No Name Key Deer

When people ask where they can find Key Deer, the locally produced small white tailed deer now native to the Lower Keys, I send them to No Name Key. And here they are:

 They caused a  bit of a road block  as cars stopped to enjoy the view.

Let's face it: watching deer, even small ones, graze is a bit like watching paint dry but one feels a certain obligation to stop and stare so I did and here are my pictures:

You aren't supposed to feed them or molest  them or run them over with your car. The Key Deer refuge people keep score and you will see notices about how many they have found dead. Occasionally people decide to shoot them and even eat them but for the most part they are essentially outdoor pets.

People whose gardens they wreck tend to dislike them and refer to them disparagingly as stunted white tailed deer and they were nearly wiped out sixty years ago but thanks to endangered status and the institution of a refuge they are now doing quite well and some can be seen even on Cudjoe Key occasionally. They can swim and they do sometimes to establish themselves on islands away from Big Pine Key.

The best story I've read of how Jack Watson saved the Key Deer I have linked here. Much funnier a story than you might expect: LINK 

Crossing the bridge back to Big Pine Key under a blazing evening sun. The bridge leads to No Name Pub a place to drink beer, eat pizza and reflect on Key Deer if you feel so inclined.

No Name Monochrome

Photos taken at No Name Key on a walk with my beloved dog.

I was walking Cheyenne in the morning and the sun was rising in the east. I wanted the seaweed washed up under my feet in the picture. The horizon? Not so much!

If you'd like more words check out www.travelandsafety.com for my latest podcast.

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Enjoying A Cold Front

The term "cold front" has different connotations depending where you live. Around here a gentle north breeze, temperatures in the mid 70s and no humidity indicate an end of winter cold front that is quite delightful.  

I had hoped it was cool enough that my dog might be energized but in  her new slower paced old age we walked half the bridge and went home to sleep. I had some homework to do so after lunch I worked and she napped because a girl can get tired after a morning spent sleeping. 

She was ready to jump up when I called her out for a walk and she trotted downstairs and stood expectantly next to the car. I found myself in the same position, expectant on the No Name Bridge which is getting some cement repairs. Of all the thousands of bridges around the country that need maintenance this bridge to almost nowhere is getting an elaborate make over for which I am grateful. I also enjoyed observing the dunderheaded behavior of one more over sized pick up driver. The sign says "keep left" which on my planet is an indication that after the light goes green you take the left lane, the one unencumbered by large obvious cones. This bright spark decided to block the oncoming lane as he waited for the light to change. Luckily no one approached and his knuckleheaded nonsense had no consequences.

Cheyenne likes this walk on No Name Key but I doubt we will be back until the rains return because she went hunting for drinking water and found none at her dried up pool and she came back through the woods muddy and disappointed.

A nice couple in a car pulled  up as I was studying my latest issue of Rider magazine and asked about the trail. I wasn't sure what to tell them as these woods hold few surprises; no hills rivers lakes or views, what you see is what you get.  They walked and I did not see them again. Maybe the ghosts of the Bay of Pigs fighters who trained here rose from the undergrowth and got them. Or maybe Cheyenne and I left before they returned.

It was a busy afternoon on No Name Key Tuesday. Cars were coming and going like they didn't get the message that winter is over and its time to go North again. Then I heard the bizarre sound of an infantry platoon marching up the road, boots crucnhing in perfect cadence. I hardly dared look up.

He strode by pounding the gravel to the inevitable dead end a hundred yards to the right. All side roads in the Keys end in water or mangroves often with red diamond shaped signs that indicate the land has run out. You can see tentative drivers driving ever more slowly as reality sinks in and they face the prospect of making a u-turn in a street far narrower than they are used to maneuvering at home. I guess this guy just had to make a smart about face.

Marching dude crunched his way back. I don't know if he was exercising or looking for a destination and got lost but he was striding along with his ear buds in place...he put me in mind of Dominique Pinon in the French thriller Diva which I note is only available on disc on Netflix. Hmm, that's one of those flicks that is long overdue for another viewing.

He disappeared, all sinews braced, and I hung out with my dozing dog long enough he had vanished by the time I drove past No Name Pub toward my date with destiny, food shopping at Winn Dixie.

