Kristina Baines

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• Kristina Baines submitted on Hugh Taylor Birch State Park in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
  about 1 year ago

  

  Walk the opposite direction from the beach-bound crowds to the end of the southeast parking lot and you'll find a portal to another time. The Hammock Trail is a path back to old Florida, when Native Americans shared grapes and figs from these trees with shipwrecked Spanish explorers. While wrapping yourself in the dangling maze of strangler fig roots is a worthwhile diversion, it's sharpening the senses and spotting a glistening web of bullet-proof strength attended by a camouflaged golden orb weaver that's the prime objective. Banana spiders, as they are called for their distinctive coloration, often weave directly across the trail. If you are first in the morning, prepared to weave yourself under and around. An added benefit to getting low is that your eyes are drawn up to the spears of morning sunlight penetrating the canopy above. Follow them and find a leaf of the wild coffee, used by the former hammock residents to stop the bleeding in small cuts, or the aptly named paradise tree, used as an anti-malarial. The hammock is filled with small wonders.

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