In that moment, I was free. I was once again one with the elements of nature, and as the water trickled off my chin, I pictured myself in command of this foreign land, yet in actuality… I was far from being king.
The sun was inching past the three o’clock hour, and our time on this expedition was running out. Welcome to my first shoot of Breaking Trail, a new animal adventure series that my team and I had conceptualized, pitched to a network, and been given the green light to start capturing on camera.
This particular mission was simple: Catch an American Alligator… with my bare hands.
Yep, you read that right. Our first mission was to catch the most dangerous predator in the Florida Everglades… and I was going to do it without the use of any nets or traps.
As you can tell, Breaking Trail was envisioned with grand plans to encounter and get the cameras incredibly close to some serious predators. The good news for me was that I wasn’t alone.
Let me introduce you to my crew, a camaraderie of brave individuals who will appear in chapters from here on in.
These guys were solid. The kind of friends and determined adventurers who like me, were willing to risk life and limb to get the best shots possible. Mark was our director; fearless, cunning, and driven beyond all odds to get the impossible through the eye of a camera lens. Then there was Chance, a jack of all trades who could not only run and gun a camera with the best in West Hollywood, but also an avid outdoorsman who could MacGyver a campfire… from a stick of gum, some pine needles and the nine volt battery out of his headlamp. Last, but certainly not least, my main man Mario. A wildlife biologist who had an incredible knack for not only helping me spot and identify wildlife, but who also had my back in the event that any animal encounter went awry. If there was one person I trusted to defuse a perilous wildlife situation, it was Mario.
This was my team, and together we were a band of wilderness cowboys. We loved and respected the environment, its plants, animals and above all else, its challenges. If anyone could take on the Everglades and go toe-to-tooth with its most notorious predator, it was us. The only problem was locating one of these reptilian powerhouses amidst the fields of razor sharp saw grass and endless waterways.
Ever heard the phrase, “it’s like finding an alligator in saw grass?” Well, you have now, and trust me when I say it’s not much easier than finding a needle in a haystack.
As our boots trudged through ankle-gobbling muck, I could sense the exhaustion falling upon us. Beads of sweat ran like waterfalls down the backs of our necks, and every next mosquito bite literally sucked the life from our progress. We had seen several alligators already that day. Some measured around four feet in length; a respectable reptile by all means, and an animal that commands respect. However, my goal was to encounter and capture one that measured closer to eight feet and that would likely weigh
around 200 pounds.
I know what you are thinking: ‘Coyote, a single person can’t capture an eight foot, 200 pound alligator with their bare hands. You would need to use a snout rope, a net, and three fully grown, burly men to hold it down. Not only does this “catching it by hand” sound impossible, the very thought is complete madness!’
I agree with you. This was madness, but I was on a mission. I had everything to lose, and everything to prove. Not only to myself, but also to a network that had given my friends and I the chance of a lifetime to make the next big animal adventure show. I was going to do this, or at least I was going to go down trying.
As we cut across the open soggy plains of Southern Florida, I pictured myself as an early settler. I wondered if seeing this land 100 years ago would have been any different: great egrets perched in the trees, giant locusts dangling from the seeded tufts of reeds, and a strangely pure clarity to the swampy water we were currently slogging through.
For our life goals, we all find ways to challenge ourselves, and we are all each responsible for following the dreams that drive us. It was this very philosophy that had placed me smack in the middle of the Everglades’ timeless expanse of wilderness.
From just a few feet to my left, Mario called out, “Got a moccasin over here… a big one!” We crept up slowly, and sure enough, coiled on a mound of dead saw grass was one of the most dangerous biological landmines we could have stumbled upon, the Florida Water Moccasin. These snakes can be incredibly aggressive if provoked or accidentally stepped on, and a single bite can put enough venom into a human body to cost the victim a limb and possibly even his or her life.
Mario backed up the camera team and instructed us to alter our route. Little did we know at the time that encountering this snake and Mario’s decision to change our direction would lead us down a fated path for which we had long been searching.
Mark and Chance carefully followed behind me. I knew what they were thinking. That was a big, venomous snake. I could see their gears grinding; they were on edge as each squish of their boots into the muck, just a foot below the water’s surface, was taken with precision and care. It’s important to take your time when exploring in nature because you never know what sort of biological landmines you may run into next.
So, what exactly is a biological landmine, you may ask?
Great question!
A ‘bio-landmine’ is what we as a team have come to define as any plant or animal in the environment that one may accidentally stumble upon and that has the potential to do harm. From snakes, spiders, and scorpions to sink mud, cacti, and poisonous plants, nature is full of hidden dangers.
The potential peril of bio-landmines should never be taken lightly, but I was confident that in my heightened state of awareness, nothing could stop me from achieving our goal. While the crew was busy considering the possible dangers of the landscape we were venturing across, my mind was focused on one thing… finding an enormous alligator.
The clouds stretched across the horizon were epic, and as the dying sun began to illuminate them from a steep angle, a vast golden glowing hue became our backdrop. As I rounded a thick growth of cattails, meshed with saw grass and shrubs, my heart began to beat faster as a feeling in my chest told me that we were not alone.
Perhaps you know the feeling? You can find it in the shadows of your closet, or in the mystery of what’s lurking under your bed. You cannot define it, but you know that something unseen is there… and it terrifies you.
That is when we saw him, partially submerged in an isolated pocket of water, his gnarled hide protruding from the surface and glistening in the warm colors of the setting sun. We all stood still as our eyes traced up
