Monday December someteenth at 5:57 PM I dropped DeWitt back into the trail. After meeting him in the same spot days earlier. I did some shooting as he faded into the trail the way baseball players faded into the cornfield in Field of Dreams.

I wondered did this just really happen? We both come from the Tampa bay area. I moved here from Tarpon Springs in 1973, he lives in Tampa. 

Maybe he was Santa Claus, he did leave gifts, of insight and observations yes, he was following stars too on this trail journey.  DeWitt did happen and as if in The Wizard of Oz I just spent talk time with the tin man, lion and scarecrow rolled into one. The Wizard pulling the magic levers and connecting the reality was the Florida Trail.  I live here and have for 33 years, the trail is my backyard and the world around me is much like rural Pinellas county was in the 1950s.

It was like that when I moved here and is why I moved here.  Wakulla and Franklin counties have over 70% federal and state lands and are still bio-diverse and alive with natural wonders.  I often tell people that the wildlands are better now then when I moved here. Much has been learned about fire and ecosystems, about the need for bio-diversity and about water quality and how it is the key to a healthy habitat for both man and nature. Some of these lessons are even practiced here.

DeWitt brought me back to reality on how great it is to be in the Last Best Natural Place in Florida. I still love Pinellas and lead trips on the Pinellas trail a few times a year but that is urban and a needed but different wild. I have watched as St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker has began to turn the city into a safer place for bicyclist and pedestrians after the town was labeled a MEAN STREETS community by the national press a few years ago. I grew up on the Anclote river, it was wild and I miss it.

This summer I watched as a 100 pound lab was gobbled up by an alligator as I prepared a kayak trip with a few paddlers. A little yip was all there was, the gator wasn’t aggressive just opportunistic. He had waited all summer, we watched him waiting for the opportunity, so did the dogs owners. It is his place, the gators, not ours, the Saint Marks National Wildlife Refuge. He gobbled, sank to the bottom for 15 minutes then swam off with doggie in mouth while the owner was still out of control with sadness (gross understatement). No wild fight or commotion just a natural acquisition.

Those kayaker have not returned, and the gator was eaten later at a wedding down the street. I had objections to its destruction. My feelings were to erect a sign at the entrance to our neighborhood stating: DANGER Wildlands Interface, keep your pets, feral children, panic related emotions under control or turn around now—natural processes at work.  I was in the minority however with the sign idea so the gator that ate the dog got eaten by the wedding party, so did I eat the dog? Yep!  I have learned to go with the flow if needed, but to always give options for discussion without anger.

To not spoil the magic here for future generations we have to learn to honor it and leave it to its natural processes. Hard, you bet, but for the most part North Florida is still wild and that wildness protrudes into the reality like a big red rat snake eatin a squirrel on your screened porch. 

Politics too follow the wild side with Wakulla being the last remaining county in Florida with an unincorporated county seat.  I just tell people I live 35 miles and 100 years south of Tallahassee and they understand.  I love it all and it all is connected, those frontier politics and the natural bio-diverse frontier we play in.

I witnessed it grab DeWitt by the heart and soul, fog his mind for a moment then spin him in time to a place not without either history or nature. It hit him like Oz hit Dorothy and he rattled of it for days.  It was always a part of him you bet, in dreams and in a world more nature driven then Tampa. He found Oz and just maybe we shouldn’t look behind the curtain, we should just leave it all alone and observe the wonders and magic we call North Florida, nature knows how to manage nature. 

Mike mentioned fishing and me, well it is actually an acquisition program that began about 7 years ago using kayaks. Kayak fishing to me is like being the invisible man in a bank robbery. I do love to filet but I love to observe more and the kayak has opened my eyes to more observable natural processes than I can process.

I have played with about all the motorized boating options (except jet skis) but the kayak has won my heart and soul.  Kayaks are more than stealth and less than no impact, sharks run into it while feeding and porpoises procreate as I sit quietly and wait for my dinner to do the water dance before entering the kayak.

I love fish and love to release gently too. I debarb and only use single hooks. Fishing is primal to me and essential, it is life and my travels as I fish for information for my films. Mike let me fish into his mind and minds eye for days, special is a small word when it comes to trails and when it comes to sharing experiences, thanks Mike.

Get out you lovers of life and explore the trails in your neighborhood and beyond, you will have no regrets. And if you need a mission, assist in creating trails in and around your town.

From Sopchoppy Florida the Worm Gruntin Capital of the World
Sopchoppy Robby