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Following in the footsteps of a wandering Florida black bear, three friends leave civilization and enter a lost American wilderness on a rugged thousand-mile journey by foot, paddle and bike. Traversing Florida's vast and seldom seen "Forgotten Coast," the expedition encounters stunning and rare wildlife including black bears, manatees, alligators, ancient river fish and endangered woodpeckers.
Providing Support for PBS.org
Providing Support for PBS.org
Following in the footsteps of a wandering Florida black bear, three friends leave civilization and enter a lost American wilderness on a thousand-mile journey by foot, paddle, and bike. Traversing Florida's vast and seldom seen "Forgotten Coast," the expedition encounters stunning wildlife, including black bears, manatees, alligators, ancient river fish, and endangered woodpeckers - all living within a fragile wildlife corridor stretching from the Everglades to the Florida-Alabama border.
In this magical place, where time seems to stand still, the stuff of legends is real: crystalline natural springs provide a refuge for “mermaids,” West Indian manatees. In the murky backwaters, living dinosaur fish, known as alligator gar, still ambush their prey. Offshore, in the Gulf of Mexico, dolphins dance as the oyster harvest continues the way it has for millennia. Inside one of the rarest forest habitats on Earth, a winged phoenix -the red-cockaded woodpecker - is reclaiming its ancestral home.
But, all is not as it seems.
Time does not stand still, and it may be running out for the wild inhabitants of this place... unless the expedition team can show the path we must follow to “return to wild Florida.”
On the wind, in the waves, through the trees, and under the stars, "The Forgotten Coast" offers us a chance not just to look back in time, but to look forward to a future filled with new hope.
A Luna Moth rests briefly on a tree along Florida’s Apalachicola River.
1/9
Carlton Ward
Joe Guthrie swims over a manatee in an algae-filled freshwater spring in Florida.
2/9
Carlton Ward
Joe Guthrie, Carlton Ward, and Mallory Dimmitt hoist their bikes across a deep crossing in the Big Bend region of Florida.
3/9
Alex Morrison
Sunrise over the vast wild longleaf pine forests of the Florida Panhandle.
4/9
Carlton Ward
Filmmaker Eric Bendick waits for the expedition team to arrive on a foggy Florida morning on the Withlacoochee River.
5/9
Alex Morrison
A Florida black bear drenched by a summer thundershower in Central Florida.
6/9
Carlton Ward
A Florida black bear curiously studies a remote camera in the wilderness of Central Florida.
7/9
Carlton Ward
An aerial view of a river winding through lush longleaf pine habitat in the Florida Panhandle region.
8/9
Carlton Ward
Sunrise among the marsh and palms of Chassahowitzka, Florida, as Carlton Ward steers his kayak to the shore.
9/9
Carlton Ward
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