Red River Gorge Dayhike

 September 25, 2020

About 8 miles mostly on unofficial trails

It was very overcast most of the day, nice hiking but not very photogenic. The clouds started breaking apart towards the end of the day.

Weird fungus that looks like coral, never noticed/seen this before

Perryville Battlefield

4/19/20 - Perryville Battlefield

The weather forecast said mid-50s and overcast, not ideal, but I could not stand the idea of all of us staying home again. My youngest saw the printed map of Perryville and said she wanted to go back, so family adventure time.

It ended up being grey and overcast, so perfect day to think in B&W.

Note the old barn tucked in the trees and the silo on the left.

That's a cannon on the horizon

Florida 2020 (part 3)

July 9, 2020

Big Cypress National Preserve

We took the slightly longer way on our return from the Keys. I had seen the "Loop Road" in Big Cypress on the map, but had missed the turn on the way south. Our friends had taken the detour on the way down and said they saw tons of gators. Since we were in no real hurry to get back to Naples, we took the long way home. 

Lots of gators, so many that the kids got bored and would not get out of the car :) I grew up in Florida and have seen tons of gators, but it had been a really long time.

This one was about 5 - 6 feet long

Another one in the 6ish feet size

Lots of gators honking, but I did not see any

The next two are the same photo, but I can't decide which crop I like better, so here are both and you can decide

I stopped at what looked to be a good spot and did not see any gators. Then I looked straight down and saw this, he is about 10ish feet and was right below my feet (I was standing on a concrete culvert). 

Photographer's shadow for perspective

Same gator, slightly better angle. 

At this point, my wife was ready to get out of the car and we had another 2 hours to go, so one last gator

We were back on the regular roads and heading for I-75 when I saw a lump in the road. This is the second turtle this summer that I've "rescued" from the middle of a road. A good way to end a trip.

 

Dry Tortugas (FL 2020 - part 2)

Dry Tortugas National Park

July 5 - 8, 2020 (3 nights)

2020 Bag nights: 17

The whole reason for going to Florida at the height of Summer was three nights camping in the Dry Tortugas. The ferry to get to the island only take 10 campers a day. We have three kids and so do our friends, so we needed a day when no other campers had reservations. We also wanted to go for three nights (the max if you take the ferry). Even though my wife was doing this last November, the earliest we could go was the beginning of July. Oh well, it would have been just as hot in June and COVID would have blown up the whole thing anyway.

We had spent a couple days at a resort type place in between Marathon and Islamorada and then drove to Key West the night before the ferry ride to the Dry Tortugas. 

After a very early morning (we had to be at the boat at 6 am to load all the gear) and a 2ish hour ferry ride, we got to Garden Key and unloaded all our camping gear and two sit on top kayaks. As we were still setting up, I looked towards the east and saw a water spout.

I quickly walked to where I could get a better photo, but it was already breaking up. 

We finished setting up and swam in the ocean, had dinner and waited for sunset. Garden Key is the site of Fort Jefferson. I went up to the top of the wall for sunset and was hoping for a good full moon rise photo as well. 

The camp area is to the left. There was a large group near by and a couple small groups, but it was very quiet. 

This is where the moon should have been appearing, but the clouds were too thick on the horizon. 

Lighthouse on Loggerhead Key (about 3 miles away)

I woke up before sunrise and grabbed my camera to go exploring

Fort Jefferson and its moat

Part of the island (Bush Key) is closed for nesting birds, they were very loud

The full moon that I missed the night before

The next day, my youngest and I went exploring inside the fort. 

Neat flower on the banana tree

Inside the walls

Shot Furnace and Wikipedia link about Heated Shot

My wife and middle kid having fun with the kayak

The whole camp area (actually the whole island) was crawling with hermit crabs. I spent a bit of time with my camera. They move really fast and it was hard to get a good photo with a shallow depth of field. I might have got carried away with the number of photos, but all the different shells and sizes were very interesting and it was too hot to do anything else :)

Old machinery on the North Beach

Another boring FL sunset

Our last morning was mostly packing up since everything had to be on the dock before the ferry arrived. We were moving slow in the heat when a neighboring camper mentioned that one of the turtle nests on the beach was hatching. Evidently he had seen about 30 hatchlings. We got there in time to see one turtle moving down the beach and then about 30 minutes later someone else said there were a couple more so we hurried back and saw two more just coming out of the nest. From the park website, I'm pretty sure they were Green Turtles.

Made it to the water

A couple short videos

This was the last one we saw out coming out of the nest. It was moving a lot slower than the other ones, but made it to the sea.

A little more wandering before getting on the boat.

Not photographed: lots of swim time, lots of happy hour time, reading in the shade, some snorkling (I saw a 6ish foot nurse shark about 10 feet below me), some fishing, kids playing hide and seek in the fort, rounds of Mafia/Werewolf before bedtime, stars and the moon. All in all an awesome three nights, hope to make it back someday.