Sunday, December 10, 2006

Pictures from the Phantom Ruins Hike

These are the pictures that go along with the swamp hike I took last month with my dad and history teacher. If you haven't read the written post about this, you can scroll down (it should still be on the front page) or go to my Archives section under November.
















Durbin Creek: Dark brown water and lots of logs. Your typical Floridian swamp run.















This is the fanned-out cypress tree I noted in my story. This is much more impressive to see in real life than in a picture.





















The swamp was completely dry except for a few sloughs that still held slippery muck. This is unusual, and we can thank the recent dry weather for the easy hike.





















Okay, the brush we went through was a lot thicker than this picture makes it seem. It was interesting trying to maneuver myself through all the vines while holding a 6-foot kayak paddle and snapping pictures at the same time. Fortunately, though, Mr. Sarcasm pointed out, we did not run into any briars. Ow.





















This is the open grassy area I was expecting to reach, and where Mr. Sarcasm is standing is nearly exactly where the ruins were supposed to stand.





















We walked the entire area, but there was nothing to be found but knee-high brush. It was an enjoyable walk, though.





















This is the HUGE cypres tree I have been talking about forever, but have never been able to get a picture with (thanks to that water moccasin that one time :-D). And I still didn't...I let Mr. Sarcasm be the perspective-giver in this one. We estimate this thing to have a diameter of 9 FEET, which makes it about 28 FEET around the entire trunk. Wow. This thing is easily thousands of years old. Do ya'll have any age estimates? Cypress trees grow very slowly, and it would take a LONG time for it to get this big. Do ya'll have any age estimates?

3 comments:

John Cowart said...

Thanks for adding these photos from that Nov. 22nd excursion. Wonder if those ruins could be burried?

Anonymous said...

WOW. BIG...BIG TREE!

MinorcanMeteorolgist said...

john - Anything's possible, but I say that it was most likely a 19th-century building that was torn down at some point. Disappointing, nonetheless.

paintsmh - That's exactly what I said when I first saw it :-D