This is the story of when we were rescued from Big Cypress National Preserve.
If you’re unfamiliar with Florida, Big Cypress National Preserve is a massive national preserve that “conserves over 729,000 acres of vast swamp.” The Florida Trail, on the other hand, is a 1500-mile trail that travels throughout Florida and connects to the Appalachian Trail.
The Trail And Why We Hiked It
My journey started when I had booked my trip to Hawaii. In Hawaii, there were several trails I wanted to hike; however, my friend was a bit out of shape, and in order to see if the trails in Hawaii would be possible, I decided to have him join me on the beginning portion of The Florida Trail inside of Big Cypress National Preserve.
The trail we were tackling was the first 30 miles of The Florida Trail. It started at the Oasis Visitor Center and ended at a trail end in I75.
The Plan
I aimed to complete the Big Cypress trail the weekend, 10 miles a day.
- The first targeted campsite was at mile 7, called “7 Mile Camp” (creative).
- The second was about a 14-mile hike to a site called “Oak Hill Camp.”
- The targeted start time was 4 pm on Friday.
- This brilliant trip was planned in the middle of Summer, during the “wet season”
The late start was because we had worked on Friday, and I didn’t mind hiking in the dark; at least, I didn’t think I did.
The Arrival
My friend left in the middle of the day to travel to the trail’s end because we had to leave one car at the end and take the other car to the beginning of the Big Cypress trail. This ensured that when we got out, we had a ride back to civilization. The lack of cell signal made it impossible to contact family or a taxi of some sort.
Issue #1 – late start
Nothing ever goes according to plan. On day one, we ran into an issue because my friend was driving down from Orlando. He hit some traffic, which caused us to start way later than was planned.
He arrived at the end of the trail around 5 pm. By the time we transferred all his gear and drove the half-hour drive around to the entrance, it was about 6 pm. After ensuring we had everything set, it was time to go.
The Beginning Of The Trail
At the beginning of the trail, we were quickly met with overgrown vegetation and large puddles of water that we had to wade through.
Issue #2 – remaining on the trail
The second issue arose when we were trying to remain on the trail. If you’ve never hiked before, trails usually have markings on trees of some color to ensure that you stay on course.
The Florida Trail had a darkish blue marking on all their trails, and since nightfall was upon us, it was difficult to find the tree markings.
We eventually arrived at a point where two trails touched: the hiking trail and an all-terrain vehicle trail. Being pitch black by this point, we took the obvious trail, which was wide. A couple of vehicles passed us, which I thought was odd.
We’re Lost Remain Calm
We were lost inside of Big Cypress. No marks on trees were seen for about 2 miles. Lucky for us, I was prepared; I had downloaded the Big Cypress maps at home because I knew we wouldn’t have a signal out in the middle of nowhere.
Gaia GPS (not a sponsor) was our saving grace. I pulled out my phone where I had Gaia GPS installed and noticed we were WAY off course. Why I didn’t have the app out from the beginning, I’ll never understand, but I can tell you that I did not put my phone down for the rest of the trip after this incident.
Decision Point #1 – cut across or backtrack
Having the app opened, I noticed we had strayed quite a bit. The decision came where we had to backtrack or cut through the dense forest.
In order to not lose more time throughout the night, we decided to cut through the dense forest of Big Cypress (RIP sunglasses attached to the bag).
We were less than a mile off course; however, we were in knee-to-waist-deep water through this adventure. Throughout the unmarked trail, we crawled under, climbed over, and cut through the shrubbery.
At one point, I was letting Gaia GPS orient itself because I was swinging my arm all over the place, and at a distance, I saw two glowing eyes in the water. I looked down in the direction of the needle, reoriented myself, and kept going. When I looked back to check where the glowing eyes were, they were gone… TIME TO GO!
Re-emerging From The Forest
After an hour or so in unmarked territory, I saw that Gaia GPS was showing my location to be near the trail. At last! A dark blue mark reappeared.
My eyes were glued to my phone and the trees for the rest of the way up to the “7 Mile Campsite.”
7 Mile Campsite
It was officially 2 am. We had reached the campsite at mile 7 and were ready to pitch our tent and go to sleep.
The following morning, after about 4 hours of sleep, we had breakfast and prepared ourselves for the most gruesome part of the hike.
The clothes we hung up to dry were still soaked, thanks to the Florida humidity. It didn’t help that it was the wet season, either.
The Journey To Oak Hill
The second day was rather nice. It was a hot day, but trees mostly surrounded us to keep us shaded.
We would fill our water pouches with swamp water, but thanks to our LifeStraw products (not a sponsor), it made it drinkable. If it weren’t for that, I would have never drank Big Cypress swamp water.
The journey took all day. We stopped to snack and rest throughout the trail but kept a steady pace. It seemed to be going fine until…
Issue #3 – nightfall again
Nightfall was once again upon us. It was pitch black, so it was time to pull out the headlamps again and find the dark blue marks on the trees.
Gaia GPS was close at hand. The campsite seemed to be close, but I couldn’t find it. We searched for quite some time. I didn’t think the issue would happen again, but at least we weren’t lost; we were on the trail.
Decision Point #2 – where do we camp?
We spent quite some time searching for the “Oak Hill Campsite” but had no luck finding it. It was getting late and we had to set up camp and rest to be able to finish the trail the following day.
Our decision was to hike a bit further and find the trail or pitch a tent in the middle of the trail. We went with the latter.
We found a nice flat spot on the ground where I could pitch the tent and slept in the middle of a swamp for the second day. The only worry I had was the flooding of our unmarked campsite.
Lucky for us, this decision turned out to be great.
We woke up the following day, rested, and prepared ourselves for the final leg of the hike.
To The Finish!
