Section 1: Big Cypress Swamp, 30 miles
The trail starts at the Big Cypress National Preserve Oasis Visitor Center, pretty much 50 miles due East of Miami. I arranged for a local shuttle, and coordinated in advance with the driver to pick up a canister of stove fuel, since I couldn't take one on the airplane. She was on time, the trip to the visitor center uneventful, and soon I was signed in and underway.
Big Cypress protects over 700,000 acres of freshwater swamp in the northern everglades. The trail runs north through it for 30 miles, finally exiting at a rest area on I-75.
Hikers generally take 3 or 4 days to cross the swamp. Since I was starting around noon, didn't know what I was getting into, and didn't want to overextend myself right away on a 2 month trip, I planned for 4 days and 3 nights.
The swamp was awesome, and certainly kicks off the hike with a bang. The first half is mostly dry with occasionally some mud and wading. At first I tried to keep my feet dry, but soon realized that was hopeless. My shoes were soaked within the first hour, and stayed that way until day 5. I didn't push hard, and took 2 days to cover the first 17 miles. The next day and a half were mile after mile of mostly mid-calf deep wading. The footing alternated between slick and slippery, sticky, shoe sucking mud, and occasional good hard bottom as a tease. The water in most places was, amazingly, crystal clear. It did take a little getting used to pulling water to drink from what I was already standing in, vs a seperate, distinct pond or stream as on other trails. The trees were mostly small cypress, often laden with bromeliad epiphytes. This made for an otherwordly landscape. The pictures below hardly do it justice, as you're surrounded by it in all directions and literally immersed in it. Very, very cool. There are some dry islands every few miles, and those are the only opportunity to sit and rest. One, about two-thirds of the way through, was named "Thank God Island", forshadowing the difficulty of reaching it. On night 3, I was the only hiker on the small island I camped on, and can now lay claim to spending a night on a deserted island :)
Around noon on the fourth day, I was happy to pop out of the swamp at a rest area on I75. Best bonus feature of the rest area? It had an outdoor, emergency decontamination shower. The high water volume was quite welcome after three and a half days in the swamp!
