Today promises to be warm and dry. After my shower I'm able to take the kids for their morning perambulation dressed in a light shirt and shorts. After a relaxing morning reading the paper and watching the news we decided to go for a hike at the Brooker Creek Preserve.Brooker Creek (http://www.friendsofbrookercreekpreserve.org/about_the_preserve.htm) is a 9,800 acre mixture of cypress and bottom land swamps, freshwater marshes and pine and oak hardwood forests. Most of the natural portions of Brooker Creek were disturbed by former land-use practices; however, some splendid intact natural sections of the creek just south of the Florida Power Corporation power line still exist and eventually flow into the property’s vast riverine swamp. There are thirteen separate channels that eventually collect into one creek which ultimately feeds into Tarpon Lake which is the primary source of drinking water for northwest Pinellas county.
We arrived about 12:30 PM, parked and walked along the entry boardwalk to the education center where we watched a very well produced video. The video showed the history of the land dating back 12,000 years to the original inhabitants and the changes that occurred from differing styles of habitation. It was quite interesting. From the learning center we went out onto the trail which has several loops and walked out to where the trail becomes impassable due to recent flooding. We spotted several species of birds including a Florida Wren, three different Armadillos and a Yellow Rat Snake that must have been five feet long. After returning we walked out to the bird viewing blind near a large wetland. Finally we made it back to the car and drove to the 'Friendship Trail' located about a mile and a half away.
After deciding not to do any more hiking we drove out to Palm Harbor where Tina picked up some new paint brushes for one of her projects, then drove home. While I spent the rest of the afternoon uploading photos to the web and updating the blog, Tina took the kids for a walk then fixed dinner. Tomorrow we plan to spend a day on Caladesi Island.To see all our photos, click on:
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