Six Days Afloat in the Everglades

From a distance, the mouth of the creek was indistinguishable from the thick tangle of mangroves that concealed it — as if the narrow waterway were only willing to reveal itself to those who knew to look.

We approached attentively, unhurriedly, scanning the banks for alligators and wading birds. Twenty feet in front of us, a white ibis, hunting in the shallows with its long curved bill, squawked and took flight, fluttering out of sight.

A few minutes later, we found ourselves under a canopy of overarching branches. With the tide ever so slightly in our favor, I lifted my paddle and felt my kayak being pulled gently along, the mangroves and their many inhabitants — most of them hidden — scrolling past my periphery.

I closed my eyes to focus on the soundscape. The distant splash of a fish leaping from the water. The slow crescendo of a gust of wind passing through the trees. Silence.