Big Cypress National Preserve - Bear Island Unit
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From: Orlando - FL
Big Cypress National Preserve - Bear Island Unit
Here's a little video of my trip out to Big Cypress - Bear Island on Saturday.
It's dry season down there and we wanted to survey the trails and get a feel for where the problem spots might lie before we go back and stay for a weekend during hurricane/wet season.
Big Cypress - Bear Island - YouTube
I am also interested in photography so I tried my hand at some time-lapse shots with wifey's Canon SLR. I'm sure if I had read the directions, but as it stands the Go-Pro Hero 2 was better. Still I really enjoy setting up on the Garvin roof rack with the tripod and at least looking like a real photographer...dream a little dream - right?
We saw plenty of gators, but I would have liked to get some other wildlife as well. Hardly even any birds. For a few seconds I did see the back side of a... something with grey haunches bigger than any racoon I've ever seen, and a little tail - as it was running away. There are plenty of backwoods pad campsites with no water or hookups, and waterless privys back at the gate. Bring everything you will need to survive a couple of days out here, because if you break down it could be quite a while before you see anybody. We saw 1 other jeeper, 3 bicycles, and 1 hiker in a 5 hour 15 mile loop.
It is really surprising to me how remote this piece of land is to access. It took us just over an hour to get to the gate from I-75 and Rt. 29 but you had better make sure you have plenty of fuel because the closest gas station I found is Rt 41 and Rt 29 approx 35 miles away (mostly graded dirt road at 30mph). Seriously, except for Moab I've never felt so O U T there away from it all. In reality I-75 is only about 10 miles as the crow flies (total bushwack).
Anybody in Florida can get a ORV for Street-legal 4x4 to go into this area, but most of it is passable by a VW beetle during dry season. They only give out 2000 permits/year and that includes airboats.
Funny short story: After driving for about 45 min on the graded dusty washboard road we came across some Europeans on motorcycles hanging out under the I-75 underpass, looking perplexed. I stopped to ask if they had water, and they asked if there was anyway to get up to the interstate
Some cruel SOB had told them they cold get 'to' the Interstate down this road. The cute young lady did not seem happy when she heard me say:
"Unfortunately not, it's pretty much a dead-end back here..." and I explained to them how to get back to the main roads.
I've been lost in foreign countries before, but at least I had Guinness
It's dry season down there and we wanted to survey the trails and get a feel for where the problem spots might lie before we go back and stay for a weekend during hurricane/wet season.
Big Cypress - Bear Island - YouTube
I am also interested in photography so I tried my hand at some time-lapse shots with wifey's Canon SLR. I'm sure if I had read the directions, but as it stands the Go-Pro Hero 2 was better. Still I really enjoy setting up on the Garvin roof rack with the tripod and at least looking like a real photographer...dream a little dream - right?
We saw plenty of gators, but I would have liked to get some other wildlife as well. Hardly even any birds. For a few seconds I did see the back side of a... something with grey haunches bigger than any racoon I've ever seen, and a little tail - as it was running away. There are plenty of backwoods pad campsites with no water or hookups, and waterless privys back at the gate. Bring everything you will need to survive a couple of days out here, because if you break down it could be quite a while before you see anybody. We saw 1 other jeeper, 3 bicycles, and 1 hiker in a 5 hour 15 mile loop.
It is really surprising to me how remote this piece of land is to access. It took us just over an hour to get to the gate from I-75 and Rt. 29 but you had better make sure you have plenty of fuel because the closest gas station I found is Rt 41 and Rt 29 approx 35 miles away (mostly graded dirt road at 30mph). Seriously, except for Moab I've never felt so O U T there away from it all. In reality I-75 is only about 10 miles as the crow flies (total bushwack).
Anybody in Florida can get a ORV for Street-legal 4x4 to go into this area, but most of it is passable by a VW beetle during dry season. They only give out 2000 permits/year and that includes airboats.
Funny short story: After driving for about 45 min on the graded dusty washboard road we came across some Europeans on motorcycles hanging out under the I-75 underpass, looking perplexed. I stopped to ask if they had water, and they asked if there was anyway to get up to the interstate
Some cruel SOB had told them they cold get 'to' the Interstate down this road. The cute young lady did not seem happy when she heard me say:"Unfortunately not, it's pretty much a dead-end back here..." and I explained to them how to get back to the main roads.
I've been lost in foreign countries before, but at least I had Guinness
