4 days / 3 nights
My last day at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale was Friday 1/28, after 9 years of service they eliminated my position and passed over me for another. It was a bitter sweet moment and represents a very significant change in my life. This trip really couldn’t have come at a better time. Patrick was down visiting his parents in Marco Island and gave me a call… He mentioned a paddle in the wilderness which just so happened to line up with a trip I have been planning for the last few months in Everglades National Park. It was to consist of 3 nights, each one in a different type of back country campsite. The three types of sites available in the park are chickee, ground site and beach site. A chickee is a free standing platform built a few feet over the water that has a roof and a porta-potty. Ground sites are just as they sound, a regular grassy area somewhere in the back country usually right off the edge of a river or bay. The beach sites are out on the keys that dot the 10,000 islands between Chokoloskee and Flamingo. They are among the most beautiful of sites and the only places you are allowed to have a fire since brush fires can ignite so easily out there. So the adventure begins with a trip to Bass Pro shops, Best Buy and Publix of course. I get some things I couldn’t have lived without and a few items I thought I really needed that didn’t work at all like a cradle for my iPod that allows it to use GPS so I could down-loaded marine charts and use them while in route to make sure we didn’t get lost.
Day 1 – 1/30/2011 – Chokoloskee to Pavilion Key
Like most trips that start early, this one was no exception. The car was loaded and the only thing we needed to do was shake the cob webs off and drive over to Crocker Barrel to load up on fuel for the long paddle ahead. We arrived there at 6:30 and were on our way by 7:30 after gobbling up various meats, biscuits & gravy, and of course grits. We had to drop off the car Patrick was using at an intersection near Everglades City to allow his parents to come by and grab the car that morning. A quick stop there at 8:45am and we were on our way to the Gulf Coast Ranger Station to file our float plan and pay the nightly dues which worked out to be $22 total for both of us for all three nights. It turned out that we had to reverse the loop we planned to take since the first night was booked at Sunday Bay Chickee. We could have launched from there but it would add 3 miles each way to our trip and decided that paying for parking on Chokoloskee could be worth it in the end. So off we went onto the island in search of parking… which we found rather easily on the north side of the island at Chokoloskee Marina. The gentleman was nice and knocked a day off only charging us $30 for 3 days. After unloading the kayaks at the water’s edge, we meticulously loaded them trying to take note of how everything fits. Once we were feeling confident we had everything I parked the car and we took a moment to take it in and ask for a safe passage. Our asses hit the seats of those kayaks and off we went, paddled around to the west side of the island and looked for Rabbit Key pass. There were a few markers but nothing that really indicated a direction and of course this was about the time I was finding out that the GPS cradle I purchased was not functioning all that well. Even after restarting and redocking the iPod it still would not work and te GPS on my kayak was missing the detailed marine charts that showed the many different channels that forms the maze they call the 10,000 islands. Immediately Patrick being the adventurer that he is began feeling a bit uneasy as though he was a little ill prepared. Since we were about 30 minutes into the trip and we already were looking for our way but in all honesty this is what I expected. The mangrove wilderness has a way of looking the same, hiding channels that are really there, and making dead end coves look like they are channels leading the direction you should be going. After a few adjustments and a little debating, we found our way which I knew we would. Finally looking out into the Gulf of Mexico we could see an island with a beach which in my mind could only be Rabbit Key since it was on our way to Pavilion Key. So once we got there we took it easy for a while and enjoyed lunch. Getting ready to shove off we consulted the waterproof marine chart and realized that we were only on Turtle Key which was still before Rabbit Key. Here is a cool time lapse of our lunch stop:
That meant we had more distance to cover than originally thought so we paddled off for which we now knew was Rabbit Key and got there in a pretty short amount of time. There we met Hank, a retired Miami Beach life guard who put in 23 years of service with them. He was enjoying paddling his beautifully crafted wooden sit-inside kayak all over the area and was to cover 20 miles the next day. We told him where we were going to be the next night just in case he happens to be passing through the area. After some conversation about his boat maker, a Buddhist priest, we decided tide was dropping quickly along with the sun and needed to make our final jaunt to Pavilion Key to setup camp for the night. Once we got out into open water we rafted up for a bit and put the sail up on my kayak which really helped us cruise along. We arrived and I quickly began scouring the island for a cool camp that had some trees to hang my hammock. After a bit of walking around I bumped into three guys that had been fishing on the North point that were camping there as well. They described a place all the way on the other side of the key that had a nice clearing along with some decent sized trees so I made haste in that direction. I was walking at first and realized time was against me so I broke into a light jog just to get there faster. I finally made it down to the place he described and it was awesome and faced the sunset. Unfortunately with the large shoals in that area and tide had dropped considerably by that point which led to unloading the boats about 25 yards from shore in order to lighten it enough to pull through the few inches of water. Patrick proceeded to get a nice bundle of wood and we got camp setup and a fire started before the sun completely fell off into night. One of the most incredible sunsets I have ever seen, see one of the pictures below:
We ate some dinner, bullshit, drank some rum and watched the stars. They are amazing out there since there is very little light pollution.We went and crashed out and it got pretty chilly that night. It said it was in the low 50’s and with the breeze it was pretty cool. I used a blanket to make a little tent over my face to keep my nose and ears warm but I didn’t sleep all that well that night.
