So pretty and wild, with palms, large ferns, ancient cypress, air plants, orchids, and exotic foilage. I expected to see a dinosaur break the silence and burst onto the scene at any moment.   I wish I had my camera. I look where a Florida Panther scratched his claws on a cabbage palm trunk. I wondered about the growl I heard earlier.

I waded around the waterhole's edge. The scene was so magnificent, I just had to keep pushing on toward my destination. The water looked clear and the green vegetation and lillies looked picture perfect. Walking the next few miles of Bald Cypress swamp was very slow going. The trees eventually opened up and the sun started beating down. I quickly dismissed thoughts of saving my urine lol. If things got bad I could find water in the deep swamp up ahead. But this was dry season.
I drank my last little drink pac.  


Wanting to see where the trail ended, I kept pushing and hacking.  The news said a cool front was heading down, so I carried heavy clothes that now seemed like unnecessary baggage. It had to be near 85 degrees. I was hoping for rain. My legs were starting to hurt and I was worried about cramping up.  I was so close to the deep swamp but I was already thirsty again and didn't know if the water would be any better there. I struggle to lift my feet that stick in the mud with each step. I thought about the Boy Scout that died out here trying to make Eagle, and he was much younger. http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2009...-while-hiking-fellow-boy-scou... I said its time to head back. I tried to breathe through my nose but my mouth was already getting dry. I now wished I had brought candy or fruit instead of peanut butter crackers. Its a long way back and maybe I should have tried to collect morning dew in my sweatshirt but it was too late now, too muddy, too hot...

I made good time the next few miles. The sun beat down, my hands cut and bloody from the sawgrass, my feet now have blisters and the buzzards circle overhead. I will never make it back without water. My celphone has no reception out here and Im completely on my own. I need to drink from the cleanest mud hole I can find. I remember the beautiful slough on the way in.

I finally stumbled onto the secret hidden slough. The water looked clean but I could see little fish and floating debris; leaves and such. I washed my face, washed my hands and the cool water felt good on my dry lips.  I decided to drink some. I didn't have a cup or container but I saved my empty drink pacs. I cut the top off of both of them to make "cups". I waded into the deepest part carefully so as not to disturb the mud underneath. I was hoping a gator didn't live here, or worse a huge Python. I brushed away the surface and took a scoop. It looked good except for the little black specs and a few wigglys. I need to filter through my shirt. I poured the water through some cloth and into the other drink pac "cup." The end result looked very good. I filtered again and I drank it. It had no taste and was actually good. I filtered and drank a few more cups. Too bad I couldn't carry any with me but I felt I would be able to walk back now.


Nothing too exciting the rest of the way but the water invigorated me. I could see where a large Python slivered along my trail. I wondered if he found any animals to squeeze the life out of.  I decided to explore a short distance down a well used deer trail. I wish I had a camera.  The trail led to a beautiful Bald Cypress dome. I stood on the edge admiring the huge buttressed trees. Remembering the Python, and looking down where I step, I discovered Alligator bones. The head was intact but the jaw busted in half. Maybe that's how he died in a fight with a larger bull gator? I decided to carry it back.


The long walk out and across the open prairie was tough but I made it back safely before dark. The Gatorade in my cooler tasted great!! I exchanged pleasantries with a few tourists who wondered what I was doing. Lesson learned here. From now on, I will carry a container, preferably metal for boiling and some water filtering and/or iodine purification. Here are some pics of the gator head. I'm glad I didn't run into the "dinosaur" that killed him.  

[Robert Sobczak]

Good story:  I'll never look at a Capri Sun pack the same.  I don't venture that far off the trail (usually), but it is fun to get almost lost ... almost essential.  

[Michael Palozzola]

Last year I found out what a desert the swamp can be the HARD way. It never turned into a full out survival situation but that was solely on luck of finding a well pump along the trail.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Early last May we had had a few hot days but nothing off the charts. I have experience camping and hiking in the wilderness but just in the last few years have I begun entering the realm of the swamp, most of my experience is in the mountains.

