Mammoth Goes to See the Manatee, Day 4

Thursday December 2

Pancake breakfast! Yummy even though I almost forgot the blueberries. The first three cakes had to go without their berry deliciousness.

 

After that we drove over to the springs, taking the dogs in case we found someplace for them to walk. No manatees!  Gorgeous crystal clear water so full of fishes it made my casting arm twitch. But it wasn't very deep and we didn't see any of them. We also went to the boat ramp at the primitive camping area and didn't see any there, either, although the people at the marina across the way might have been viewing them. I bet they were. They were on the shady side--we had the sun in our eyes.

No birds except a pair of Bald Eagles circling like vultures over the parking lot. Magnificent.

After that Molly and I got in a long jog. We went back to the day use area and primitive camping area, on our own legs this time, then round the campsite. it was fifty minutes by then and we were headed back to home base when I saw what appeared to be a trail off to the east of the campground. It turned out to be a "social trail"--a cut-through from the campground to Bear Scat Trail. A beautiful, wide trail through the tall trees, marked so well I could jog it. So I did. A number of places were loose sand--horrid jogging surface--and other places had exposed roots--trippers!  Molly and I soldiered on.

We went on for ten or so minutes and I couldn't tell where the trail was going (I didn't know the name at the time nor did I know that it was a loop around), so we turned back. When we got back to our starting point, we went on to see where it went. And that's when I saw this:

 

I lost all heart for going further (we'd gotten a lot more exercise than I'd planned) and we only went a little while before turning back. And that's when I met the man and woman I'd met walking around the springs the night before. It was they who confirmed the identity of the pile of bear scat (fresh, by the way), the name of the trail and the loopy nature. Maybe tomorrow or the next way we'll get a chance to take the whole thing.

Only birds were Sandhill Cranes!  Three of them croaking at each other from different locations during our morning dog walk. We saw one of them fly over before they went a out their birdly business.. I played the allaboutbirds.org website recording of their call to Ed, and he confirmed. Plus, saw them flying.

We ate dinner at this seafood restaurant on a lake nearby. Outdoors, on a porch overlooking the lake, was packed with people. But it was chilly and going to get dark soon, so we opted for indoors. Fried oysters! Superb.