Nudes in the Forest

The day started out as expected -- at work early, getting ready to meet our volunteer who was helping with gopher tortoises for the day. Once she arrived, we headed into the woods north of the Naval Live Oaks compound to search for a burrow that hadn't been located in a while.

Ann and I spent a beautiful December morning tromping through the woods until we got to the newest fire trail. Pine chips were still strewn across the fire break, as my boss prepared the area for a prescribed burn in a few months. Walking down the path towards the north shore, I was stunned to see a Ford Explorer parked along the coast. Was that a park vehicle? The only way to tell was to check the tags, so I approached the SUV to check for federal tags -- the driver had handicapped Florida state tags. While noting this, Ann and I witnessed the driver skinny dipping in the Sound. Not a normal sight in the middle of a national park. Rather than approach the naked man on our own, Ann and I called Law Enforcement to deal with the issue.

We never did find that gopher tortoise burrow -- maybe we were too blinded by the earlier sighting.