Watson Trail 1

I hadn't been out here in this corner of Big Pine Key for some time. This organized wildlife trail is on Key Deer Boulevard about a half mile past the Blue Hole.On this visit the trail seemed to have been spiffed up during the busy winter, with freshly painted signs and so forth. I really like pine trees as they remind me of the pines of my youth. I wrote of this trail here: http://conchscooter.blogspot.com/2008/03/walk-in-woods.html Generally I like my back wood trails a little less organized but one owes a tip of the hat to the man reproduced in this picture. Jack Watson was a wildlife ranger hired by a group of businessmen who bought the original land for this refuge determined to preserve this area that they had discovered on a trip to the Keys. Watson is credited with preserving the Key Deer that were almost entirely wiped out by the time World War Two was over. He managed the preserve such that 50 Key Deer grew to number 300 and got the species on the road to recovery.

Cheyenne and I saw none of them on our stroll but they are easy to spot all over the island elsewhere ironically enough.

The trail is flat of course and an easy walk on well manicured gravel. The loop took us about a half hour to stroll around, a slow three quarter mile walk with my Labrador pausing to smell absolutely everything.