by Guy Albertson

Last week I was in Florida. I have a deck that overlooks a small lake and there is a small parcel of land between the lake and the ocean. I looked below and saw two guys fishing in their bare feet standing where typically there is an alligator. I thought they were crazy. I kept watching and the one guy had something hooked and the other guy kept casting where the one guy’s line was hooked. This made no sense to me. Then they both were hooked and started reeling in unison. Suddenly something came through the surface of the water and it was huge, but all I could see was crashing water.

I ran down to the parking level about 15 feet from the guys and started to watch. I wanted to see what they were pulling in. It got closer and closer, but still never surfaced. Then, when it was within five feet, I saw the tail. It was a HUGE alligator! I’ve never seen that done before. When it was two feet away, the one guy grabbed a noose and slipped it over the head and they held it. I asked what’s the plan. He said not our decision; Fish and Game are on the way, we work for them.

Apparently, a half eaten human body surfaced in another lake nearby — no idea how the person died, but an alligator had been eating on it. They were now trying to find the alligator that had a taste of humans and were going after 10-foot alligators. This one was 10 feet.

The Fish and Game guy showed up and wanted to take the alligator, so they started pulling it out of the water up to the parking lot. They were struggling, so… my neighbor and I asked if they wanted help. They said yes. We pulled it onto the parking lot and then they asked if we’d help pick it up and load it. Naturally we were, “Absolutely!” They taped the mouth closed and then we all grabbed a leg and hoisted it into the truck. He wasn’t happy when we released him, so we had to flip up the tailgate quickly. The only concern for me on the whole thing is he almost got my legs with his tail when I stepped in to grab a leg, but I jumped back in time.

This was quite a new experience for me — wasn’t a bucket list item, but well did it.

This last week I was in Cook and this week head into the BWCA, so I was trying to get all the “chores” done. I was mowing the lawn and there is a spot that is still wooded that I always mow, but my brother-in-law doesn’t. I felt something bite me on my calf and looked back, but didn’t see anything. It was worse than a mosquito bite, but I didn’t think anything of it. When I came back around, all of a sudden I felt tons of bites all over my legs. I didn’t see anything, but knew I needed to run so I ran and kept feeling bites so I jumped in my truck and shut the door. Not the smartest things and there were at least 15 hornets on my legs that I killed. I was stung at least 50 times. We didn’t have any anti-itch cream and the night was miserable. The next day I went to Franks Pharmacy and stocked up. Told my sister we need to go through the entire first-aid kit and replenish. Then I walked over to True Value, went home and emptied two bottles of hornet spray into that nest.

Been an interesting two weeks in nature… can’t wait to see what will happen in the Boundary Waters. Have a great week!