January 7, 2015 Palmetto Island State Park canoe trail, Louisiana

Beautiful sunny, high 50’s day.

John leaving Eagle Lake. The palmettos are the green shrubs by the water with the palm tree like leaves.

Rushes and live oak trees line the trail here. We rounded the corner and the trail is chocked with floating mats of non native noxious water hyacinth and duck weed. John had to break a trail through them. They slow you down and wrap around your paddle and make going tough.

Top photo is water hyacinth and duck weed. The duck weed is the tiny green leaves, the hyacinth have floats in the stems. The bottom photo is another water plant. John checking out a weird looking cypress tree.

 

Right before the Vermillion river there is a water weir, or dam. This is what the tannin colored swamp water looks like when it is white water.  John paddling below Spanish moss.

This huge armadillo was on the bank, it ignored me until I could almost touch it, then it ran off.  We also saw  a red cardinal, but I was not fast enough to get a photo. John saw a nutria, they are large rodents that were introduced for their skins.

 

Beautifully sunny and green. We were the only ones out. John paddling under a tree.

Me following close behind.  Mackerel sky –high wind clouds in the afternoon.

 

Oh yah, beware of alligators. There were none out, they are reptiles and it is too cold for them. They hibernate in the mud. They only eat things small enough to swallow , they don’t chew their food. They don’t bother adults, they actually see us a predators and usually slip into the water and disappear when they hear us or see us. You leave them alone, they leave you alone.