3 February 2018 In Seach of the Ghost Orchid (multi)

With yesterday's success at the Share The Music cache, we decided to return today and hopefully start on the five stage Ghost Orchid multi. The cache was last found in May 2016 and had seen a hurricane weather so who knew what would be found. I had realized the evening before that my hiking boots were heading home really wet so another few swamp walks was not going to make them any wetter. :)

Before we entered the trail, we started the day with a few wildflowers

and an ibis.

It was a little weird when we reached the parking for the tramway and stage 1. There were bro-trucks and off-road vehicles. Unfortunately, that also meant LOTS of beer and rednecks urinating on the side of the park road. We were undaunted and headed down the trail. I was thankful for a GMC rental instead of our own Subaru since we had to leave it behind. We were ready to leave the tramway and dip into the swamp.

The tramway was easy traveling.

It started raining as soon as we left the tramway.

We went over the same areas multiple times, but signal bounce gave us a big window to search the wet swamp.
We did spot a yellow rumped warbler.

and bromeliads not yet in bloom.

We searched for over an hour. The swamp was deep. The rain was intense. We finally agreed we weren't going to find stage one searching a wide circle of terrain like below.

The rain was persistent. We traveled around for a little while before settling on a walk at a familiar crew property.

The area had a recent burn, but we were still able to enjoy the caching, spot a number of great flowers, and a few interesting birds.

Most armadillos seem to turn and run away. This one decided to make itself 'invisible'. It didn't work.

Fewflower Milkweed

We started the day with rain and a little frustration while searching for the ghost orchid cache. We ended the day in a peaceful, familiar place AND another orchid sighting.