So last May I had a solid day off work and there was a piece of the Florida Trail I wanted to explore, the southern heading stretch from the Oasis Visitor Center on US41 down to loop road. It was a definite trail, with a finite start and finish. I figured it was perfect to try out a new pack (the Camelback Fourteener) I had gotten and to explore a little bit in the swamp. My hiking buddy dipped out on me at the last minute so I decided to go it alone and head out anyway (technically mistake #1) Though I did notify people of exactly where I was going, what I was planning on doing, how long I planned on being there, and when I planned on being back. I had added up the trail markers on the map for the hike to be about 12 miles round trip(mistake #2). This trail is 16-17 miles round trip.

I packed my pack slightly heavy. I had all the necessary essentials for a solid day, first aid kit, bug spray, rain jacket, a couple protein bars, a sandwich (for day trips, a dry publix sub makes a great mid day meal), and 3L of water in my camel back + 1L of "emergency water" (mistake #3 when combined with the weather report that I had failed to read carefully what the days predicted hi/low was) I also packed my Clark Jungle Hammock, because I had never had a chance to set it up in the cypress (in the environment its really made for), so I figured I'd take the opportunity when I stop for lunch to set it up and see how it sets up in a real world setting and not in a park or in my back yard.

I get out to the visitor center just after sunrise, 8am or so give or take, lock up the car, and start heading south. Ive been on this southern trail during the wet season for the first 1/4 of a mile or so because there is a gator hole right near the road which the rangers will take visitors to. So I'm familiar with the beginning of the trail. I quickly pick a comfortable pace, find a nice solid walking stick, and get into a rhythm. I notice the Marl(wet) Prairie is BONE dry, as in the earth is so dry it has cracked and crunches when i step on the dirt. But I figure its the dry season, I have water, ehh move on. Little did I know how much of an issue this would end up being.

I enjoyed myself the first few hours following the trail markers sipping my water and snacking on a protein bar. I watch the trail change from marl prarie, to dwarf cypress domes then around mile three it changes into a more hardwood hammock (was an easy 10-15degress cooler in the hardwoods). This whole time the temperature has been slowly climbing, and its a beautiful blue sky day not a cloud to be seen. Come around 11am I reach 5miles and come across a sanctioned campsite which is not marked on any park map, the "Frog's Hammock Camp site." It's here that I first come to realize my math error for on the sign to loop road it says "<- 3miles Loop Road ][ US41 5miles ->" I stop here for a break but since I am not yet at loop road I figure I'll save my lunch for later in the trail. I do find that at this camp site there is a well dug that has a old wold style pump and it had water Not being at my destination yet, and still easily being early enough I set out for Loop Road again even though I grossly miscalculated the distance of the day (mistake #4). I decided that if I didn't reach loop road by 2pm I would turn and that would give me about 6 hours to get back to the car before absolute darkness set in.

What I didn't know about the trail was that after you leave that campsite you enter a vast span of marl prairie that goes almost completely uninterrupted until you get to loop road. So it was now getting hot! easily over 85 by noon and I was being pounded on by direct sun the whole way. I begin to nurse my water a little because I know I had started drinking it kind of heavily due to the heat and the extra mileage. Now as opposed to turning back I keep with the "its just a little farther, Its not a problem, I'm almost there" (mistake #5) I finally make it to Loop road at around 12:30, where tired and a little dehydrated I find a few cypress trees that are sturdy enough to string up my hammock and more importantly it's rainfly, to get my in real shade for the first time in 3 miles. I even take off my boots and relax a bit while I eat my lunch.

I rest at the end of the trail  for about an hour sitting in my hammock in the shade half hoping for a car to pass down the dusty dirt road which is loop road who I can convince to drive me back because now I know that I have over expended myself. No cars come. So I break down my hammock throw on my boots, and start heading north up the trail. Now 1:30 pm the heat beginning to peak, 92 degrees it peaked at that day. On my way back, right around mile 9-10 I got a very sickening feeling of trying to take a sip of water.... and the camelback being completely empty(same feeling for anyone who is a diver out there, of trying to draw a breath on an empty or turned off scuba tank). And right then I knew I was going to have an issue. I had 1L of water in a container in my bag and around 7 miles ahead of me coming into the hottest part of the day, and the first 2 of those miles have absolutely no shade.

