This is the beginning of the wet season. The summer weather pattern - Atlantic breezes meeting Gulf breezes - creates afternoon thunderstorms which fill up the swamps, now mostly dry. We saw these storms beginning in Bocca Grande and continuing as we moved south. Getting a later start today and hoping to avoid the storms, we drove west on 41 to Collier-Seminole State Park where canoe trails lead through the mangrove tunnels to form the Blackwater River. We were able to rent both a SUP and kayak - amazing since we were the only ones here, making it our own private playground for the day. The ecoguide gave us directiions, Tom a special "Blackwater" lure and sent us on our way. A map would have been helpful since this is a place you don't want to get lost. We fished and paddled through mangrove mazes and down the river, somehow missing the branch to Mud Bay. We stopped for a late lunch and then headed back the way we had come. Tom lost the lure to a might snook who broke the line in the mangroves, but was able to land a smaller one - his first snook. We watched kites catching their prey and eating it midair, a manatee and her baby, flycatchers and piliated woodpeckers. Only on the trail to the native stand of Royal Palms did we meet an obstacle - the mosquito wall.
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