Sublime Whitehorse

 A Color-Dripping Sunrise: Whitehorse Key, Ten Thousand Islands

This year the machinations of atmosphere and ocean surged warm water into the Eastern Pacific, and the resulting El Nino brought extreme weather to Florida.  An intensely hot and buggy "fall", followed by a January utterly drowned by torrential rains.  Just prior to the rain, my good friend Matt (of Astoria fame) joined me on an overnight kayak trip into the heart of the Ten Thousand Islands.  We scored.  Whitehorse Key catches a breeze (essential in keeping the no-see-ums and mosquitoes at bay), and is a beautiful sandy perch from which to watch the tide come and go.  Just after a very lurid dawn, I walked the mud flats, marveling at the menagerie of creatures temporarily exposed by low tide.  Casting a line into the current, I watched juvenile nurse sharks hunting the shallows, while manatee and dolphin surfaced nearby.  Quiet magnificence like this can be had in Florida, but you've got to put in the miles and get lucky.  I was so glad to experience this with Matt.  I should have left well enough alone, but my solo kayak camping trip into the islands the following week was more typical: intense heat, contrary wind and currents, indescribable clouds of bugs, and very sore muscles.  Total subjugation to the elements.  Oh well, I have already supplanted recall of that trip with the sublime memory of Whitehorse.