I was driving north up Key Deer Boulevard on Big Pine Key with a vague destination in mind somewhere around the Blue Hole possibly when I spotted a dirt road heading west.
We parked at the baseball diamond (possibly the site for a planned dog park) and took off to check this road out. It had possibilities not least because it was unpaved. The other good news was that I could see no mail boxes at the side of the main road and there were no power lines, which told me there was no one living down here.
I was enjoying a bright sunny day with alight wind out of the southeast and no humidity. Finally we were getting some proper winter weather, at 75 degrees (22C) no need for socks at last.
I am noticing a lot of colors in the mangroves and I'm not sure why. I don't recall such glorious reds and oranges and yellows all at once in years past and I was wondering if perhaps our recent bout of cold weather had done more than kill off a great many fish. It was looking like New Hampshire in the fall (I'm told not ever having been to New England).
It was perfect riot of colors though considering all the dead pine trees i trust the mangroves will recover from whatever is making them change colors all at once. 
You can't swing a cat in the back country around here without hitting some defunct household appliance abandoned to save the former owner $11 in fees at the dump.
Even the most crass vandal can't destroy the beauty of these places.We parked at the baseball diamond (possibly the site for a planned dog park) and took off to check this road out. It had possibilities not least because it was unpaved. The other good news was that I could see no mail boxes at the side of the main road and there were no power lines, which told me there was no one living down here.
I was enjoying a bright sunny day with alight wind out of the southeast and no humidity. Finally we were getting some proper winter weather, at 75 degrees (22C) no need for socks at last.I am noticing a lot of colors in the mangroves and I'm not sure why. I don't recall such glorious reds and oranges and yellows all at once in years past and I was wondering if perhaps our recent bout of cold weather had done more than kill off a great many fish. It was looking like New Hampshire in the fall (I'm told not ever having been to New England).It was perfect riot of colors though considering all the dead pine trees i trust the mangroves will recover from whatever is making them change colors all at once. You can't swing a cat in the back country around here without hitting some defunct household appliance abandoned to save the former owner $11 in fees at the dump.
I did spot this sign buried deep in the bushes. I rather think they have probably given up hope of closing a sale...
The colors were splendid, of leaves and sky:
The street, unnamed as far as I could tell, wound on most alluringly: 
And Cheyenne was busy doing her usual snuffling act:
As rural as these places look they are never complete silent, there is almost always a backdrop of human activity depending on the direction of the wind. One can generally hear an engine or two on a roadway, or a plane overhead, or even a helicopter from time to time.
The black turkey vultures are silent and quite graceful as they crowd the air this time of year:
I am of course no botanist (my perpetual disclaimer) but I seem to recall a bark beetle was responsible a few years ago for doing in many of the pine trees that give the island, the largest in the lower Keys, it's name:
And what nature doesn't trash humans will. What the point of this apparent bull dozing was, we'll never know:
The presence of a non native palm tree indicates possible human activity in the wilderness:
And there it is, a roof line among the clump of trees:
No sign of any actual people, or roads yet. But we were only half way across at this stage.
7 comments:
Mr Conchscooter:
I really liked that 2nd from the last photo of Cheyenne, probably saying "Hurry up, what's taking you so long?"
the house is also intriguing. Can't wait for your inside photos. perhaps there are bodies in there. or someone is living OFF the GRID
bob
bobskoot: wet coast scootin
Good grief ... I spend a day in the real world away from my computer and come back to find you've made multiple posts! I can't keep up with you. The warmer weather must have gotten your blood moving again -:)
So, I see you found a crock amongst the mangroves ...
A bit off-topic here, but let me be the first to commend your editorial comments in today's Key West Citizen. Great retort to the earlier Fox-schooled screed writer.
I avoid lonely houses in the mangroves. This isn't Canada and people who hide in the bushes usually have something to hide, be it only a bad attitude.
Pefley: don't bother keeping up.When my wife is away and I am home alone with Cheyenne I find she is a rather inadequate conversationalist and the result is my mind races.
As to the letter I was rather surprised the Citizen wanted top publish. I wonder if perhaps they are publishing the right wing garbage to provoke controversy. I'll bite!
The extraordinary rant written by Tea Bagger Arthur J. Gandolfi of Sugarloaf Key and published by The Citizen leads me to wonder why the newspaper carries a letters page at all. The Citizens' Voice, Twitter-like stabs in the dark, are generally more coherent and a lot funnier than the arrant nonsense that finds its way to the letters page from President Obama's opponents.
Leading off with an attack on Al Gore, the easy target of the Right who was born wealthy enough not to need money garnered from any political campaign, Gandolfi slides into a morose denunciation of those he does not consider to be "mostly good people who follow the Golden Rule," categorizing these social outcasts as "non-English speaking people, simple-minded folks who vote without an informed intellect."
I wonder at the purpose of publishing Gandolfi's rant? Are we opening an informed debate among those of us whom Gandolfi considers to be intellectually adequate on the ways and means of improving the voting stock in the U.S.? Does he want to outlaw paid political lobbying, the true source of our nation's ills, or would he like to make a cogent argument in favor of public financing of elections (fat chance!) so that we the people have a say, not the great greedy corporations who have brought us to our knees?
I speak three languages aside from English and my Italian grandfather came to the U.S. in 1925 to buy a Packhard touring car to drive coast-to-coast and ship the car back home after the adventure. He was wealthy enough not to need to emigrate, unlike the huddled impoverished masses this country used to welcome. Does that make me, who chose to find a new life in a country free of the constraints of my traditions, less of a voting human, because I am also non-English speaking when I go home to visit my sisters in Italy, or even when I ask for a con leche and a pan con queso from the Spanish speaking Mexicans at Sandy's Cuban cafe?
I don't propose to back down when the new right decides who is a valid human and who isn't. Others are busy flying the gay rights flag.
Are those roads navigable by sporty tourning bikes? Is the dirt hard packed or loose? Just curious. Very cool dog!
The back country of the Keys tends t be wet and slippery clay-like marl during rainy season which is about May through October. By now despite a wetter than usual winter so far things have started to dry and these paths are very rideable. In rainy season the dips ad depressions get flooded and tend to fill up the roadway.
Dear Conch:
Give them hell and make the "Letters To The Editor" page scream in outrage. That is your right and your obligation. More people should take advantage of this opportunity — and buy at least two newspapers a day.
Fondest regards,
Jack • reep • Toad
Twisted Roads
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