DAY 1

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well this morning jay erndl dropped daniel and i off into blue cypress lake which surprisingly we crossed very quickly. after the lake we came up to a very long and straight canal that merely resembled a never ending runway. after the first canal me and daniel came up to our first portage. unaware of what dangers that lurked on the other side. daniel and i pulled our kayaks over to the other side when daniel stopped and said calmly, "bees." which the next words that came out of his mouth was" BEES!!!!" daniel was standing over a huge colony of bees then suddenly every last one of them wanted daniels blood. i turn around and see daniel hootin and hollerin and dancing around like a chicken with his head cut off when suddenly, they came for me. after seeing what torture dainel was enduring i bolted! running nearly a quarter mile to get away from these things i turn back to find them right on my tail. suddenly i noticed myself doing the same dance daniel was. finally after running around and swatting wildly for about a half an hour the seemed to calm down. me and daniel werent scared of them anymore, we were P.O.ed. we ran back to the kayaks to pull them away from the underground hive and hopped in then took off! we had to portage over 3 areas today, kayak through 3 lakes, counted 440 alligators, and then to top it off we got chased by bees. tomorrow is going to be our hardest day on the trip. going 37 miles through a labyrinth of small rivers, big rivers, and also dry rivers. this place is not traveled very often anymore due to how shallow it is. the only thing we can do is pray and hope that tomorrow will go according to plan. ( chances are that it wont) but we'll stay in high spirits and hopefully get the job done. - David Heath