To Hell('s Bay) and Back

I'll be honest, getting back into the swing of things was not the easiest thing, nor was it really what I wanted to do.  I had a blast during break with my family and friends and wasn't ready to say goodbye again for another three or four months. Over Christmas break I did miss my guys, but what I really missed, though I didn't realize it at the then, was my time with the Lord.  Upon returning home, I found that I quickly returned to my old habits and had a hard time of retaining those from the gap year.  Namely daily prayer and Bible reading.  Since Christmas, I've quickly realized that having time set aside to spend time with Lord is my favorite part about being here with LeaderTreks.  Subsequently, it was my favorite part of my time in the Everglades recently.  I went back to read one of my journal entrees and I said "I always feel better after prayer. Why don't I do it more often?" So that's what I've been doing, praying more often!

The trip started well, we were all excited to be seeing each other again and preparing ourselves for another crazy adventure.  We left Monday the 4th of January for the most southern tip of Florida, we could not have gone further south of Florida save for the Keys.  We embarked in snow and hopped out of the Silver Bullet in warm and sunny South Florida.   

As we set sail, two to a canoe, we were thinking mostly of the prospect of seeing the likes of manatees and dolphins and sharks (more to come on that later), but what we weren't expecting turned out to be what we say most of.  Bugs.  Hundreds and thousands of Mosquitos and no-see-ums swarmed as the sun dropped below the horizon and we were setting up camp that first night.  It was unlike anything I have ever seen.  Straight out of a horror movie.  Needless to say, we quickly learned our lesson and the rest of our nights we were snug in our tents before sunset and asleep as darkness fell.  It was the only way we could beat the bugs.  I'll spare you the gory details, but I will say that the inside of our tent looked like a battle field by the end of our Everglades adventure.  The thing was covered in blood and mosquito guts.  It was gross.  Writing this is bringing back memories I hoped to forget forever so I'm moving on.  

Our first few nights we camped on the beach. Sounds like a dream, right? Wrong. The bugs made the beach sites almost unbearable once the day cooled off a bit at night. Our first night, the "beach site" we stayed at was all muddy clay. I hopped out of my boat onto shore and instantly my feet we stuck in thick sloppy clay, far from the beautiful sand I was expecting. This was our worst mosquito night as well. Made for a bit of a challenging first night, but things could only get better from there! As I said, we learned our lesson quickly and did the best we could to beat the bugs the rest of the way out. Two more nights were spent on beach sites, though the final beaches were real sandy beaches, not the clay junk we dealt with that first night. The last half of the trip, we camped on things called chickees. I have no idea if I'm spelling that right, but they resembled decks in the middle of the water. These places were much better for bugs (save one horrifying morning) and made for a nice way to close out our time on the water. 

This was our clay site. Not the best. 

This is Corbin and I cooking dinner at Hell's Bay on our chickee. Each chickee we stayed at was the same and consisted of two sides like the one you see here behind us. 

As difficult as the nights were, our days on the boats were that much better.  I loved being out on the water and in canoes.  I mentioned earlier about manatees and sharks and things.  This is where I come back to that because we DID see each of those.  In fact, I saw with my own eyes and in the wild, manatees, a shark, dolphins, a flamingo, a flying sting ray (the thing jumped two feet out of the water!!) and a plenty of fish.  It was like being at an aquarium except we were in the wild.  It was amazing to be up close and personal with God's creation in that way.  I'm still pretty sure I called in the manatees with my rousing rendition of the timeless Veggie Tales classic, "Barbara Manatee". 

Little known fact: Manatees have horrible breath. 

One of the last days, I was put in charge of navigating us out of the most difficult portion of our trip to navigate, out of Hell's Bay.  This place is adequately named for how it felt to try and navigate.  Every turn looked the same as the last and every patch of glades mirrored the one before.  Somehow though, I managed to lead us out of Hell's Bay only getting lost once.  If you were sitting in one of our boats trying to get out of the place, you'd be a lot more impressed that you are right now. Upon finding our way out of Hell's maze, Corbin and I celebrated with a bag of cheez its I'd had in my be all week. It was well worth the wait! I love those things, especially after a week of wilderness food like backpacker's pantry and cheese and crackers. 

My favorite part of the trip was returning to the habit of daily prayer and Bible reading. I loved getting to see His creation through open waters and beautiful sunsets and misty mornings and giant sea cows, but nothing beat the time I spent one on one with Him. Quietly listening and being content in His presence. 

Ben Hershberger