Hiking Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller
Date: December 4, 2023
This .7-mile loop trail on boardwalks and foot paths winds through dense seasonally flooded forests. Basically, it was very swampy and reminded me of Congaree National Park in South Carolina. Along the trail we saw a dozen large golden silk spiders. They are very colorful with yellow and black markings on the body with tufts of hair on the legs. The ranger told me the spider web silk is extraordinarily strong and withstands twice the stretching as nylon. The web has even been used as a fishing net. The large spiders made Rosie very alert and uneasy. A couple Florida orange trees existed in the thick hammock, and I picked up a newly fallen orange to eat. As we hiked the temperature climbed to 82 degrees, humidity and mosquitos bugged us in this jungle-like, marshy hammock.
