#296 Curry Hammock State Park, Marathon Fl

I didn't know anything about Curry Hammock except that it was a state park in the Keys and it was near Marathon. Whatever I know now is a whole lot more than I knew the day I got there.

To secure a spot here we ended up staying for six nights at three different sites because that's the only way the reservations were possible. It would’ve been nice to get a site 6 nights straight but you had to get them when you could get them.

We settled into site number 25 which was just fine all the sites were really pretty. When I was up in the bedroom I could see the water and that was nice.

I believe it was our first night in me and India went for a little walk down by the water. It was nice but a little bit of a low tide smell. That’s what we always called it but that's normal for tidal flats. We walked out to a Peninsula point and I just started going into knee-deep in the muck so I figured it was about time to turn around.

The weirdest little bugs were crawling all over our feet and ankles. They didn't seem to be biting more like tickling.

India seemed to be pretty uptight about it but for me, if they're not biting what do I care. It was just something about it that bothered her so we moved right along.

The only negative to it was for the next day or so it felt like my feet and ankles are itching. Maybe even though they weren't biting they might have been applying a poison acid on my skin I don't know.

We did plenty of sitting and gawking at the water and hiking about. That’s all we did but it was nice to be in the keys and Curry hammock is very pretty and right on the water.

I spoke to them about hosting and they didn't say specifically when they might need anyone. They gave me the routine about how you know you fill out an application, we’ll stay in touch. They said sometimes it's better to call the Ranger and ask because we don’t have time to look at every email we get.

I spoke to one of the campground hosts and they said it’s a good job but a little bit of work. You have to tidy up each site every day at checkout and the bathrooms. You keep the place generally looking clean. She said some of the people don't like it because they come down for a vacation and they find out you have to work. The host lady I was talking to giggled and said it's fun.

Nothing will ever be as good as the job but we at Crosswinds. It was just about 2 hours a week. I did talk to the staff a little further and one of the hosts a little bit more. They gave me the feeling a good way to become a host in the keys or at a very desirable place is to be a volunteer in July and August when it's just crazy hot. Everybody refuses to be a host then. That's you paying your dues and then after you might ease into a December till April host position which is the desirable time to be a host.

We went up to a nature trail and didn't know quite realize what we were getting into. It but it was going through a fairly dense jungle-type mangrove forest. It was a very narrow path for about 2 miles in the dense forest of the Curry Hammock.

I read one of the plaques that described the formation of the Keys. The water level was much higher at one point probably during an ice age. The entire Keys were underwater and were a thriving coral reef.

At some point, the water receded exposing just to Coral Reef which became the Florida Keys.

Dead coral is pretty inhospitable and they spoke about how gigantic wind storms from Africa would allow tremendous amounts of dust and dirt to be transported through the air and transported all the way across the ocean and landing on the reef. It would cling to the coral and slowly build up around the reef which created the Keys.

As we're walking through this nature trail we're walking on a very bumpy uneven kind of weird chunky rocky coral. It was so cool to have read the plaque then feeling the endless dry coral under your feet. You were in the present walking on the reef that was the keys before the water receded.

Between all this and all the roots, I got to tell you we were struggling a little bit.

Sometime back we bought some walking sticks for hiking from Walmart and this was a great time to have them. Otherwise, you feel like you're losing your balance a lot. We saw a whole family doing the same hike. The kids didn’t care but they had what seemed to be grandparents with them. They were struggling and I knew they needed some sticks like ours.

Just to add weirdness it was a little strenuous but on the way back it was getting a little bit in the direction of dusk. We talked about how so we need to get out of this dense forest before it turns dark. Not only was it a little strenuous but it was a little stressful emotionally like we really don't want to be in this dense of a forest in the dark.

We bounced across a couple of other hikers so we weren't alone and that gave us comfort.

What we got done at about dusk so it worked out fine. We said man we're going to sleep good tonight.

We did this and did that and hiked a little bit every other day and just enjoyed Curry Hammock. It was very pretty but I must say I was longing to get to Key West.