Day 2 – 1/31/2011 – Pavilion Key to Watson Place
I awoke to a very enthusiastic Osprey which had a fish in its talons and was hovering over the nest that happened to be in the tree next to where my hammock was tied up. I wasn’t sure if he was unhappy with my presence or if it was some other type of ritual. I finally decided to get up as the sun broke and make some hot chocolate and maybe stoke the fire back up. Hot chocolate was easy to make on the stove but the fire had been extinguished by the dew and everything else around was now damp so that was not happening. As I am sitting there drinking my hot chocolate enjoying the sunrise, a look up and see a bald eagle fly over maybe 40-50ft. over my head. I continued to watch it fly along the coast until the Osprey came darting out to chase it off. As you know an Osprey is a pretty large bird making turkey buzzards look small and it was dwarfed by the size of this eagle. But still the eagle retreated to the sandy shoals brought by low tide and the Osprey returned to its nest. Amazing to see the how abundant the wildlife is in this area and a reminder to how important it is to protect it. Made some coffee then some oatmeal, got Patrick up and we started to break camp. The tide was out so the shoal exposed about 100 yards of sand before there was any water at all making it impossible to load and drag our kayaks. So we had to wait for the tide to come enough to leave but not so long that we miss the incoming tide since we were headed back inland. Finally got away about 10:00AM and started making our way back east toward the inlet where the Huston and Chatham River connect. We were taking the Chatham up a few miles to Watson place which was an old farm back in the early 1900’s owned by a man named Ed Watson. He was a notorious man who murdered a lot of his workers and sank them in the river next to his place. He was later gunned down in Chokoloskee by the townsfolk when he tried to explain the mysterious disappearances. So since then it has over grown completely only leaving a small patch of grass and a couple paths that lead 50 feet back into the woods that is maintained as a campsite by the park service. There is an old cistern there for catching fresh water and a rusty old cauldron propped up on some bricks which was used to make cane syrup at one time. The old artifacts combined with the history make it a really interesting place and is rumored to be haunted by the spirits of Watson’s victims. I had to put my hammock set back in the woods due to the lack of solid trees to hang a hammock from. Here is a shot of the site:
We ate dinner, drink some rum, and read some passages out of what I would refer to as our bible which was the Paddlers guide to Everglades National Park by Johnny Molloy. We both wore mosquito nets over our heads because those and the no-see-ums were especially fierce at that location. Finally I retired to my hammock set back in the dark woods among the tortured souls of Watson’s past. It didn’t take long and I was totally out.