All of a sudden 7miles felt like a VERY long trek. Trying to be smart with the last of my water I automatically rationed it while I was still just hot, 150ml per mile give or take. Not a lot. It took me almost about 1.5hrs to get back to the camp site from that point, and by the time I got back I was DRAGGING bad, draggin my feel along with my walking stick, bad headache, peed straw yellow. Luckily the campsite was in full shade in a small pine hammock, I went right for the pump I had found earlier and PRAYED it worked. I pumped it a good number of times before I got any water out of it but I did manage to get some, problem is, I wasn't that nice crystal clear and clean water we all have come to love. It was murkey and brown, definite rust from the pipe along with god knows what else, I soaked my hair and my shirt with it but, didn't know if I should drink it. So I sat. Tired, confused, dehydrated as can be and not thinking right. I had a small headlamp with me so i decided to wait for the hottest part of the sun to drop a bit and if need be I would hike back the last little bit in the dark.

So I waited till after 4pm till I decided to move again, I just sat in the shade and nursed my headache. A little after 4 I decided having the iffy water with me would be better then nothing so I filled my camelback with the well water. I also took off my pants and shirt and completely soaked them with the water, in order to cool my body as much as I could. Now I headed back. I kept my water to the same rashion every mile marker I would stop and drink my 100-150ml. The trek back was anything but fun. By the time I had gotten back to the camp I had been having slight visual hallucinations, combined with my pounding headache, as well as cramping and tired legs, and feet. I finally made it back to my car around 8pm using the well water to constantly keep my hair and shirt damp helped TREMENDOUSLY. 12hrs I was out on the trail and when I got back to the car I had just about 100ml of water left which I quickly drank as I ran over to the water fountain at the visitor center and gulp down a good gallon or so.

-----------------------------------------------------------

A few weeks following I spoke to a person at the visitor center about the trail and the camp site because I was planning on heading back out there to camp at the Frogs Hammock, this time more well prepared. She told me that that well had actually been overlooked and was supposed to have been taken out, due to the inability of the Park Service to maintain that the water was reliable as well as safe to drink. I quickly told her my story and asked her to PLEASE pass the fact up the ladder to her superiors that that well had probably at the VERY least saved me a trip to the hospital due to dehydration, heat stroke etc, and at the best case possibly even saved my life. And that if the water is possibly a health risk to drink then to not remove the well but put notice on it maybe that only to be drunk in emergency scenarios or if properly filtered.

The Swamp is a wonderful and beautiful place, but it is a dangerous place and not to be taken lightly. Mother nature is indifferent to whether any one person lives or dies. So the only one who can look out for you MUST be YOU. Any person who ventures off into the wilderness has better have their head on strait and be prepared for things to not go as planned.

To pull a diving quote which still works here; Plan your dive, and more importantly DIVE YOUR PLAN!

[Swamp Hunter]

Thanks for sharing your story Michael. I agree the swamp will eat you up and spit you out. It can be a dangerous place. You must be prepared to spend the night on every hike.  What if you had broken an ankle or were bitten by a snake?  I have seen it happen.

 

The main concern used to be getting lost.  And thats were panic often sets in. With todays GPS and celphones, it doesnt seem to be as common an occurance. But folks, dont take the swamp lightly. Circumstances can change from good to bad in a heart beat.

 

Thanks for telling me about the pump. If you pumped it enough, it should be safe to drink. If it smells of sulphur, its deep.   Roberts Lakes has water all year and you passed by it but you would have needed a filter.. There are 3 natural lakes and I have them marked on my GPS. I also have my "secret" waterhole marked as I was also inside the Loop on my hike. There are other ways of obtaining drinkable water.  If you were forced to spend the night, you could collect dew in the morning, as everything will be wet, with a towel and wring it into a container.

 

You could "scratch out a well." This is the old timers way of obtaining drinkable water. Find a solution hole and empty it out with your cup. Or you could dig a new hole and do the same. Empty the water with your cup and let the new water filter in. I have drank swamp water many times and have yet to have a bad reaction but you need to know how to recognize when its safe. 