It was finally time to end this Big Cypress adventure weekend and go home. I was thrilled that it was the last day, not because I was tired but because of the incredible journey we had faced. However, it wasn’t over yet. We still had about 9 miles left to go.
We began our hike after having a decent breakfast. Everything was going smoothly; we were making good time and were knocking out miles.
I’m unsure if the scenery at Big Cypress was more beautiful towards the end of this trail or if I was enjoying it more since I wasn’t worrying about getting lost or another nightfall. I was on a high of another level until…
Issue #4 – wading in water
Wading in the water was never an issue throughout the hike, but on this last day, it became a pain.
The dense forest disappeared from sight. The trees that surrounded us at this point had no leaves. There was no protection from the site except for the clothes we had on. The water was now knee-to-waist deep again and there was no end in sight of it stopping.
Gaia GPS showed the same type of terrain through the rest of the trail and we were still 6 miles away from the finish.
With every step we took, you could feel your muscles begin to tense as if they would cramp soon. I kept pushing on, but my friend was starting to have enough.
With 4 miles left until the finish, we decided to take a long break.
The End
During our long break, we had no spot to sit down and rest because of the water. So, we lay against trees, carrying our 35-40 lbs of gear. Then, the discussion started.
Decision Point #3 – what do we do?
I’m the type of person who pushes on through pain and torture in order to complete the physical goals I set out to achieve. If you want an example of this, check out my Ironman 70.3 Finish here.
I was not ready to give up. I wanted to endure that pain, but my friend was in a different boat. Even though this was a test for him, I was being a bit selfish and arguing that it was only four more miles until the finish.
He, on the other hand, said he was cramping and couldn’t go any longer. He argued that there was no end to the water in sight, and it could be four miles of wading, which would be another several hours of hiking.
I didn’t know what he wanted to do because there was no cell service, and I didn’t know how anyone would save us in the middle of a swamp.
The Rescue Call
We ended up moving a couple of feet over to a tree that had a branch where we could hook our bags. After removing our bags, we checked our phones.
My phone had no service, so I just pulled up Gaia GPS to study the terrain of the final four miles. My friend, on the other hand, got a bar of service in moving those extra couple of feet.
I agreed to let him do what he wanted, so he made the call.
It took several minutes to understand what either party was saying over the broken call but we managed to give them all the details they needed.
If it wasn’t for Gaia GPS giving me coordinates of my location, I’m not sure we would have ever been rescued from Big Cypress.
The Waiting Game
The call was placed and now we had to wait. It took rescue services about an hour to head our way.
We stood in Big Cypress’s swamps, quiet, feeling defeated, when we heard a sound in the distance. I quickly run to my bag and grab my reflective mirror from my first aid/rescue bag, and prepare to reflect the sun towards the helicopter.
The helicopter flies over a tree line in the distance, and I begin to signal for their help. They immediately spotted us and circled us to figure out how to rescue us.
Leaving Big Cypress National Preserve
One of the rescue people repelled down to talk to us. At this point, we had our bags on again. He told us that my friend would go up first since he was the one who called. The rescuer ended up handing me my friend’s bag and told me to wait.
I’m not holding about 75 lbs of gear on me and trying to anchor myself in the water while the helicopter comes in to pull him up. If you don’t know this, helicopters create extremely rough winds.
As the helicopter pulled him up, my friend’s bag opened and spewed out his gear all over the water.
When he reached the top, the helicopter backed up to give me some breathing room. Doing that action caused me to go off balance and fall into the water (shown in the video).
I’m now soaked, and the gear is getting soaked and becoming heavier. I quickly try and grab everything as they return to pick me up.
They throw the bags up before taking me up. Once at the top, they asked where our vehicle was, and we flew back to the Oasis Visitor Center.
Back To Oasis Visitor Center
The flight back to the Oasis Visitor Center was a bit bittersweet. I was upset that we didn’t get to complete the trail, but I was glad that we were rescued and my friend was getting the help he wanted. I wanted to conquer Big Cypress National Preserve.
We landed at the center and debarked the helicopter. My new worry was, “How much will this cost?” To my surprise, absolutely nothing. We were told because it was at a national park, it didn’t cost anything. That was a huge relief.
Lessons Learned
A lot of people think I do crazy things. I like to see them as unique experiences. We need to live our lives to their fullest, and for me, that’s challenging myself to complete difficult tasks.
I wouldn’t change anything about this experience because it taught me many valuable things. The next time I attempt this challenge, I will need to:
- Create backup plans for when my main plan fails
- Start earlier to take less risks at night
- Take a satellite communication device for rescue situations
- Don’t hike during the wet season
- Stay subscribed to Gaia GPS
- Don’t think Big Cypress will be an easy hike
Even though I’m not sponsored, LifeStraw and Gaia GPS really saved my life out there. Being able to drink from any body of water and not worrying if I would get an infection or feel sick was fantastic. And having the maps on my phone, even when there was no signal, was truly a lifesaver. I’m thankful for the Gaia and that’s why I recommend it to all because without that, who knows how that trip would’ve gone.
Conclusion
The beginning of The Florida Trail, inside of Big Cypress, is nothing to mess with. I thought a simple 30-mile hike would be easy, especially in Florida, where it’s relatively flat. The journey was an incredibly unique experience that I will never forget. Although I was bummed about not finishing, I was able to learn a lot from the trip and will be ready to tackle it on the second try.
Subscribe down below to find out when I take on that second attempt. If you’re interested in how the Hawaii trip went, I’ll post a link to that here once it’s posted.
Let me know in the comments what you think of my story, or share any rescue stories you may have. Feel free to reach out to me if you want any hiking advice.
Awesome post! That helicopter clip was wild hahaha 😂 but what an amazing experience for you. I would’ve freaked out as soon as I saw those pairs of glowing eyes in the water lol
Let’s do Ocala