Cedar Key and Atsena Otie

The last night of our mini vacation was spent in Cedar Key.  We left Niceville on Saturday morning, just as a line of thunderstorms was headed our way.  We made it to Nature's Landing Condominiums, right on the water and walking distance to restaurants.  After a bite for lunch we decided to paddle out to an island visible from the shore, Atsena Otie.

I was searching for an earthcache I had loaded from geocaching.com.  According to my Garmin, there was supposed to be a cemetery and a trail.  There were actually two islands, split in the middle with oyster coves.  We stopped inside one of the coves to see if we could walk to the spot marked on my gps marked by the cemetery.  It turned out to be inaccessible swampland, and after getting bit by a yellow fly, we headed back to the kayaks to paddle towards the island with the trail.

Nervously, we paddled our kayaks through the interior coves.  We weren't sure if it was low or high tide but the oyster beds were jutting up out of the water in low spots and their razor like scrapes on the bottom of my kayak a couple times made me cringe.  I made it through without too much damage.  We made it through to the beach side of the trail part of the island.  The beach had wildlife boundary signs on it.  On the journey across I had a small shark following me a few times.  My husband said it was scared of me, not following me, but I was scared of it!  I also saw a fight between a Magnificent Frigatebird and a seagull over a fish, they swooped so close to my kayak, they almost touched it.

View right before you enter the woods for the Atsena Otie trail.  We entered the woods next to the beach and walked a few steps down the trail to a kiosk.  As we were reading the sign, I could hear a faint buzzing getting louder and louder.  Looking down at my legs, they were covered in about a hundred mosquitoes!  I took off running down the trail with my gps in hand..I needed to get to the end of the trail to take elevation reading to get credit for the earthcache.  Passed a huge, dead hawk on the trail with feathers spread out all over the place.  Reached an old metal windmill, stopped to catch my breath and glanced backwards at my back, which was exposed due to my bathing suit..I gasped in horror at the massive black swarm of thousands of mosquitoes about to land on me.  I had 250 feet to go to reach the coords on the GPS but I turned around and ran as fast as I could down the trail all the way back to the beach, my husband right behind me.  I was bit many times and we renamed it Blood Donor Island.  Maybe one day I will go back, but only armed with a huge can of DEET.

On Sunday before we left we checked out a couple more trails.  The Cedar Key Railroad Trail, Cemetery Point Park and the Cedar Key Museum State Park.  Armed with bug repellent, each of these trails was a nice diversion.  The Railroad trail is a short walk on a strip of land into the water..you can read about the history on the kiosk at the beginning of the trail.  A geocache is hidden along the trail.  I spotted a Great Southern White and other butterflies while walking.  Cemetery Point Park is a boardwalk in swamp/waterway that borders a cemetery.  There is a geocache located there as well.  Past Cemetery Point Park is the state park.  Trail..filled with mosquitoes..my repellent had worn off in a morning shower.  There is a historical home with a few rooms to view and a small museum are also on the property.