{"id":23457,"date":"2020-08-16T01:00:54","date_gmt":"2020-08-16T08:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.nrs.com\/?p=23457"},"modified":"2020-08-13T15:18:44","modified_gmt":"2020-08-13T22:18:44","slug":"ten-thousand-islands-ten-minute-meals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/2020\/08\/16\/ten-thousand-islands-ten-minute-meals\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten Thousand Islands, Ten-Minute Meals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our eyes lock. My presence doesn\u2019t seem to disturb the great blue heron, typically a skittish bird. No doubt it has become accustomed to campers in its kitchen. It is twelve feet away from our tent, hunting a tidal inlet connecting the Gulf to an inland lagoon. The heron jerks its head from side to side, scanning for crabs and stranded fish while progressing in slow deliberate steps, a stride so exaggerated it appears cartoonish.<\/p>\n

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My wife and I are camping on Rabbit Key, an island off the coast of Florida that is part of Everglades National Park<\/a> and the Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge<\/a>. When most people hear about a trip in the Everglades, they envision swamps and alligators. And while a majority of the park is thick vegetation and narrow waterways, its southwest border is comprised of sporadic islands, many of them small and isolated from each other by miles of ocean.<\/p>\n

This is the area of the Everglades where my wife and I like to visit, preferring the large tropical beaches to the confined camps in the swamp. After picking up our permits from the Gulf Coast Visitor Center in Everglades City, we head out of the brackish bay and navigate tight passes until the horizons open into the Gulf.<\/p>\n

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Though the mangrove forests, sunsets, and sandy beaches are picturesque, the scenery in the Everglades can be somewhat repetitious. Especially when you can see your destination an hour or more in advance. What makes Ten Thousand Islands special is the variety of flora and fauna.<\/p>\n

The Everglades is unusual among the National Parks in that its protection doesn\u2019t derive from interesting geological features but the ecosystems it encompasses. The mangroves, reptiles, fish, birds, and insects are to the Everglades, what waterfalls, geysers, and mountains are to Yosemite and Yellowstone. Out on the islands, we don\u2019t encounter the snakes and alligators so often associated with the park, but we do see osprey and eagles, dolphins and sharks, horseshoe crabs and ornate mollusks.<\/p>\n

I continue to watch the heron as I set up the kitchen near a small cluster of vegetation. Where yesterday my wife and I were hunting shade from the sun, today we are seeking shelter from the wind. Mosquitoes are not an issue tonight as we are berated with 20-mile-an-hour gusts. And even if insects could fly in this weather, they would have a hard time biting through our puffy coats and thermals. These are not the conditions I wanted in a Florida vacation; however, at least the wind and cooler temperatures are keeping away the No-See-Ums that chewed on us this morning.<\/p>\n