 

There is another pump in the Robert Lakes area that taps into a deep sulphur water source. We all used to fill our canteens from this pump. Unfortunately I can no longer find the location and this was the days before GPS. I wrote the story here . http://gladesgodeep.ning.com/forum/topics/may-trip-gator-hook-to?id... with old pictures here: http://api.ning.com/files/TJkgTC4QyWB9nb-bbrB*zZDRUPF4BLPuw83cQw6dv...

_

_

_

Its not hard to pound a pipe in the ground to obtain potable water in the Everglades region. There are pumps scattered throughout the Big Cypress but the NPS will cap them off as they find them. I wish they wouldnt do this. I think they are concerned about lawsuits.  Maybe if enough prople complain, the NPS will stop this practice. Its a shame that a few bad apples ruin it for everyone else. I heard a lady drove into a pot hole on Loop Road and is suing the NPS.   

[Michael Palozzola]

I didn't have a GPS with me on this specific trek so I didn't want to get off the trail to explore for possible water, the entire length of the trail was dry cracked mud, there was absolutely NO water along the trail the only place which I could have probably dug in soft mud and gotten water would be around the 3 miles mark when you get into the hardwood area. There are a few deeper pits along that trail that were still slightly moist at the surface so water was probably only a few inches down. When we went back a few weeks later, we came prepared and didn't RELY on the pump being there or having water (luckily because by the time we got there in the beginning of June that well was actually dry, so there was NO water to be had). But myself and my buddy had brought about 9L of water between the two of us, so we just rationed it out reasonably from the start.

------------------------------------------------

I definitely learned a few things along this trek as far as my pack goes:

My first aid kit now has iodine tablets in it

I always carry my Jetboil Ti Sol camping stove with me now (1.3lbs for fuel/stove/a and cup)

When ever possible my Jungle hammock goes with me (3.3 lbs)

When I cant carry my hammock, then at the least the rainfly comes with for artificial shade

--------------------------------------------------

I'd be interested in going back and exploring a bit more around the FL Trail as well as heading north off US41. If you are ever looking for someone to head out with, I'd be more then willing to go I'm just about an hr and a half from the Oasis Center

[Robert Sobczak]

Trial and error is the only way to learn ... (especially when it comes to camping/hiking in the great outdoors).  That being said I limit my excursions to an hour or two at most.

[Swamp Hunter]

Sure if I get a chance to go out, I will let you know.   I need to buy some iodine tablets myself.  Maybe even a water filter.

 

When I get a chance Ill tell some stories about people lost in the swamp. It used to be a very common occurrance.

[Michael Palozzola]

I work some weekends but I'm off every Saturday definitely so I'm always up for a trip out there.

I also did pick up a .01 micro water filter which is decent but not what I would want ideally. The one that I want is 250$ and unfortunately I don't have that kind of money.

[Swamp Hunter]

After my experience, I now carry a baggie of coffee filters in my pouch for emergency. I figure its got to be better than my headnet or T shirt. I should invest in a filter as well.

[Robert Sobczak]

Amazing how well low tech can work. 

[Michael Palozzola]

The filter that I really want is the Katadyn Pocket Water Microfilter. Its pricy but after a whole bunch of reasearch as far as ease of use / size / weight / and ability to pump from standing water without batteries ... This is the one I settled on. granted it still cant CREATE water or make Salt water into fresh lol but as far as filtering water its one of the best.

--------------------------------------

Also If i remember right simple charcoal pulled from your campfire the night before can be used in conjunction with any sort of particulate filter (sock, coffee filter, tshirt) in order to help low tech filter iffy water.

[Swamp Hunter]

I just figure that the coffee filters dont weigh anything and they can stay in my pouch. I have a bag that stays packed at all times ready to go. A filter would be better.

 

I want to share a true story. In the 80's my wife and I visited Shark Valley and took a little ride on the tram. The Park Ranger invited everyone to step off the train and taste the water. This is very true. I may have pictures. She cupped her hands and scooped some swamp water and drank it with a smile. I drank it, my wife drank it and many tourists on board did the same. 

 

The ENP ranger said it was safe to drink and in most cases this is true.  I guess they have learned a lot since the 80's but since then I have never been afraid to scoop and drink flowing swamp water in the grass in an emergency situation..