Just as I was lifting the kayak off the top of the Jeep I noticed a creature I’ve been waiting to see.  With a huge log-like body, long tail, and gapping mouth it was Alligator mississippiensis. The problem was this 8 foot predator was hovering 40 feet off the boat launch.

The other boaters with their high-sided aluminum and fiberglass watercraft weren’t paying the dinosaur much attention.  I was going to be a little bit closer to the action in my sit-on-top kayak.

As I slid my kayak into the lake it was obvious the Alligator’s head sat higher in the water than the top of my bow.  This put all sorts of lovely images of the gator’s mouth chomping on the bow of my kayak in my head.  Or maybe he would just swim along side and give me a playful bump; sending me into the drink with him.

All of this is just irrational fear though and perfectly normal, in fact healthy, when a human being comes in close contact with an animal that could make a meal of him.

There have been no incidence of an alligator attacking a person in the Noxubee Refuge.  No one attempts to feed them, so they maintain their fear of us.  In fact, the commotion of me putting my kayak in and banging my paddle against its roto-molded hull a few times sent the gator on a path straight out of the area.

Spotting an Alligator in the Noxubee Refuge is really a treat.  They are extremely rare this far from the coast.  There are many people who drive for hours just for the chance to see and photograph the gators.  This was my first glimpse, and it was extra special because it was such a close encounter.

Moments like this make me want to invest in better photo equipment.  Digital zoom just doesn’t do this guy justice.

I’m not going to turn OutdoorBlogging into a “dog blog”, but don’t be surprised if you see a few more pictures of my friend Sally popping up here and there.

If you can stomach more cutesy dog pictures I put a few more in this photo gallery.

There are some great bird’s eye view aerial photos of the Noxubee Refuge on Microsoft Virtual Earth.

The bird’s eye view doesn’t cover the entire refuge, but the area that is covered can be zoomed in incredibly close.

This is a great tool for scouting areas to explore.  You can even pushpin a location and download it directly to your GPS.  Very handy stuff.

The beauty and remoteness of the Lake Clark National Park definitely puts it in my top 5 places to disappear to.

A month or two trying to survive in this wilderness would make my daily problems look ridiculous.

I put some more pictures of Dick Proenneke, his cabin, and Twin Lakes in the photo gallery.

I posted this picture last week of nature taking over an empty farm homestead; a situation repeated on many old farms in the rural deep south.  Well, here is a picture of the same farm house a year later.

It looks like the vines have opened the screen door and are making their way inside.

This is a recurring theme in the deep south of the United States.

As children move to larger towns and cities the old homestead is left behind to fight a losing battle against mother nature and time.

It’s probably been 30 years since the family gathered on this front porch to watch the summer sun go down.  Someone used to sweep that stoop religiously.  Somebody once sweated buckets giving this house a fresh coat of paint.  Those days are over.