Skunk Ape
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This trip was on a moon less night, dark as it gets in the Big Cypress. It's fairly cool for Florida, in the 60's.  This time of the year the swamps are starting to dry up. A few areas are still wet with standing water, but a lot of the areas are soft mud, still moist, not yet dry. Getting stuck is a constant problem and careful driving around the worst spots is a must. Unfortunately, on a night as dark as this, you can only see what is in the headlights. So seeing the soft spots of mud is very difficult. As the buggys turn to follow the trail and avoid the soft muddy spots, the headlights whirl across the terrain. This casts shadows as the headlights briefly illuminate something and then it disappears in the darkness. Sometimes the brush casts shapes out of the shadows, just briefly, just enough that you think you saw something, but gone in the next instance. Unknown to us, this is the sight that Mark is seeing, every bush or shadow a Skunk Ape, every pitch of the buggy, tries to throw him off into the arms of the Skunk Ape. I can not imagine the fear he must have felt. He is young in an older crowd, some people he just met, he is quiet, afraid to say anything. The only one he knows, (Jon) is intent on driving and in the dark does not notice Marks apprehension. So, this is how the trip goes, a few times a buggy gets stuck, but a bump from behind by the other buggy gets it going again. So as trips go, its a fairly quick trip to camp, about 3 hours.

At camp we are all glad to be there, we light Coleman lanterns to see in each building. Its late at night and everone quickly unloads the gear into the buildings. We are all tired and plan to get up early to hunt. So we quickly select bunks, put our hunting gear out, including our weapons and get ready to sleep. Jon is looking out for his guest, he helps him select a bunk near Jon, and explains how we get up early, while its still dark. He also explains how we put out the gear we will use in the morning, so we can dress quickly, get our gear and head out for the hunt. Jon notices that Mark is very quiet, but thinks this is because he is the new guy, in the middle of people that he just met. Mark lays out his gear for the morning, placing his holstered pistol and flashlight on the window sill. Now window sill is misleading, the window is actually just a screen, covering an opening of about 4 feet by 4 feet. The sill is just a 2 X 4 framing of the window opening. This is covered by a shutter when we are not there, but when we are there, the shutters are opened up at a 90 degree angle, virtually wide open. So there is just a screen between you and the great outdoors. In Marks eyes, this is no protection from a Skunk Ape, but he says nothing.

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