A Hike near Homestead

Recently, on a beautiful, sunny day, we decided to drive down beyond Homestead so Wayne could take a 13 1/2 mile, one-way, hike along the C-111 canal. We left bright and early, enjoyed our drive, arrived at the starting point, and Wayne got all ready!

You can just imagine his disappointment when we arrived at the water control crossing for the canal to discover that it was under construction and not accessible!

However, as we left the highway, I had noticed a sign and trail entrance, so we walked back along the road to see if there was another way to get to it. Nope! That road had a fence across it as well.

We were at point #1, with the original plan to end at point #3. There was also another road access near point #2, so we drove to check that out.

We found the end of the paved road, walked a bit down the dirt road, but didn't see anything to connect us to the main trail, so retraced our steps and drove around to the other end, point #3.

We thought we might head the opposite direction down the "yellow highlighted" trail to see if the other water control tower was under construction, but then noticed another little parking area, the start of the "purple" trail on the map above. It looked like that might be a good choice for the day's outing, so off Wayne set.

It turned out to be a ten mile hike for him (5 miles down and 5 miles back), and other than being a bit buggy (hooray for mosquito netting), he had a great time. I hadn't brought along hiking boots, so I chose to read a book while waiting for him to return. We were both quite satisfied with our choices.

Last month on our visit to the Everglades, we passed by a little corner fruit stand where dozens of cars were parked. This time we decided we'd be one of those cars and check out their milkshakes. We were not disappointed and can understand why "Robert is Here" is so busy.

Each of our selections - Papaya Key Lime Milkshake and Passion Fruit Milkshake - was delicious!

While waiting for our number to be called, we explored their unique selection of honey, tropical fruits, other produce, pickles and preserves. Wayne was particularly intrigued with this aisle, and would have purchased the first jar on the top shelf, except that it was Brussel Sprouts Pickles. That was just too much, even for him, so we got some apricot preserves, from the middle of the shelf, as a souvenir.

Good-bye beautiful everglades. We'll be back!