Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge.

Twelve miles west of Boynton Beach, Florida is a 145,635 acre site (www.fws.gov/loxahatchee/)  that anybody who is interested in Everglades habitat will want to visit.  It offers stands of sawgrass, wet prairies, sloughs, and scattered tree islands.  This makes for a wide variety of wildlife and I was eagerly anticipating visiting it since I felt that I had always neglected it in favor of nearby Wakodahatchee and Green Cay.  One of the problems is the area is  so vast and  varied that one does not know where to start.  For the adventurous a kayak can be rented for  a 5.5 mile self guided or tour guided trip.  For the not so adventurous a hike out the back door of the state of the art visitor center will lead one to a boardwalk trail through a cypress swamp.  I opted to hike the vast area of trails through the wetland environment.  I had carried my equipment 30 minutes into the refuge when I noticed some large weather cells heading straight for me.  Out came the plastic garbage bags over the equipment as I did an about face and headed for the truck.  The rain came hard and fast.  I thought I would wait it out in the truck and sure enough the rain stopped and everything looked fresh and inviting.  I headed out again only to do a similar encore performance.  My equipment was dry but I was pretty wet and bedraggled by this time and the sun was already getting high.  Loxahatchee can be great at times but also frustrating.  I will have to set up a return engagement to Loxahatchee but I am booked into the Keys for the evening and decided to dry out down there.