At the Big Cypress
Developed as a rice and indigo plantation by British loyalists in the 1780s, Rice Creek Swamp is an nteresting mix of old-growth forest and human intervention in the form of obvious dikes and canals built to service the plantation. The Florida Trail makes use of these historic dikes to keep your feet dry, but building dry trail in a swamp has its price—in this case, 36 bridges in just two miles of trail, each numbered to make it easier to communicate repair needs.
We are here to measure a tree. Not just any tree, but the Big Cypress of Rice Creek. With me are most of the members of the Putnam Crew, headed up by Ella Lindsay—Guion Lindsay, Richard Vance, Sue McCoy, Helen and Jake Hoffman, and Leona Ray; crew members Allen Shoup and Doyle Wells weren’t able to make it. Representing St. Johns Water Management District are Nels Parson and J.B. Miller. And to make it official, Nels brought in a special guest: Bob Simon. A retired forestry consultant, Bob had the necessary tools and know-how to measure a big tree.
As we head down the trail, Ella Lindsay points down the connector trail near Bridge #35. “There’s a fringe tree in bloom down that way at certain times of the year.” The group settles into an easy pace. “There was a National Champion swamp dogwood in here,” notes Bob, “but I think it’s gone.” Atop the dike, we look out across floodplain forest and eventually reach the junction where we meet the thru-trail. We pause to watch a barred owl watch us. On this cool but sunny winter’s day, the maintainers are reveling in the delights of their trail. “It’s so great to be back here without a hard hat,” said Guion.
Immersed in Botanical Wonders
Fragrant Florida azalea, with its delicate pale pink blooms, rose well over our heads. Violets peeped out along a rim of switchcane. A zebra longwing hovered around a Florida doghobble. Bob paused at a Walter viburnum in full bloom, its cascade of white blossoms standing out sharply against the light green leaves of new growth in the surrounding forest. Often seen in damp woods adjoining swamps, this showy shrub is named for Thomas Walter, a South Carolina plantation owner who described the species in his treatise Flora Caroliniana just as Thomas Forbes and William Panton were establishing their own plantation here at Rice Creek. Jake Hoffman surveyed the canal. “I believe they had a lock here – two separate sections – and used boards to let the water through.”
It had rained the night before. Each footfall released the earthy aroma of fallen leaves as we worked our way single file down the dike. I notice some very large leaves—swamp chestnut oak, Quercus michauxii, a species that thrives in moist areas. Loblolly pines rise like Doric columns, their crowns emerging well above the forest canopy. But cypresses are the core of this forest. You sense them more than you see them, their oddly shaped knees forming a foundation for the swamp. Between #9 and #10, the stub of a cypress past its prime catches our attention. It’s large enough to step into, and appears to have been torched on the inside. I peer out of the charred wood back up to the trail. It’s a small shelter, but with a tarp would work to duck out of a rainstorm.
Richard steps aside to tell his bear story. “This is where I saw the bear, as I was choppin’ that log…” Seems that just a day or two before, he’d been out here alone doing trail maintenance and he and a Florida black bear saw eye to eye for a moment before it skedaddled.
Bluestem and Boardwalk
As we get deeper into the swamp, the pines rise even taller. Palm fronds reflect in the inky waters of Rice Creek. Poison ivy swarms across large cypress stumps and crawls up hickory trees. We encounter more moss-covered mounds. Leona notes an armadillo hole. “There’s another…there’s another…it’s a duplex!” Bob stops us for a moment to point out goldfoot fern, yellowish from tangling with winter frost, peeping out from a cabbage palm. “It’s called golden polypody, too, but nobody can pronounce that.” Following up on a question about how to tell the difference between young cabbage palms and saw palmetto, he notes that saw palmetto won’t grow in this habitat. I’m used to seeing needle palms in swamps like this, but Bob introduces us to a bluestem palmetto. It looks a lot like a young cabbage palm, and is even tagged Sabal minor. But the trick to distinguish the two is to look at how the stem connects into the frond. Palmetto stems simply connect the frond to the trunk, whereas the stem of a cabbage palm is a part of the entire frond.
We arrive at the new boardwalk, where crew mascot Eeyore greets us from a crook in a tree. It’s a long, narrow boardwalk out to an observation platform with two benches to look out on the swamp—and one of the biggest cypresses I’ve seen yet. The Florida Trail has its share of big cypresses, from The Senator and its many cousins at Spring Hammock Preserve to giants along the Sopchoppy River and at Holton Creek. But the point of today’s expedition is to figure out where the Big Cypress of Rice Creek fits into the rankings, so Bob and Nels swing off the boardwalk and into the dry swamp, and some of us follow. Several of the crew marvel at the lack of water. “You should have seen how wet it was in here when we worked on this!”
Measuring Up … and around
While the Big Cypress is certifiably big, it’s not alone in this swamp. “There’s a five-foot diameter cypress just off the trail, and others” said Jake. “But they’re hidden in the thickets,” said Guion. We pause at a large blowdown, a pine sawed in two by the water management district’s chainsaw team. “You can tell how old it is,” Richard says, pointing to the jelled pine sap on the tree’s rings. “Which were the dry seasons, and which were the wet.”
Eighth is Great!
A red-shouldered hawk fussed from above the canopy as we sat down on the picnic benches at the campsite. Ella went to prime the pitcher pump.
As we reach a sharp turn at a bridge, Ella points out an unusually large live oak, and Bob detours to investigate. “There’s a bear wallow behind the tree,” says Helen, which makes it all the more interesting. The underside of the oak is oddly scarred, and rises from the earth at an angle to form a small cave. Goldfoot fern emerges from a crook in the oak’s trunk. “Someone built a fire under here,” said Bob. “Maybe they hid a still here a hundred years ago.”
“A hundred years ago? Not on our watch!” said Ella.
We leave the white blazed loop after Bridge #33 by turning right to follow the blue blazes out to where our cars are parked. The public can’t park here anymore, but being a trail maintainer does have its privileges. If you walk in to the Big Cypress from the SR 100 trailhead, it’s about a 6 mile round-trip, including the loop through Rice Creek Swamp.
Back at his car, Nels did a few calculations and thumbed through his Big Trees of Florida. “By the point system, it looks like this is the eighth largest cypress in Florida! Being Robert Simons is in here as a nominator, maybe he can enter this tree in the next book.”
“Where is he?” asked Helen.
“Right here!” replied Nels, pointing at Bob.
“Oh!” said Helen. Bob just smiled.
If You Go
The Big Cypress of Rice Creek is within the Rice Creek Conservation Area, 4.3 miles west of Palatka, Florida off SR 100. A hike out to the Big Cypress is about a 5.2 mile round trip, including a 2.2 mile loop through Rice Creek Swamp. Rice Creek Conservation Area is under the care of the St. Johns Water Management District office along SR 100 west of Palatka.
