I think we all slept pretty well after a day of hard paddling.  The air was a little chilly when we awoke so we made a small fire and I got the coffee going on the camp stove.  The morning light let us get the first good look at our surroundings; our platform was in the middle of a forest swamp with a lot of tall trees all around us.  We the only humans sipping coffee for miles around.  These days you have to work at it to be far from the madding crowd.

After breakfast we busied ourselves in breaking camp and repacking all of our gear into the canoes.  Bean Croc made an appearance during this time, but we had no breakfast for him, and so he departed for parts unknown.  I'm sure he was back that evening, in wait for the next party of canoeists.

It looked like another warm and sunny day lay ahead.  It was time for us to start heading back the way we came.  As we were leaving earlier than we had the previous day, we had no need to hurry, and we would also be aided by the slight current as we traveled 'downstream'.  Besides, now we knew the distance and how long it would take to get through the obstacles in front of us.

The logjam was a lot easier to get over going the other way, so yesterday's obstacle did not slow us down much this day.  We took our time and enjoyed our surroundings, taking the time to examine the flora and fauna we encountered.  The flora was varied and abundant - water oak, ferns, swamp magnolias, titi, fetterbush, bay trees and of course, cypress.  The fauna included the ubiquitous alligator, skinks and anoles, green treefrogs, insects and spiders.  Among the arachnid crowd, one type was very common - the Elongate Fishing Spider, an orb-weaver adapted to living in vegetation over water.  Our canoes always contained a number of them, knocked off bushes and trees.  We didn't see any snakes or aquatic turtles on the way in or out, other than those spotted in Billy's Lake.