Fire Prairie & Wagon Wheel Rd

Back in the Big Cypress National Preserve, this time to hike the Fire Prairie Trail. I, of course, did this at sunrise which made for a memorable drive down a fairly rough road in the dark. The trail starts off with a small cypress swamp section. Lots of birds on the way in. There were still some around when I finished this out and back trail, but at that point the alligators were out. Had to film those!
I didn't find a lot of wildlife out on the prairie, other than more birds. I did find a decidedly white millipede. I didn't know there was such a thing.
After the hike I drove to a few more stops within the preserve, just to see what they were like.
I skipped HP Williams Wayside Park since I had been there before, and instead stopped at the Kirby Storter Roadside Park. The boardwalk there was closed after a short distance so I should have skipped this spot too.
Next up was the famous Gator Hook Trail. It's one of those trails in the water and it was really fun, until some fish swam into and under my feet scaring the bejesus out of me. lol
I only went about a mile in, but it was really nice.
My final hike of the day was the Deep Lake Trail. It starts a bit odd, because you just park on the side of a highway and walk through a gate into a fire station. Trail is off to the side and not marked. One of the firemen let me know the trail floods out before the end. That was fine for me since I was more or less doing a sampling of the trails that day.
At sunset I got the Ebike out and started to pedal the Wagon Wheel Road Scenic Loop. This was enjoyable until the un-forecasted rain began. Made for some dramatic skies though. Before they opened up I was able to find more birds and gators, similar to how my day started.