A Hike Through the Jungle

Okay.

I know it's not really the jungle, but this is a close as we've ever been.

Above you can see the trailhead for the trail Jonah and I were looking to hike today.

We drove all around the park by the National Sea Shore and Cape Canaveral looking for the perfect trail.

We decided to do one quick loop and if we survived, then come back and do another.

Within twenty feet of the trailhead we saw a snake.

Eek!

Jonah was ready to turn back.

But I wasn't having it.  No.  We are doing this thing.

Face the fears.

And we kept on.

The bugs were insane.

We were wearing Deep Woods Off.

These bugs were at a whole other level.

They scoffed at our bug spray.  They heckled us.  They swam in the pools of it on our arms.

But we kicked that trail's butt.

Jonah founds these.  We thought they might be Butterfly eggs... but we weren't sure.

Then we thought they looked an awful lot like poison ivy berries.

Which would have been unfortunate.

But nah, they were too sticky.

We pocketed them for good.

After we finished the first trail (2 miles) we decided to try another (much shorter).

There were some warnings:

You know... like "watch out for feral hogs"... and such.

You know... normal stuff...


The feral hog almost had Jonah turning back again, but I convinced him to go on in spite of bugs, heat, and general insanity that he has now come to associate with his maternal parent.

About halfway around the second loop, I ran into a spider's web.

Jonah screamed.

Okay - I admit it was somewhat terrifying, especially considering it was red and yellow and decidedly bigger than my hand...

^^^^^^^^^^  That's the one.

And yet... we survived!

We are here another day to tell another tale!

And on our way out to the parking lot we passed some other hikers.

Florida residents.

No bug spray.

Very tan.

Short shorts.

And flipflops.

There are levels of fear...