Just to confirm the point that I am all wrong about it being time to leave, a boat arrived  and edged its way into the development of houses nestled behind a barricade of No Trespassing signs.

None of this excitement got a reaction out of my dog. Indeed by the time I had to leave in order to be at home cooking dinner by the time my wife got back from work, Cheyenne was still grumpy about being woken up and asked politely to get in the car. She got up as I approached her, then when I turned my back to lead her to the car she flopped down again, her way of asking for more time. Headline: wife trumps dog - Shock! Horror!

I had a late shift at work and the moon was shining bright on the world when I left home. I wanted to turn off the Vespa headlights and ride in the dark but that seemed a tad foolhardy on the Overseas Highway. Besides, the theme of the day continued and even at one in the morning there seemed to be far too much traffic on the Highway! 

I took the picture for the scooter tag game I'm playing on ADVrider. I liked how it came out.

No Name Sunshine

Its the time of year when mosquitoes are not in evidence, cold enough to allow a walk without repellent so one might as well take advantage. Cheyenne would not say no:

No Name Key has commercial electricity now, and the anti-Castro Cubans who trained here before the Bay of Pigs are merely a distant memory having left no sign.

I have my own happy memories of walks in the deserted woods here, among the big waxy leaves of the sea grapes:

We found a patch of grass, Cheyenne found a nearby pool of tannic fresh water and I could hear her lapping away in the trees. Then she joined me and we shared a companionable half hour, me reading my phone and she...thinking perhaps.

Its not a sequoia forest or a pine barren but it's far enough off the beaten track that only rarely will you meet someone out here in the back of No Name Key.

The main road, Watson Boulevard now has light poles but it also has Key deer, so when people approach and ask about where to see them I usually send them here. 

No Name Key is best known for the pub by that name that is actually located on Big Pine Key. As recently seen on this page!

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September With No Name



People like to whinge about the summer heat in Florida, but given that September is the peak of hurricane season and so far - nothing; there's really not a lot to whinge about. Furthermore a few tropical depressions have swung by the neighborhood dropping tons of rain everywhere, which is what California could use, and that rain has cooled things off nicely. So much so I got Cheyenne out into the woods earlier this week.

It is hard for me to stress how pleasant it is o be in the Keys in September, despite the prolonged summer heat  (which I like), because this is the time of year one  gets away from it all. This is the time of year No One is Hiking or Cycling on No Name Key.

No Name Key is where you bring people who want to see Key Deer. They inhabit these forests, picking their delicate way through the undergrowth and from time to time they pop out onto the roadway so you don't even have to get out of the car to get a picture.

I like getting out of the car and recommend similar eccentric behavior to anyone who wants to enjoy the spectacular views that present themselves along the Overseas Highway. Get out of our cage, look around, you never know what you might see.

Considering how limited the landmass is around here, to have the ability to get on a trail and drag your reluctant Labrador away from civilization and its messy trash cans, is a wonderful ting.

I usually get to do more of it in winter but the past two winters we haven't seen many days with temperatures under seventy degrees.  

These woods are well known as he place where the Bay of Pigs landing in Cuba, in prehistoric times, was planned and where the anti-Castro insurgents/ terrorists/freedom fighters (take your pick) trained.

Of them there is no sign anymore. Nowadays there is, more incongruously a gravel quarry, a deer refuge and  commercial electric power.

There are no hills so the views are naturally restricted. Around here you don't see rivers and valleys, hedgerows and farmland.

 It's just miles of mangroves sitting in tannic water stained as dark as tea.

 Sometimes Labradors like to cool their heels in the high tide of summer storms.

 With more to come, looking west toward Big Pine Key.

 So dogs like to repair to their air conditioned comfort and the darkness of a rug over their faces.

Cheyenne doesn't notice thunder and sleeps serenely through any noise at all as long as her forehead is pressed up against something and no one has the temerity to touch her. She dreams of long urban walks, and the noise and smells of the city, dreams that cannot be ignored, even by someone who might prefer a wood to a parking lot, or a trail to a street. Dogs are stubborn things and they know what they like. More's the pity people don't pay attention to them when they indicate their preferences.