any last advise?

“im fitten to head out to the big cypress preserve in the next couple of days, does anyone have any parting wisdom for me?”

“Advice, not advise”

“Brush your teeth”

“Don't forget clean underwear.
Your mother would be proud!”

“Don't talk to strangers!”

“Even if they offer you candy.”

“take a pair of tweezers and a mirror for tick checks and removal”

“you guys!! i'll have to log these words of wisdom away. what about the gators and panthers?

does anyone have any real advice??”

“EEWW!! is anyone from the florida area?”

“Take a gator eating dog.”

“Watch out for gators near any water source.
Watch out for snakes everywhere.
You would be lucky to see a panther.”

“Take notes - so you can tell me about it. Yes - from FL but never done the hike. Keep out of the deep woods without bug juice. It might get cold so take the layers. Take some shoes for water crossings...”

“I forgot to mention the red(fire) ants.Watch for ant piles when stopping for breaks and setting up camp.”

“Now seeing a panther world be cool just don't let it eat you.

8)”

“Hike in a pink pather suit.”

“okay, I meant panther, and I really wanted you to know that.”

“Hey Lipstick Hiker that was very funny.

I would like to see someone do that.They would more then likey get mauled by the cat.

But they would get some good pictures of the cat up close before well you know.....AGGGGGGGGGGGGGG....8)”

“Make out your will.”

“i spent most of my younger life growing up in the glades.. my advice for you is to beware of the green tree frog.. they get into everyting,and anything. definetly were bug repellent big time.. expecially after the rain. and never pick up any toads.. you will be sorry..”

“They weren't kidding about the tick checks. You really do have to look EVEYWHERE.”

“Take lots of pictures.. send in a good trip report.. and try not to get devoured by any wild beasts..

We would like to be able to hike with you again someday.”

“I only thought of the gator eating dog, because I heard a song by that name, sung by Gatemouth Brown, yesterday.”

“There is evil everywhere in this world, jcfreak4life, even Big Cypress. It's your American duty to be alert and report any suspicious activity to the Feds if you see any terrorists.”

“george i'll be watching out, dont you worry. you guys are making me laugh. i called the ranger station and they said the trail is knee deep right now, and honestly i dont have the experiance or the gear for that, so i am concidering ammending the plan. i so badly want to venture into there at some point in the week though, as far as pictures, im on top of that. o- isnt it better to burn a tick rather than pull it? something about the head breaking off and lyme disease?”

“im not sure i have a pink panther suit....”

“the trick to ticks is don't let them embed in the first place.. and there are plenty of ways to do that..”

“That sounds like a new gear opportunity to me jcfreak! lol!”

“This is what I think is probably best practice for tick removal: Tick Removal Instructions ”

“Darn HOI - just read your instructions and realize I've been doing it all wrong:

My Method:

1. Scratch part of body
2. Feel weird bump
3. Scratch weird bump - it moves!
4. Bend over uncomfortably to look at bump.
5. It's a darn tick!
6. Gently pinch tick between fingers.
7. Yank on him 'til he pops out.
8. Pinch him between fingernails until he crunches.
9. Pray to the god of chance and large numbers.
10. Offer to show tick bite to wife an/or co-workers.


Your way sounds safer though.”

“I have tried to remove a deer tick with tweezers. The tick is so small that the tweezer just flattens and breaks up the tick. Are there teeny tiny tweezers made for teeny tiny ticks and can they be used by not so teeny tiny fingers? (From a children's story?)”

“not sure what type of tweezers you were using Splash but what you want to use is a fine point or needle point tweezer or possibly a point tweezer that has been sharpened a bit. Put the points on the skin right next to the tick and push into the skin a bit to get down to head level of the tick then somewhat gently squeeze and gently pull straight out.”

“i went, i saw, i conquered. happliy there was no need for tick removal. heres an interesting fact about panthers- theres only 30 and 7 of those are in the park. (everglades). back to that panther suit, i found out that buying one of those is like buying a wet suit;P it was awesome, i did get to see a rainbow and some wild dolphins.”

“I thought it was "Veni, vedi, vici" ('I COME, I see, I conquer').

Wait -- that's backwards...”

“well tilt, i guess its whatevet works for you!! heres one carpi diem!”

“How was the trail? Wet? How about the campsite?”

“Sounds like you had a good time.

8)”

“the trail was awesome. there was hardly mud anywere. not that i got to go out on it much. the guys i was with werent into packing so we actually did car camping and touring more...but in the glades theres not much opportunity for the real deal anyhow, although we could of done at least a couple of days of hiking and then some base camping. it rocked though, i got all 8 rolls of film back, it was so cool!”

“that we got thrown off schedual and thats part of why we didnt go backpacking, our car broke down outside of orlando for a couple of days and ryan really wanted to see the keys so we truely didnt have the 3 days i planned on hiking during anyway. all you florida folk- stay away from irish mikes car service garage!”