Bigfoot Hunt #3 Ocala National Forest

  This hunt actually took place between the last two Bigfoot searches, and it started off well. I saw a dead coyote on the side of the road. I went back and looked at him. He had a beautiful, full coat just like that of a cottontail rabbit. I didn't think to take a picture. It was a very unusual coat. Even a creature as intelligent as the wily coyote, probably the third most intelligent animal in the woods after humans and Bigfoot, can't always deal with a four lane highway. In a little while, I saw a bald eagle, white tail and head, gliding down to the road just ahead of me and over a little knoll. As I pondered whether I should put on the emergency signal, I came over the knoll and there was the eagle right on the side of the road eating a dead opossum. I had to slow down to give him room to take off. I continued south until I found Route 40 which goes out of Ocala City through the Ocala Forest. It was neat seeing icons for bear on traffic signs. I finally found a fire road and got off the paved road probably much to the relief of the convoy of cursing drivers behind me. I was only going forty to fifty miles an hour, both trying to save my engine and because I have driven slow for such a long time that I don't like higher speeds. I first went to Honeymoon Lake and then wandered about the southern part of the forest. I saw quite a few hunters, but no one had a deer. It was a blustery, cool, damp day. Too windy to hold a scent for the dogs. I enjoyed seeing the hunting dogs in their boxes on the trucks. One had his head outside the box and was baying as if he were on a hot trail. The sound was exhilarating as I was raised with a kennel of beagles and loved hearing them run, recognizing whom the voices belonged to. I wandered upon a Navy bombing site. The signs not only warned to watch out for falling bombs, unexploded bombs, but also invisible lasers. I couldn't wait to get away from the bombing site, but it continued to be on my left side for a long time. I had apparently got on the perimeter road. The numbers of the roads did not correspond with the numbers on my map so I stopped using the map. As I drove, I noticed something that looked like a small snake although it seemed too cold for snakes to be out.
I straddled him with my tires as I drove over him and then got out. He slithered off the road and into the weeds. He was grayish-brown, very slender, and did not seem to have rattles. I immediately put on my supposedly snake-proof gaiters, called Snake Guardz, in case I did any walking around. A snake bite is very painful even if it's not fatal, and it leaves an ugly area on your skin as the bite contains enzymes that immediately begin digesting your flesh, basically. I also saw panther tracks about four inches wide and bear tracks. The very scientific Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission has decided by default to use you and me in our vehicles to keep down the number of bears. Can't allow hunting them with clean kills. Oh, no! That would upsed the satanic, yet very pesky, greenies. Don't want them mad at the Wildlife Commission.
 Contrasting with the many new 4x4 pickup trucks driven by hunters in their spiffy camouflage, I saw a battered, old truck with a little old man peering over the steering wheel. He had wild, white hair and beard and no camouflage clothing. In the back of the old truck was a single dog, a rotund hound who looked like she was his regular dining partner at home.I couldn't help thinking "God bless them" as they drove by.
To Be Continued. Two-Guns