At 3:00am I awoke to the sound of heavy footsteps crunching through the woods behind my hammock. I was pretty sounds asleep since the night before was not and the long paddle pretty much was enough to knock me out. Now awake I listen to these footsteps getting ever closer to my location. “Crunch, Crunch, CRUNCH” – go the sticks and foliage beneath its feet. It couldn’t be Patrick as this was in the woods behind the campsite so unless he was out doing some midnight exploring (which he wasn’t) then this was something else and it wasn’t small like a raccoon or rat. It had very pronounced footsteps and was still getting closer. I reached for my small folding knife on my hip as if that would offer me some protection… Finally the steps were unbearably close and I had to say something so I shouted out “Hey! WHO’S THERE!?” in the deepest and most intimidating voice I could muster. At that moment the sounds stopped briefly, then began again only this time getting lighter as if it were moving away. Still having no idea what was out there I was glad to hear it was retreating… The only thing big enough out there to make that sort of noise is a panther or a bear and I wasn’t really ready to meet either of those given the circumstances. After lying there awake at full alert for another 20 minutes I began drifting off again and passed out until almost sunrise.
Day 3 – 2/1/2011 – Watson Place to Sunday Bay Chickee
I waited as long as I could before I finally had to get up so I donned my head net and went out to camp. Made some coffee and did some fishing which produced a ladyfish. They like to jump like Tarpon so they are a lot of fun… Finally Patrick got up as he is a late riser and we again performed the morning ritual of breakfast, breaking camp, and loading the boats. We set off for Sunday Bay at about 11:00AM and made our way upriver following the incoming tide. We were making awesome time so we decided to raft up and put up the sail. I used my rudder to steer us down river and he fished for about 2 miles. Once it opened up into Huston Bay we cruised over to this small fish camp located in the middle of the park. It was deserted but not abandoned. It had a water catch system and bunk beds along with a stove and cutting boards. We didn’t want to stay long but we really needed a place to stretch our legs and eat some premade hummus to refuel. Snapped some shots of the area and set off on the remainder of our voyage to Sunday Bay. Here is a cool shot of the place (Note the custom gutters going into the large elevated PVC for a rainwater catch):
In route to Sunday bay we took some back country channels that were off the beaten path and a really awesome side of the Everglades with winding paths that cut through the mangroves and birds everywhere. They are definitely the dominant species out there… We arrived at Sunday Bay and were greeted by another fellow paddler named Robert who was out for a couple weeks in his fiberglass composite Old Town canoe. We talked to him for a while and setup our shelters on the wooden platform in what was a relatively consistent, robust wind really trying not to let things blow off into the murky brown water that ran beneath the chickee. I finally had the idea to use my rain fly as a wind barricade across the front of the chickee which really helped knock it down to a manageable speed. Again with the evening ritual of dinner which Patrick was nice enough to take on the chore of cooking each night. We had caught a just legal Spotted Trout on the way over and filleted it when ready to cook. We combined it with some onion, garlic and made some couscous on the side. After a day of paddling food tasted amazing… as Patrick says “hunger is the best sauce”. However that being said the fresh fish was a really nice treat and was delicious by any standard. After the sun fell we chatted it up with Robert a little more until he disappeared into the tent located on the other chickee only 30 feet away. Patrick had taught me some cool stuff about celestial navigation and using constellations to find the north star. Again the stars were amazing and the Milky Way was extremely bright and clear… Here is a shot of our camp on the chickee:
Day 4 – 2/2/2011 – Sunday Bay to Chokoloskee
The next morning we were anxious to break camp and get away with the tide so that we didn’t get stuck paddling into a flood tide. We meandered through the final three bays and into Turner River that would take us back to Chokoloskee. There was an archeological site about a ½ mile from the nouth of the river that is a shell mound created by the Colusa Indians. We stopped there and had some lunch where we were visited by a very friendly raccoon that showed very little fear of humans. We must have dropped the smallest amount of sandwich and the raccoon found it. Patrick also caught a small Snook right there on the bank of the river:
We finished the last ½ mile and crossed the small bay back to the beach launch ramp where we started. It was an amazing feeling to have accomplished our goal. We hit a nice head wind and incoming tide as we left the Turner River so we had to turn on the juice a little. It was a nice reminder of how easy we had it with planning our trips to ride with the tides and the luck of having the wind at our backs for most of our long open water crossings. We pulled in and unloaded the boats in record time. I ran Patrick about half way to Marco where we met his parents to say hello for a brief time and then I hit the road. It ended up being 33 miles in 4 days…
The red line is Day 1 and so on… It was the longest stretch at 10.2 miles. Day 2 was around 7 miles, Day 3 was close to 9 miles and the last day was in the neighborhood of 8 miles.
