826 October 22, 2022 Biking At Nike

Another good three mile walk in the cool morning air.  There was a very fresh pile of what we believe is bear scat right on the campground loop.  We read that animals like to mark their territory with scat and that they often use paths and trails.  That makes sense!

We packed a picnic and took the Jeep with the bikes to the Nike Site Road.  We parked at one end and biked to the other.  Our round trip was 8.5 miles.  It was a nice easy ride on a straight, flat, and newly paved road with gorgeous scenery. It was 78 degrees and we had a pleasant breeze…perfect riding! It doesn’t get much better than that!

We saw lots of egg shells by the road.  We are not sure if there is an animal robbing bird nests or maybe someone used chicken eggs as bait to draw animals out.  It is a riddle! There were more than half a dozen empty eggs.  We are always reminded; the more we see…the more we realize how much we do not know! 

A small snake hit by a car in the road.

Did you know that a single dragonfly eats hundreds of mosquitos every day? we like having these guys around.

We drove to Royal Palm and walked the Anhinga Trail.  This area was crowded with international tourists.  We saw a mama gator and her babies and not much else.  Later in the year, during the dry season, there will be lots of gators and birds here.

We drove to Long Pine Key and found a table in the shade.

After lunch, we drove to Mahogany Hammock and walked that trail.

On the way back we stopped at West Lake and sat watching the water…no wildlife there either.

We grilled bison burgers and brussel sprouts and enjoyed a delicious papaya from Robert’s.

We drove to Florida Bay to watch the sunset.  We are warm and outside and active and eating mostly healthy foods.  We are trying to take care in our retirement.