Frogwatch wrote:
Went "Swamp Stompin" yesterday in search of springs deep in the swamps
north of Wakulla Springs near Tallahassee. Several small springs are
listed as being up in the woods there and we even had GPS coords.
Believing the cold might still be keeping the snakes in their holes so
it might be safer to walk in the muck along the edge of the swamp we
went looking for em.
First one was easy to find near a trail, a small pool about 15' across
with clear water and a good outflow. GPS showed the next one well
into the swamp.
Finally "found" the next one by seeing the clear water about 150' out
into the swamp and we tried to get near it by stepping from one
cypress knee to another across logs and branches. Suddenly, one "log"
opened its mouth to show a big white inside and then slithered into
the dark water. The gator had been sunning itself and leaves had
fallen onto his back and the mud on his back made him look just like
one of the rotten logs.
We retreated to more solid ground and walked deeper into the swamp
staying on areas we could walk without going into the water and being
careful to look ahead. No more gators and we finally found the third
spring, small and far enough into the water where we could not really
get to it all that revealed it was the pool of clear water.
Better to be in the woods dodging gators than to be inside.


Gosharoonie, when I was seven or eight, I used to hike with my buddies
along what is now called the Regicides Trail. There was a mountain
spring that cascaded down through the rocks and we'd walk to a point
where you could get a hell of a cold drink if you held your head upside
down under the mini-waterfall. Oh...plenty of snakes up there, too. We
had a pact with them...we left them alone and they left us alone. No
alligators.