Sleeping Alligator
The day was warm, sometime
in the spring or early summer, The water level was unusually high, as I
recall. This particular trip to Camp Six Pack in the Big Cypress was not
a hunting trip but rather a trip to repair the roof of the sleeping cabin.
Steve, Jon, Tony, Hoss, Tom and myself (Jim) were there. We had finished
roofing the cabin and had some free time to goof off. When Steve decided
he wanted to walk around the pine island to look for any signs of game
or maybe to pick out a likely site to place a tree stand. He asked me if
I wanted to go along and I said "sure". I recall wearing my combat boots
from my tour of duty with the Air Force. I remembered that these boots
had certainly lasted a long time and been through some rough times, as
we were slogging through the wet buggy trails to the east of Camp Six Pack.
Steve wanted to see
how high the water was in the Flag Pond. Flag ponds get their names from
the vegetation at the center of the Cypress Tree Strands. I don't know
the botanical name for these plants, but the flower portion looks similar
to a white flag waving in the sea of green that surrounds them.This pond
is frequently the home of alligators and I recall thinking that we could
stumble across one if we continued going deeper in the Flag pond. The water
was well over my thigh when we thought better of going further in. These
cypress strands are one of my favorite places in the Big Cypress and few
people have ever been in one and I recall thinking how beautiful and serene
they seemed to be. They are a cool respite to the warm high grounds that
surround them.
It seemed only logical
that coming out on the other side of the flag pond, we would find the water
table to be lower and and therefore less likely for alligators to be stumbled
upon. What we found was an area of cypress that had been logged many years
ago. At one time there was rail system that went from the hard road (Tamiami
Trail) to the logging sites throughout the Big Cypress. The railroad ties
were made from cutting cypress trees and laying them as a base for the
rail system. The logging was profitable when cypress trees were being used
as fence posts many years ago. These fence post lasted a long time because
of the cypress trees resistance to weather after harvesting. The area we
had just come out on, had been one of the harvest sites for the logging
of cypress trees.
I recall saying to Steve
that the stumps from the harvest of these trees were very large as he and
I were both standing on one with the water still above our boots and I
was just about ready to step off of the stump when Steve held me back and
pointed down at our feet. There, right at our feet in the water was a six
foot alligator. Steve said don't move, but my feet were already going backwards
to get on the other side of the cypress stump from this prehistoric beast.
Steve slowly backed off himself and as we composed ourselves and discussed
how close I came to stepping on this gator's head. Steve spotted a narrow
cypress tree log and motioned me to be quiet as he slowly approached to
within tapping distance to what had to be a sleeping alligator, taking
an afternoon siesta. Steve lightly tapped the snout of the alligator and
the sleeping alligator became a wall of water that exploded as he tore
through the water towards the Flag pond we had just come through. I only
know the direction because It moved so fast the wake he created washed
over the top of the cypress stump, I had taken refuge on. Later when we
talked about it we wondered why we just didn't jump on it's back and wrestle
it like the Indians do. Yea right!
This story provided
by Jim 12/00
